Sep 30, 2026 · 50 min · 20 segments
In this episode, Dr. William Tarpeh shares his innovative work on transforming wastewater into valuable resources, emphasizing sustainability and circular economy principles. Discover how his research…
William TarpehGuest
Petal ModesteHost
So let's talk about, um, your work now to recover resources from wastewater, and like you said, you, you, you look particularly at urine.
According to the E- EPA, wastewater treatment facilities in the US process approximately 34 billion gallons of wastewater every single day, and it may be it's, it's more.
I, I can't even imagine what that number [laughs] looks like on, uh, uh, if we even multiply it on a global scale, and we know that not every country, um, has an infrastructure for treating wastewater as well.
Um, the wastewater contains, like you said, nitrogen, phosphorus, lots of other chemicals from human waste, from food, from detergents.
What happens to wastewater when it is treated in a plant like we have here in the US? What does it become? Uh, where does it go? And how does it impact our environment?
And, um, so when we flush the toilet or take a shower, use water in our house, it all gets collected in a pipe and makes its way usually downhill somewhere to a wastewater treatment plant.
So if you have a careful eye and you look at the lowest point in your city, that's probably where the wastewater treatment plant is.
What it's doing is it's processing all of that waste, and a lot of it is household or municipal wastewater as we call it.
Think if there's a, I don't know, like a soda plant or a, a semiconductor fabrication plant, it will process those as well.
But there are three main things that are happening at a wastewater treatment plant.
We're removing, um, big particles, think things that float, right? Things that float in water.
So let's talk about, um, your work now to recover resources from wastewater, and like you said, you, you, you look particularly at urine.
According to the E- EPA, wastewater treatment facilities in the US process approximately 34 billion gallons of wastewater every single day, and it may be it's, it's more.
I, I can't even imagine what that number [laughs] looks like on, uh, uh, if we even multiply it on a global scale, and we know that not every country, um, has an infrastructure for treating wastewater as well.
Um, the wastewater contains, like you said, nitrogen, phosphorus, lots of other chemicals from human waste, from food, from detergents.
What happens to wastewater when it is treated in a plant like we have here in the US? What does it become? Uh, where does it go? And how does it impact our environment?
And, um, so when we flush the toilet or take a shower, use water in our house, it all gets collected in a pipe and makes its way usually downhill somewhere to a wastewater treatment plant.
So if you have a careful eye and you look at the lowest point in your city, that's probably where the wastewater treatment plant is.
What it's doing is it's processing all of that waste, and a lot of it is household or municipal wastewater as we call it.
Think if there's a, I don't know, like a soda plant or a, a semiconductor fabrication plant, it will process those as well.
But there are three main things that are happening at a wastewater treatment plant.
We're removing, um, big particles, think things that float, right? Things that float in water.
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