Technology
Bizarre MONEY toilet turns your POO into cash to buy coffee, food and books
A TOILET that turns human waste into digital money is in use at a university in South Korea.
Students who use the toilet can earn 10 Ggool a day, which is enough to get them coffee, bananas or even books on the university campus.
ReutersThis toilet can turn poo into digital money[/caption]
The eco-friendly toilet was designed by Cho Jae-weon, an urban and environmental engineering professor from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST).
His toilet is connected to a lab that takes poo and converts it to energy in the form of biogas.
The toilet is called a BeeVi.
It uses a pump to take human faeces to an underground tank.
ReutersThe toilet is connected to a machine in a lab that turns the faeces into energy[/caption]
The vacuum pump is used to reduce water waste.
Once in the tank, micro-organisms break down the human waste and turn it into methane.
This methane is then used as fuel for things like boiling water and powering stoves in the building.
ReutersStudents can sign up to the toilet program[/caption]
According to Reuters, the professor said: “If we think out of the box, faeces has precious value to make energy and manure. I have put this value into ecological circulation.”
Postgraduate student Heo Hui-jin reportedly added: “I had only ever thought that faeces are dirty, but now it is a treasure of great value to me.
“I even talk about faeces during mealtimes to think about buying any book I want.”
ReutersMicro-organisms in a tank breakdown the poo and convert it to methane gas[/caption]
The average person is said to produce around 500g of faeces a day.
This can be turned into 50 litres of methane gas, according to Professor Jae-weon.
That amount of energy could reportedly drive a car 0.75 miles.
ReutersThe money created by the toilet can only be spent at the university[/caption]
People who use the digital coin creating toilet are paid in a made up currency called Ggool.
Ggool means honey in Korean.
Anyone using the eco-friendly toilet gets 10 Ggool a day.
That’s said to be enough for coffee, instant noodles or fruit.
Students can also save up their Ggool to buy books.
The average price of a latte in South Korea is around £3, according to Statista.
To spend the digital money, students just have to use a special QR code.
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