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SDG 9 -Paulee CleanTec – Innovating Sanitation for People and Animals

Some ideas come from a desire to change the world, some for money and some ideas are born out of the desire not to get a ticket for their animal making on the ground. An interesting beginning, yet, for Paulee CleanTec this was the start of a world changing piece of tech.

Oded Halperin, Founder of Paulee CleanTec explains whilst talking a walk with his dog, he realised there must be a better way for animal excrement to be disposed of. Indeed, later on he would find out that an estimated 5,000 tons of dog waste are disposed of daily and 2 million tons of cat litter ends up in municipal solid waste landfills. Halperin explains that upon purchasing of the first power-torch lighter he noticed that it had the power to incinerate feces into ash. With this in mind he met with his friend and now co-founder Professor Oded Shoseyov who realised Halperin was onto something. They were inspired to find a way to produce a mechanism that will help pet-owners clear their pets litter up in an eco-friendly way. In a urika moment they realised potassium permanganate was their key, “we realised that when mixing the feces with the potassium within 30 seconds it turned in to ash” Shoseyov explains.

With a keen eye, some scientific knowhow and a bit of luck Profesoor Shoseyov realised, “wow, we really have a discovery.” The patent was initially for the pet market who are generally unaware that litter is not biodegradable. Indeed, several health risks are associated with cat feces in-particular such as e-coli and toxoplasmosis. The word got out about the patent and they were approached by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation requesting Paulee CleanTec to apply for their grant. The foundation was established to address water, sanitation & Hygiene issues, Paulee’s tech could be an answer for the development of toilets for third-world countries.

Each year, almost 200 million tons of human waste goes untreated, a significant contributor to global health crises. In countries where there is a lack of funding and access to clean water an estimate of one million children die of AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, of that, 800,000 children die from pour sanitation and diarrhoea. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded Paulee a $110,000 grant to develop the patent further in the human sanitation industry.

“Science, tech and innovation and products that come from science and tech are essential for the sustainable develop goals,” says UN liaison Gary Fowlie, in an explanation of SDG Goal 9. Years later Paulee’s innovative solutions are focused on developing quality, reliable and sustainable infrastructure to support human-wellbeing as set out by the UN. Their basic patent can be seen a vast array of technologies, their portable toilet processes human waste without the need for water of electricity. In less than a minute, ash from waste is made and being rich in potassium nitrogen and phosphor makes it a nutritious fertilizer which can be recycled into soil. The tech eliminates all of the bad odour and is a solution for not only developing countries but can feature in any public gathering such as music festivals.

Beyond toilets, Paulee have established two crucial partners Lodologic and Epic Clean Tech. Lodologic have incorporated the tech into their battle against sewage sludge in Brazil in which 60% pf the 2.8 million litres of daily sewage are untreated. Epic Clean Tech, who recently won the grand prize in the Climate Innovation Showcase 2018, also partner with Paulee in order to provide waste solutions for high-rise residential buildings.