Peepoo: poopee.
Anders Wilhelmson has created a biodegradable bag called the Peepoo, which sounds like a great idea, if only people would buy it. Basically, it’s a bag you take a dump in, then, after tying it off and burying it, the bag decomposes and turns the fecal matter into fertilizer.
This makes several assumptions, however. The first is that you’ve got the science and engineering right and won’t spread disease when using human feces as fertilizer. That’s a big one. The second is that people will use it as instructed. I mean, think of it this way: sure, you have a bag to pee in but no toilet paper to wipe your ass with. That creates all kinds of problems, namely, infectious bloody diarrhea. That said, this product wasn’t meant to address that anyway. The poorest of all these assumptions is that people will actually buy it. Think about this one: who buys bags to poo in? No one, normally, except for avid backpackers…
And that, actually, is the right market for this: sell it to backpackers and hippies; hope that USAID and other aid groups buy a bunch as a result. Trying to sell this outright to aid groups is a crappy idea (no pun intended). It’s too much of a gamble and requires too much sensitization — and that’s only acceptable in an emergency (e.g., Haiti or Chile).
Here’s an article in the NY Times.