Growing Pile of Human and Animal Waste Harbors Threats, Opportunities
By Josh Brown – As demand for meat and dairy products increases across the world, much attention has landed on how livestock impact the environment, from land usage to greenhouse gas emissions.
Now researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are highlighting another effect from animals raised for food and the humans who eat them: the waste they all leave behind.
In a paper published November 13 in Nature Sustainability, the research team put forth what they believe is the first global estimate of annual recoverable human and animal fecal biomass. In 2014, the most recent year with data, the number was 4.3 billion tons and growing, and waste from livestock outweighed that from humans five to one at the country level.
“Exposure to both human and animal waste represent a threat to public health, particularly in low-income areas of the world that may not have resources to implement the best management and sanitation practices,” said Joe Brown, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “But estimating the amount of recoverable feces in the world also highlights the enormous potential from a resource perspective.” more>
Related>
- Solving a 75-Year-Old Mystery Might Provide a New Source of Farm Fertilizer, John Toon
- When Boy Fish Build Castles to Impress Girl Fish, Boy Genes Get a Rise, Ben Brumfield
- Cotton-Based Hybrid Biofuel Cell Could Power Implantable Medical Devices, John Toon
- ‘Suicide Handshakes’ Kill Precursor T Cells that Pose Autoimmune Dangers, Ben Brumfield
- Research Raises Awareness of Indoor Air Quality Risk from 3D Printers, Josh Brown
- Stripping the Linchpins From the Life-Making Machine Reaffirms Its Seminal Evolution, Ben Brumfield
- Georgia Tech, UConn, and UMass Lowell Collaborate with Industry, NSF on 3D Printing, Josh Brown
- Open Source Machine Learning Tool Could Help Choose Cancer Drugs, John Toon
- Delivering Antibodies via mRNA Could Prevent RSV Infection, Kenna Simmons
- NASA Pushes Exploration of Oceans in Our Solar System in Georgia Tech-Led Alliance, Ben Brumfield
- Airbus and Georgia Tech Open Center for Overall Aircraft Design, John Toon
- Pilot Project Will Use Campus Wastewater to Grow Vegetables, Kenna Simmons
By John Toon – The key to a successful flight mission is planning – sometimes several hours of it. 
In a new report, “
By John Toon – “Today’s challenge is to teach a robot how to move in environments that have dynamic, unpredictable obstacles, such as chickens,” said Colin Usher, a research scientist in GTRI’s Food Processing Technology Division.
