Sewage cycle

 

What if the road to a sewage treatment asset was partly made from sewage?

As part of my work delivering capital projects for AMP8, I’m challenging every aspect of proposed process solutions — including something as seemingly mundane as concrete.

Concrete matters. It has a financial cost, but also a significant carbon footprint. Having spent much of my career delivering carbon-reduction plans for manufacturers and industry, I’ve seen some fascinating innovations in lower-carbon concrete and construction materials.

But this one caught my attention.

In the Netherlands, cellulose recovered from used toilet paper in sewage is being used in asphalt for cycle paths.

Think about that for a moment.

Wastewater treatment works recover cellulose from something we literally flush away — and that recovered material becomes part of infrastructure.

Now imagine applying the same principle closer to home: using recovered sewage-derived materials in the access roads and infrastructure needed to build and operate the very treatment assets designed to protect our environment.

That feels like circular economy in its purest form.

And it raises a bigger question.

We send an extraordinary cocktail of carbon, nutrients, energy and materials into our sewage systems every day.

Perhaps “wastewater treatment” is an increasingly outdated way of thinking about what we actually have.

What other useful resources or products have you come across that demonstrate that sewage doesn’t have to equal waste?

I’d particularly like to hear about examples that have moved beyond the laboratory and into real-world application.

#AMP8 #WaterIndustry #CircularEconomy #CarbonReduction #Wastewater #Innovation #NetZero