Portable Sanitation Association International

ASSOCIATIONINSIGHT Portable Sanitation Association International News BIWEEKLY EDITION FEBRUARY 17, 2021 Page 14 Disposal Challenges Require Long-Term Planning and Investment…continued from page 13 Continued on page 15 Develop Your Own Onsite Disposal Over the next several years we expect that more portable sanitation companies will find the return on investment will improve for building or installing their own onsite wastewater treatment options. New technologies are being developed all the time that are promising in this regard. For example: • Former PSAI President Ron Crosier invested in a small wastewater treatment unit for his West Virginia-based firm as far back as 2014. It used a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR), nanofiltration, and UV technology to process portable restroom waste. Crosier was able to repurpose the recycled water to reduce the amount of fresh water required by his trucks. Ron explained in our October 14, 2015 issue of Association Insight: "We didn't have a good alternative to dispose of waste, and wastewater treatment plants in our area are few and far between. Land application is not an option in our part of the country, so we were hauling waste to three different plants—each was over an hour away. In order to expand our business, we had to come up with other solutions. We spent around $450,000 on the MBBR [pictured at left], but it only costs us $15–20 a day to run it. Compared to the significant labor and transportation costs we were spending previously, combined with the wastewater treatment plant fees we're saving, we've been able to grow our business. Having the MBBR on site got us out from under the thumb of the wastewater treatment plants." The unit made sense when the local waste treatment plant lacked capacity and Crosier's disposal needs were high. A few years later the economics changed, and the company decommissioned the unit. • At the PSAI's Nuts & Bolts Educational Conference in 2018, attendees viewed the University of South Florida team's NEWgenerator. Developed with the help of $1.24 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the NEWgenerator is a miniature water treatment plant that turns human waste into water for irrigation and biogas for energy using an anaerobic membrane bioreactor. It also has solar panels which could provide portable, affordable, sustainable sewage systems for urban and rural areas, as well as— eventually—for companies like portable sanitation firms. While the system isn't yet ready for commercialization, technology like this and many others will soon be available and more affordable. • Northwest Cascade Honey Bucket disposes of more than four million gallons of waste a year, and that number is growing as the company expands across several states. The strategy that is right for disposal in one location is not necessarily right in another. For example, at some of their sites, pre-treating with lime for stabilization makes treatment plants more willing to accept their waste. In another area they have their own dewatering system which reduces waste to a class A biosolid. Elsewhere, engineering companies and entrepreneurs are developing smaller dewatering models, some that are mobile and fit on a truck such as this example. Innovations like these may make dewatering a more practical and attractive option for smaller portable sanitation companies in the future. Daniel Yeh and the NEWgenerator.

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