Why throw away 'waste' when you can make food out of it?

Abstract

In every society people will inevitably generate unwanted and useless material that is called waste. However, this term is very subjective and inaccurate because most of these materials still contain valuable resources like nutrients and moisture. This research focuses on growing vegetables using the organic waste material and waste water from a local community. The nutrients required for crops will be recovered through anaerobic digestion of organic waste. Before we can start ferment organic matter, an initial technique is required to process wastewater into sludge. To determine the area size for the anaerobic digester and the wastewater treatment facility an equation will be derived from case studies. The method to calculate the amount of nutrients, that can be recovered by anaerobic digestion, will be done according to case studies as well. Finally, the estimated nutrient will determine the amount of vegetables that can be grown along with the spatial requirements for the design. The outcome of this study will be can be used as design tools for an architect who is interested in building a facility that can recover nutrients from waste and produce vegetables with it.