Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/842574
W EEKLY EDITION JUNE 28, 2017 Dispatch #1 from South Africa Note: PSAI's Executive Director, Karleen Kos, is in Durban, South Africa this week. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have convened a group of professionals from around the world to consider options for community level waste treatment systems. She answer s some of the questions we are sure Association Insight readers have about this trip. Q: What is the purpose of these meetings? A: We are here to determine if there is enough interest and likeness of mind to develop an international working agreement (IW A) on standards for community level waste treatment systems. Q: What is the scope of the project? A: Once the IWA has been developed, we are hoping it will lead to an internationally recognized technical standard for fecal sludge treatment and recovery s ystems. The standard would qualify technologies and processes in terms of machine and materials safety, pathogen removal, energy recovery, conversion of excreta into beneficial products, and compliance with health and environment regulations (air emission, water discharge, etc.). Q: How is this relevant to portable sanitation? A: One of the two main issues that portable sanitation companies identify as their biggest challenges is waste disposal. While the impetus for the project we are working on in South Africa this week is coming from work the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is doing on global sanitation and reinventing the toilet, we cannot escape the implications for our industry. As I shared at the Nuts and Bolts Educational Conference in 2016, the new or "reinvented" toilet technologies are likely to impact portable sanitation because they will bring about closed toilet systems that are affordable and feasible in many of th e situations where portable toilets are currently used - and not just in co untries lacking sanitation today. The size of the market in these countries will drive a phenomenal level of adoption of these technologies. I expect that within 5 - 15 years "reinvented" toilets will be mass - produced and available everywhere. This will put pressure on providers in developed countries to adopt these closed toilet systems as well. The second part of the puzzle is development and adoption of new or "reinvented" waste treatment systems. It's critical that the PSAI be at the table while these tec hnologies and standards are being discussed. The new IWA we are discussing will take the work a step further and look at standards for treating waste at the community level. Currently portable sanitation providers in the US are facing higher costs and red uced waste treatment options. A few larger companies have had the resources to develop on site treatment at their yards, but this has so far been very limited. We are hoping the new treatment technologies under development – the ones driving this new stand ard – will provide options for portable sanitation companies who wish for affordable treatment alternatives they can build on their own yards or that communities can build to improve the overall treatment infrastructure options (POWTs) on which so many com panies depend. The new technologies also focus heavily on processes that recycle or reclaim waste products. As these new approaches are perfected, they will offer portable restroom operators new revenue potential, be "greener," and possibly reduce disposal costs. PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 3