Turning human waste into charcoal

An innovative Kenyan company is working to combat the issues of deforestation and poor sanitation at the same time. How? By using human waste to make clean, sustainable charcoal.

At the company’s facility, waste collected from toilets is brought on site, where it is de-watered and treated with heat using solar power. This technique kills all the pathogens and leaves behind a substance that is mixed with other biomass such as charcoal dust, agricultural waste or sawdust. The resulting mixture is then pressed and dried to create charcoal briquettes or firewood. This video shows how it is done. 

This project, among many others across Africa, is being promoted by the UN Environment Programme as part of their initiative to ‘Think Beyond and Live Within’.