Enabling sustainability
in the wastewater industry

Introduction

When humans develop technologies we do so for a purpose. However, when adverse environmental and social impacts consequent from these technologies arise, these are often considered using terms that have the effect of diminishing the impact: ‘collateral’ damage; externalities to the economic system (there is no alternative) etc. And let us not deny that according to the neoliberal economic agenda there “is no such thing as society”.

These adverse environmental and social impacts are currently mitigated by the law, but the law is a blunt instrument and very expensive. This body of work explores the possibility that an alternative means of mitigating environmental and social impacts is to find ways in which they can influence the design and purchase of technologies. This question is addressed by consideration of ‘sewerage’ technologies as these were the topics of the author’s masters and PhD theses. It pains me to “hear the planet screaming under the weight of human habitation” and my aim is to contribute to reducing the human footprint on this planet by applying the science to develop faecal waste technologies.

This phase of my journey began with a study of compost theory, but recently the community in which I live was faced with a conventional sewerage system, one that locked us into flush toilets (excessive water consumption), considerable energy consumption, and made nutrient recycle very difficult. Knowing that there were different ways of solving the nitrogen (N) load into the lake and that we weren’t even attempting to consider these other ways of thinking created a cognitive dissonance for me. An itch that needed to be scratched; perceived perhaps more as a cancer that needs to be cut out if humans are to survive on this planet.

That the council system drove the centralized reticulation proposal showed that the issue is not one of technology, but something else. Something that was a lot more difficult to challenge. This experience with the council extended my journey into the complexity of the Nature: human-use-of-Nature interface (that manifests in our technologies), to include the institutional/ commercial frameworks that surround technologies. Being an introvert turned out be an advantage on this journey as I intuitively shied away from the political challenge and retreated into the science; constantly seeking within the logic structures of science a way that Nature could be given a voice. This resulted in me finding information paths that may not have otherwise been uncovered.

This journey has been long and the conclusions are not necessarily correct. However readers may find it useful and, with thought, they may wish to add to it.

Eventually I perceived the difficulty as residing in the purpose for which we develop technologies, or more particularly that in order to avoid being overwhelmed by the detail, most purposes abstract only a small part of the full complexity. The adverse social and environmental impacts typically arise from the bits that have been left out. In addition, the context of most analysis do not adequately reflect the interconnectedness and system behaviour, consequently the technologies that are developed contain these limitations of context.

A useful but very tentative hypothesis to this human condition is that a community’s culture forms as a means of holding these contexts and this works more or less OK for a period of time as the context adequately aligns with cultural mores. But eventually pressures build because any abstraction is imperfect. In the case of sewerage systems the limitations of the beginning context has taken a couple of hundred years to manifest. The history of sewerage is revealing in this respect as the incentive to put sewage in pipes underground was driven by stench. However, solving the odour problem has not set up a system that easily recycles nutrients; the system becomes sub-optimum as social goals change.

To avoid any initial technology bias, this analysis begins with the full planetary complexity. This beginning stance preserves the full complexity, but necessitates a system for navigating through it. From the full planetary context, the analysis begins by separating the complexity into Nature + human + interconnections. This beginning stance is achieved by using the information realm. The value of this beginning stance is that the descriptions of Nature (the fundamental laws and processes etc.) are in a mathematical form, so large ‘structures’ of information can be formed independently of human politics, institutions and our personal preferences. While the analysis is outside human constructions there is no technology bias as all possibilities exist.

The manner of human interaction with Nature’s Structure then becomes a point at which technology optimisation questions, which include adverse social and environmental impacts, can be asked and answered. This analysis framework coincides with the point at which we develop our technologies, so these social and environmental values become embedded in the technologies. Surround these technologies with an information framework that encourages choice of those technologies that have least adverse social and environmental impacts and we have a system that can operate without needing threats of prosecution – or more particularly prosecution can be kept for those really belligerent individuals.

• Architecture
  1Consider how your technology decision would change if social and environmental impacts were the prime consideration. This paper is an overview of how environmental performance can be incorporated into a technology's design phase (which includes any not-yet-developed technologies). We can aspire to some notion of a 'perfect' technology.
  • Nature
    2Nature can be captured within an Information Processing Structure (IPS). These being an assemblage of the mathematical descriptions of Nature's behaviour (diffusion laws and microbial kinetics in the case of composting).
    • Nature Only
      4The over parameterisation problem that occurs in composting is resolved by solving overlaying interdependent sets of equations. A very high regression coefficient with data is achieved. 5Substrate diffusion and substrate solubilisation can be ignored as separate parameters as their effect is shown to be incorporated into other parameters when the model is fitted to the data. 6Using a geometrical form (a sphere) to describe a particle begs the question as to how well this 'perfect' geometry describes an actual composting particle. It does very well. 7Forming information rich computational units in composting captures the 'essence' of composting while being able to respond to temperature changes and many design elements arising from a technology. Pragmatism can use the precision of science.
  • Boundary
    2 By consideration of the boundaries of an IPS it is possible to access information that contains no technology bias - we can begin with technology perfection.
    • The Boundary
      8Beginning at the chemistry conjunction means that all technologies and the natural and physical resources of the R.M. Act are part of the analysis. Atoms have a path through the biosphere so urine can be separated from faeces and greywater. This is a very useful attachment point for human interaction with an IPS. 9Using the notion of seamlessness ensures that the underlying causation is maintained. Resolution of any constraints to seamlessness is argued to be useful to ensure the underlying causation is maintained in more complex models intended for use in our technologies.
  • Interconnections
    2Between Nature's IPS and human use of Nature in our technologies are a range of interconnections. These are very useful points of influence to enable the best decisions.
    • Mostly Nature
      10When using models to design a technology then some of the detail needs to be 'left out'. This paper argues that much of this 'left out' information can be held in the context. For example, many constants are used but these are often only constant while the temperature doesn't change. The climate and its associated temperature changes therefore form the context of the model's use. 11The Beacon is sustainability perfection. This hypothetical technology would use zero natural and physical resources. It represents a fundamental limit to human habitation on the planet. Zero is particularly useful as it has the same meaning in the human domain as in mathematics. 12Optimising parameters take components of the biosphere's behaviour (lack of oxygen producing volatile organic compounds) and link this to an important human value (such as odour production). The result is a 'surface' in information space that commerce can use to design better technologies.
    • Nature + Human
      13Whether we would be better off developing separate technologies for treating faeces, urine and greywater is addressed for each of the three by considering which technology is closest to the Beacon. Water consumption, energy use and nutrient recycle (pollution) are best minimised by using separate technologies. 14Cultural resistance to adopting different technologies when these are clearly preferable, is addressed by considering the role of primary adopters. Primary adopters are those individuals who adopt new technologies first and are observed by those in the community who are later adopters. 15Motivations for these primary adopters to chose more sustainable technologies is discussed in this paper. The economic system is a good vehicle for carrying sustainability information into the mind of the primary adopter.
  • Human
    3 How humans can make best use of the information from an IPS is understood using three social organisational forms: community, commerce and institutions. The interconnections between these forms are easily handled by considering information flows.
    • Human
      16The use of information feedback loops (from systems thinking) as a way of conveying the environmental consequences of technology choice into the mind of the decision maker is discussed. This information provides a tension that can move societies towards technologies that have less environmental footprint. 17Fairness and equity when applied to volume and nitrogen can improve the public debate surrounding the possible adoption of a community sewerage scheme.
    • Community
      18This is an overview of applying sustainability criteria to Glenorchy's sewerage decision. How those technologies that consume less natural and physical resources can occur within a community sewerage system is discussed. 19The role of a Council rating system in carrying information that effects movement towards sewerage technologies that consume less natural and physical resources is discussed. There is congruence between the need for individual dwellings to take responsibility for technology choice and a council's legal title based rating system. 20This is written as a community discussion paper and attempts to link the underlying chemistry to the decisions that we need to make.

 

The complexity of this boundary is explored here. However readers can choose from 3 ways of exploring this boundary:

• Community context. In this case Glenorchy’s experience with their council attempting to impose a centralised sewerage system is explored from the sustainability context. This sustainability context is taken to be reduced water consumption, reduced energy demand and ability to recycle nutrients. There are two access points for this context:
• Community perspective: Community_communication&sewerage
• Council perspective: Design-optimisation-for-Glenorchy.pdf
• Information Processing Architecture. This more or less reflects the author’s development of his thinking from his PhD studies on composting theory (for application to compost toilet technologies), but with the institutional side being triggered by Glenorchy’s sewerage experience Using-information-processing-architecture-partI.pdf
• Diagrammatic form. The relevant papers are located in one of the four components of the Architecture: Nature, the boundary, interconnections and human Interface_amoeba_and-links.docx

In all cases this is a journey through information space. It involves finding and using those parts of Nature’s Structure that either reach the human domain (such as equals, zero and one); or get sufficiently close that an information conduit can complete the information transfer (such as using the economic system and council rates in the case of Glenorchy’s sewage); to identification of the 3 dimensional surface formed by the optimising parameter that is useful for commerce and technology design. As Nature’s Structure can be formulated to be outside of human constructions then the information carried enables Nature to have a voice in human decisions – be it the Council chambers or the board room or the technology decision maker in the dwelling.

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