A Brief History of Waste Management
Every year technological advances take huge leaps forward in many fields. From communications to transportation to entertainment. Every day it seems that something new is developed.
There are many areas in which few people notice that improved technology is happening. One of those is waste handling — the breakdown of organic waste. This includes animal waste, human waste, hydrocarbon spills, and much more.
From Offshore Dumping to Land Farming
Prior to 1988 a large percentage of the human waste from large cities was loaded on barges and hauled out to sea for dumping. In the eighties, people realized that this was seriously damaging the ocean environment.
In 1988 offshore dumping of organic waste was stopped by regulation. There had to be an alternative method of handling this huge volume of waste, so the idea of Land Farming was developed. At that time Land Farming the organic waste became one of the principal methods of handling waste.
With Land Farming, waste is hauled to the country where it is spread out as fertilizer on cropland. This land can be used to grow crops for animal consumption only.
Although somewhat controversial, this method has been an accepted and successful method of disposing of the tons and tons of waste generated each day by large cities. There are however growing problems with this.
Based upon numbers from the US Census Department, the urban population of Texas (as an example in one state) has increased almost 90% since 1988. This means the amount of human waste needing to be disposed of has virtually doubled. If increases in industrial waste that
enters Municipal sewer treatment plants have also gone up (a very reasonable expectation), it is conservative to state that the tons of organic waste that are currently being land farmed in Texas has more than doubled since it began in 1988.
With the current volume of waste being distributed this way, the soil and the feed crops grown there can no longer absorb and break down the total amount of organic waste being spread there. The runoff from this excess organic waste is entering creeks and springs. This increases
Biological Oxygen Demand and decreases Dissolved Oxygen (not good for the environment). Creeks and waterways are becoming polluted.
A second problem is that waste from cities often carries small amounts of toxic material – lead, zinc, mercury, hazardous chemicals, or pharmaceuticals. Each truckload of material must meet specifications to be below the legal limits of these metals or compounds, typically measured in part per billion.
It sounds safe, but if each truckload carries only 5% of the maximum legal level of lead then the 21st truckload puts the receiving soil at 105% of the legal limit.
How about the 100th truckload?
500% above the legal, safe limit of lead. Unlike the organics which are broken down by the plants and bacteria in the soil, heavy metals just accumulate unless they are physically washed into a nearby creek by a heavy storm.
Does anybody actually believe that each and every one of hundreds of trucks per day is actually being tested for these materials? How much material may actually be above the legal limit of one or more of the controlled items?
Waste Disposal Technology is Inching Forward
Over the next decade, it is also reasonable to consider that the amount of waste, using the current treating systems, could almost double again, making this situation much, much worse.
Technology MUST advance to reduce or, hopefully, eliminate these problems.
The good news is that IT HAS! It is unreasonable to believe that the ways things have been done for the last several decades are still the best or only way to do it. We must be open to new ideas and discoveries.
There have been some mechanical advances, but for the most part, things are done the same way now as they were forty years ago. Most sewer plants were designed and built decades ago. It would be very difficult and expensive to redesign and rebuild them, especially at a time
when so many cities face financial difficulties.
New home septic tanks have become aerobic as compared to the older anaerobic tanks. Many customers that paid $8,000 or more for an aerobic septic tank may disagree about this being an advance.
So the best area to make technological improvements is in chemical additives that improve the breakdown of organic waste but almost all of the options available are one of two basic types:
Factory-produced Enzymes: Naturally produced by bacteria to break down waste. Add a lot more factory-produced enzymes and you can break down more waste. A key word is artificially produced enzymes.
Factory-grown Bacteria: These are used to increase the population of existing bacteria. Again, these are not naturally occurring bacteria, but bacteria grown in factory culture tanks. Improved addition of microbubbles of oxygen puts more oxygen available to replace the oxygen used up by the bacteria – but water can still only dissolve 8 to 9 ppm of oxygen at any
time.
Then, There is Accelerator by Dr. Pooper™
Accelerator by Dr. Pooper™ does not try to change the natural process of bacterial waste reduction. Instead, it uses a method of assisting, speeding up, and improving the natural process. Every athlete, whether human or animal, knows that the proper diet utilizing the correct
vitamins, minerals, balance of proteins, carbs, etc. will enable the body to function at the highest possible level.
Accelerator by Dr. Pooper™ is a bio-accelerator that enables the natural bacteria already existing in the system to become the best they can be — larger and more active which means they can reproduce and eat up to 40 times faster than normal. Multiples of bigger and more active bacteria clear septic systems fast.
By the way, Accelerator by Dr. Pooper™ cleans commercial septic systems as well as residential systems. We also scale up formulations for ag and municipal systems If you’re wondering how much you should use, please call us at (832) 808-1578. We’re always happy to help.
You can purchase Accelerator by Dr. Pooper™ directly at DoctorPooper.com.