Profiting from poop: How selling human waste could revolutionize sanitation

Dealing with human waste has become a health crisis in many poor communities, but residents of a Kenyan slum have found a solution that turns poop into profit.Working directly with residents of Mukuru, one of Nairobi’s largest slums, an MIT spin-off company called Sanergy has developed a promising new method to improve sanitation. Instead of promoting sanitation through education, Sanergy has addressed the core reason why many residents must still defecate in pits or in the street: a lack of access to toilets.But contrary to the idea behind last year’s Reinvent the Toilet Challenge by the Gates Foundation, Sanergy co-founder David Auerbach says that access to innovative toilets alone isn’t enough to spread sanitation practices. “When it comes to sanitation, it’s no longer …

via Global Envision:

Image:

Dealing with human waste has become a health crisis in many poor communities, but residents of a Kenyan slum have found a solution that turns poop into profit.

Working directly with residents of Mukuru, one of Nairobi’s largest slums, an MIT spin-off company called Sanergy has developed a promising new method to improve sanitation. Instead of promoting sanitation through education, Sanergy has addressed the core reason why many residents must still defecate in pits or in the street: a lack of access to toilets.

But contrary to the idea behind last year’s Reinvent the Toilet Challenge by the Gates Foundation, Sanergy co-founder David Auerbach says that access to innovative toilets alone isn’t enough to spread sanitation practices.

“When it comes to sanitation, it’s no longer a question of, ‘Can you bring someone a good toilet?’” said Auerbach. “If that’s the answer we would have already solved it.”

“You need to address the entire sanitation value chain to solve the challenge,” he continued.

Sanergy’s toilets are low-tech and low-cost, but they have a key feature: they come with removable waste cartridges. Local entrepreneurs buy and operate the toilets, charging users a small monthly membership fee. Sanergy then collects the waste and processes it into organic, sellable fertilizer. Soon the company plans to process the waste into biogas, biochar and several types of plastic, as well.

Creating business relationships means that toilet operators earn steady income from their investments and waste treatment pays for itself. It benefits people you would expect like the toilet users who now have access to a clean and private space to go to the bathroom, and people you wouldn’t like the farmers who pay less for the processed, organic fertilizer.

Around the world, a lack of sanitation put 2.5 billion people at risk of diseases like dysentery, cholera, typhus fever and typhoid. Every year 1.6 million children die from preventable, sanitation-related diseases. A lack of clean toilets and clean water is “a compound magnifier of poverty, ill-health and mortality,” said U.N. General Assembly President John Ashe.

Sanergy grew out of a MIT class on building entrepreneurial ventures in developing countries. When students learned the depth of the global sanitation problem, they saw a business opportunity. Human waste, they believed, didn't have to be waste at all.

Sanergy’s answer is ‘no.’ Since opening its first toilet for business in 2011, the company has installed 330 toilets, collected 1,800 tons of waste and created 350 jobs in Mukuru, an area with 40 percent unemployment.

Local toilet operator Agnes Kwamboka says the project changed her life. Before working with Sanergy, Kwamboka sold an illicit beer called chang’aa to support her family.

“People look at you and think you are a prostitute,” Kwamboka said about that time of her life. “When I used to sell chang’aa, many men used to enter my stall. They thought they could just use me like a broom. Policemen used to demand a bribe of 500 shillings each day.”

Now, as a Fresh Life Toilet operator, Kwamboka feels secure. “The Fresh Life Toilet has given me peace of mind. My children used to steal, but now they don’t have to,” she said. “I keep all my profits and I’m able to provide for my family and also pay off my debts.”

Sanergy aims to expand in Mukuru and start producing renewable energy as well from the collected human waste. The company’s founders hope to expand into other areas in Kenya, then Africa, and eventually into Asia, where sanitation needs are critical.

Right now, though, the company is focused on its work in Mukuru. “We need to get it right in the community we’re serving first,” Auerback said.

The project has won widespread recognition. It took first in the 2011 MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition and has received awards from MassChallenge, MIT’s Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship, and the Lemelson Foundation.

What makes Sanergy’s project so strong? It is a great example of developing a sanitation solution that is scalable and sustainable.

• Market-driven. Participants pay, but the benefits they gain far outweigh the cost. For example, people get to use safe, clean and private bathrooms for a small monthly fee. The toilet operators must invest in their business, but they earn more than enough to pay back that investment and support their families.

• Fits local needs. Sanergy focused on addressing major local issues, such as the lack of sanitation and unemployment, and tapped into the existing entrepreneurial spirit. And to make sure the project would be locally profitable, Sanergy tested toilet and waste processing designs in Mukuru and another slum, Kibera, before scaling up the project.

• Sanergy’s work connects participants and innovates new solutions as needed. Pay toilets already existed in Mukuru, but they were not designed so that the waste could be collected. Toilet owners had a hard time making a profit. In addition to creating a better toilet design, Sanergy also developed the waste-to-fertilizer factories–the major gap in the value chain from poopers to planters.

But the most exciting feature of Sanergy’s sanitation value chain is that it can be used anywhere. Sanergy’s success in Mukuru shows that sanitation can be solved around the globe.

Articles You Might Like:

Disruptive sanitation: Can 3-wheeled carts and better septic tanks clean up Jakarta?

Piles of Problems Make the Gates Foundation Rethink our Most Useful Invention: The Toilet

Unilever will train rural Vietnamese to build demand for toilets

For more info: Profiting from poop: How selling human waste could revolutionize sanitation

Global Envision

Profiting from poop: How selling human waste could revolutionize sanitation

The post Profiting from poop: How selling human waste could revolutionize sanitation appeared first on FX FOREX.

via WordPress http://ift.tt/1dKJCYB



Social Entrepeneurship, company, competition, human, king, mit, people, president, private, project, sanergy

Marathon running and personal finance

via Early Retirement Extreme:

Recently Lazy man illustrated the keys to financial success by comparing it to the Patriot’s success on the football field. I don’t know much about playing football, but if it is anything like hockey, it is less easy than it looks and requires tremendous skill. Not only do these athletes need to have a high level of fitness and be fairly powerful (strong), they also need athletic skills such as agility and dexterity as well as technical skills and game awareness. It can take years to acquire sufficient competence to even play the game. Therefore I personally prefer the marathon analogy.

Running a marathon is comparatively simple in that it only requires a high level of fitness, some legwork, and following some simple rules about hydration and nutrition. For those who are already competitively fit, a marathon is not a big deal and there a certainly more grueling challenges for those who want to test their limits (ask me sometime). However, or sedentary people it is a big deal just like getting out of debt and building up a large stash of money is a big deal. So what does marathon running and personal finance have in common.

In both cases, it is not the completion of the event that matters. Rather, it is the preparation needed to get to the event. Like a disciplined savings program, preparing for a marathon requires a tremendous amount of self-discipline. Would-be marathoners need to stick to their training plan for several months and learn to deal with sustained discomfort for extended periods of time while building up a sufficient level of cardiovascular fitness.

The preparation requires an ongoing effort. Training for a week and a half and then taking a week off and then starting again or putting the training off will not obtain the expected results in time for the event. Whether we like it or not, delaying the training or the savings plan does not extend the time until the competition or the day of retirement and one risks showing up unprepared.

Sometimes a small effort is not enough. Nobody can complete a marathon by never pushing oneself beyond jogging. At some point the actual transition to running has to be done. Similarly, saving 5% for retirement is better than nothing, but it is not enough to actually retire in time. The larger the effort, the better the results.

It’s a primarily mental game. The learning curve of running is relatively shallow just like saving money does not require any special talents. All it requires is to follow a few simple rules and then go out and do it. Daily. Week after week. In short, what is needed is legwork to build up the tolerance of the legs and joints to be pounded on for hours at a time despite the mild discomfort. Similarly financial security is built by going without present comforts and saving money over an extended period of time. There is no fast way to get there. Going too fast risks injury just like get rich quick schemes rarely work and often have high risks of setting progress back by several month.

Marathon running can change your life. I must say that running half a marathon did not change my life and I doubt doubling the distance would have made much of a difference, but that was because I did not need to prepare for more than a couple of weeks. However, preparing to a competitive level in clubbell sports, which took 18 months, did change me. It made me physically confident in the sense that I am ready to accept any physical challenge that life may throw at me. Similarly getting in financial shape will thoroughly change a person’s self-confidence and attitude towards money.

It is perhaps not surprising that personal finance and personal fitness have many things in common and why some personal finance bloggers also have an interest in fitness. Finance and fitness are both about self-discipline, self-control and hard work. People with those life skills will tend to do well in any endeavor and running a marathon (or saving a lot of money) can help uncover or build them.

For more info: Marathon running and personal finance

Early Retirement Extreme

Marathon running and personal finance

The post Marathon running and personal finance appeared first on FX FOREX.

via WordPress http://www.evvi.net/5137/personal-finance/marathon-running-and-personal-finance.html



Personal Finance, competition, fitness, jogging, marathon, motivation, personal finance, retirement, running

How to Get a Budget Degree from a Respected University

Two Republican governors in recent years have championed big price cuts in higher education, pushing their states to offer a four-year bachelorâ��s degree for a tantalizing $10,000. Now Maryland is forging into this price-slashing discussion with a plan that will enable students to get a bachelorâ��s degree from a public university for $20,000. This week, the University of Maryland University College announced a discount for graduates of the stateâ��s community colleges. The UMUC Completion Scholarship will cut $4,440 off the price of a bachelorâ��s degree for students who transfer into the public online university with an associateâ��s degree from one of Marylandâ��s 16 community colleges. Figuring that a two-year degree costs an average of $8,000, according to a UMUC spokesman, the price of the remaining…

via Affordable Schools Online:

Two Republican governors in recent years have championed big price cuts in higher education, pushing their states to offer a four-year bachelor’s degree for a tantalizing $10,000.

Now Maryland is forging into this price-slashing discussion with a plan that will enable students to get a bachelor’s degree from a public university for $20,000.

This week, the University of Maryland University College announced a discount for graduates of the state’s community colleges. The UMUC Completion Scholarship will cut $4,440 off the price of a bachelor’s degree for students who transfer into the public online university with an associate’s degree from one of Maryland’s 16 community colleges.

Figuring that a two-year degree costs an average of $8,000, according to a UMUC spokesman, the price of the remaining credits to finish a bachelor’s degree would be about $12,000 for eligible students. Students would be guaranteed that rate for up to four years in all of the university’s undergraduate programs.

Total price: $20,000.

That doesn’t include other scholarships or grants that a student might obtain for financial need or academic merit.

“Community college graduates are a solid investment because they have already invested in themselves,” UMUC President Javier Miyares said in a statement. “The new UMUC Completion Scholarship provides a well-deserved incentive to keep going and earn a four-year degree that will pay even greater dividends in the future — whether that is a new job, a promotion, or a whole new career.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) have pushed their states to develop pathways to a bachelor’s degree priced at $10,000. Critics say such a low price undervalues what colleges and universities do and threatens to undermine quality. But some analysts say that $10,000 is a reasonable target for a no-frills degree.

Now Maryland has determined that a bachelor’s degree at twice that price is a good idea.

“Together, with our highly-regarded community colleges and UMUC’s innovative leadership, we will continue to expand opportunity and ensure Maryland students are not only able to compete nationally, but globally as well,” Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) said in a statement.

How many students will take advantage of the discount is unknown. In 2012, nearly 14,000 students earned associate’s degrees at Maryland community colleges. Many community college students who transfer to four-year schools want a full campus experience rather than the online education that is UMUC’s specialty. But working adults often prefer the flexibility of online courses.

A community college advocate said the UMUC price cut might spark competition from other schools.

“I think there’s more to come, which is good news for students,” said Bernard Sadusky, executive director of the Maryland Association of Community Colleges. “There’s going to be a lot of initiatives. I think you’ll see some other colleges doing the same thing. Competition will drive innovation.”

UMUC, based in Adelphi, has 39,557 students in the United States and thousands more overseas. It is the nation’s largest public online university and a member of the University System of Maryland. Its domestic enrollment fell about 6 percent this year.

Frostburg State University, in western Maryland, offers a similar scholarship to community college graduates who had a B average or better. The scholarship, worth $2,500 a year, was announced in late 2011. With it, the price of a Frostburg State bachelor’s degree for some students could also be about $20,000 or less.

The lowest price at a four-year university in Maryland, according to College Board data, is at Coppin State in Baltimore. There, tuition and fees for Maryland residents total $6,252.

If that price were frozen for four years — which is unlikely — a full-time Coppin State student who paid the full rate could earn a bachelor’s degree for about $25,000, not counting housing, food, books and other expenses.

Baltimore has the least-expensive community college in the state, with tuition as low as $88 per credit hour. A graduate of Baltimore City Community College who paid full price for an associate’s degree and then transferred to Coppin State might be able to obtain a bachelor’s degree for about $20,000 or less.

In the District of Columbia, a student who obtains a full-price associate’s degree from the community college within the public University of the District of Columbia and then obtains a bachelor’s degree from UDC might pay slightly more than $20,000.

The College Board data indicate that Virginia does not offer a way to obtain a $20,000 bachelor’s degree for students who pay the full in-state price at public colleges.

The post How to Get a Budget Degree from a Respected University appeared first on Affordable Schools Online.

For more info: How to Get a Budget Degree from a Respected University

Affordable Schools Online

How to Get a Budget Degree from a Respected University

The post How to Get a Budget Degree from a Respected University appeared first on FX FOREX.

via WordPress http://www.evvi.net/3771/personal-finance/how-to-get-a-budget-degree-from-a-respected-university.html



Personal Finance, baltimore, competition, count, maryland, online, republican, saving for college, saving strategy, state, umuc