Excreta are wonderful natural products. One person’s excreta, if properly used, as in SGP, can help produce food of at least 4 persons! Implying there will be no food shortage. Moreover the surplus can help to make us self reliant and the planet greener. In SGP, the solar energy conversion and storage efficiency as in plants is about 100% versus about 20% conversion efficiency and 0% storage efficiency in solar cells.

Wastewater and waste are grave problems today, even though they are very useful. Sewage is 99% clean flush water and 1% valuable nutrients (organic and inorganics) including about 40% healthy bacteria that make up the entire living ecosystem. Our current sanitation methods e.g. Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) decompose valuable organics in waste and wastewater to GHGs, foul effluents and gases, acids and sludge that degrade air, land and water. They also breed pathogens, mosquitoes and pests. They are unsafe for workers, require skilled staff and immense electricity. They lead to major problems such as air and water pollution, water scarcity, loss of soil fertility, global warming, climate change, poor economy, poor health and loss of life.

SGP solves these problems. In SGP, solid and liquid waste, both organic and inorganic including excreta, food, several chemicals, sewage, industrial wastewater, raw water, stormwater and polluted water bodies are completely recomposed not decomposed in highly aerobic conditions, using stabilization, photosynthesis, gravity and bio-filtration in a bioreactor with a media of inorganic waste. There are no leftovers. SGP functions even in the absence of sunlight. It can function wherever plants can grow, which is observed even in snow.

SGP has been operated successfully at a large lab and 200-people field scale. The SGP effluent quality is far superior to STPs. SGP units can be made on a family scale to a large municipal or industrial scale. SGP requires only about 25% land, 1% electricity, 40% capital and 15% O&M cost compared to STPs. SGP can thus, efficiently help create a Sustainable Clean Green Healthy Planet. Being new, SGP needs awareness.

SGP uses sophisticated physical, chemical and biological processes. It comprises a non corrosive Sieve Cage (SC) on a pump, dipped in the source of sewage e.g. a tank/drain/water body, to sieve out plastic and solids, a sewage Collection and Seeding Tank (CST) (Figure 1), for removing odour, churning and pumping out the Pre-treated sewage (PS), to the Solar Bio-Reactor (SBR) (Figure 2) for further treatment using photosynthesis and biofiltration in highly aerobic conditions to produce oxygen rich healthy vegetation, soil, bio-mineral fertilizer, life, oxygen and water which seeps down and flows into a Clean Water Tank (CWT) (seen behind in Figure 2). CWT collects the treated clean water and pumps it for usage (Figure 3 & 4) and about 10% to CST as a catalyst (Figure 1). Pumps are corrosion free and operate automatically using level control switches. There are no other moving parts therefore no breakdowns occur as in STPs. SGP operation uses nature’s efficiency, thus only 1% energy consumption vs STPs.

The construction and O&M of SGP at any scale is safe, simple and economical. SGP is a stable and sustainable system which can last forever with said simple care like good soil with vegetation and water lasts forever in nature.

The products are oxygen rich healthy vegetation, soil, bio-mineral fertilizer, water, oxygen and life. Oxygen rich water is an excellent liquid fertilizer and using SGP, we can save 70% of freshwater that is consumed in agriculture. The excessive use of industrial fertilizers pollutes the soil and subsoil water. Other beneficial uses of SGP include; afforestation, biodiversity enrichment, aquaculture and dilution of pollution content in water bodies.

The SGP effluent quality is far superior to STPs. E.g. The dissolved oxygen (DO) content in SGP effluent is about 6 ppm where healthy aquatic life can thrive while the DO in STP effluent is 0 ppm wherein all life dies. This pollutes other water bodies and kills the remaining aquatic life. SGP eliminates emission of GHGs, foul gases, acids and sludge that degrade our environment. SGP does not breed pathogens, mosquitoes or pests.

SGP creates a green and healthy environment that maintains optimum air quality, humidity, rainfall and temperature, ideal for rapid vegetation growth. The plants produced in the unit are excellent for animal nutrition. As mentioned, the vegetation produced by excreta of 1 person is equivalent to food for at least 4 persons! Vegetation fixes atmospheric carbon dioxide and nitrogen to the soil. This reduces Global warming and Climate change are encouraged by the Kyoto protocol (UN Agreements). SGP can protect the planet by averting natural hazards and enhancing air, water and soil quality. Thus, it enhances quality of life on earth.

SGP is sustainable because it is safe, efficient, ecological, economical, and equitable. It improves self dependence. It improves plant, animal and human health. SGP can foster a sustainable clean green healthy planet if we all synergise our interests and strengths to adopt and promote it.