2005-07-19

Baby steps forward in Africa (Rwanda)

In a story sent to me today by Mel S., Cyrus Farivar writes for Wired about Rwandan prisons recycling the human waste to generate first energy for cooking and lighting and second fertilizer for the prison gardens [LINK]. Basically they collect the wast and ferment it, collecting the methane produced and burning it as fuel. It's a good idea, and has won an Ashden Award. I have a sneaking suspiscion that they could streamline the process for efficiency, though, and produce much more energy and probably lose much less of the very, very greenhouse gas, methane. Definitely a good idea though, and a great story out of the heart of Africa.

2 comments:

Saheli said...

Ha! I was slow blogging this, and you beat me to it. Strauss family creamery up here has a similar get-up for its cow manure. You know that Cyrus is a friend of mine?

.brian said...

Crazy... well, I'll make sure not to say anything too bad about Cyrus in the future.