For those of you who don't know what bio solids are, they are nutrient-rich organic materials resulting from the treatment of domestic sewage in a treatment facility. When treated and processed, these residuals can be recycled and applied as fertilizer to improve and maintain productive soils and stimulate plant growth.
The pros of using bio solids is that it creates jobs, is a cost effective for disposal, recycles versus filling landfills, promotes farming, reduces emissions from transportation to landfills and is a good free land fertilizer. The cons of using bio solids is that it is a potential health hazard, the effects are irreversible, contamination may occur resulting from accumulation of industrial waste, its true composition is not known and may contain hazardous chemicals.
This topic is still debated on because there are concerns of health risks, its long term effects, if it is transferable to our food and water, and once bio solids are applied, it is irreversible. Despite this, there are those who do think that bio solids is the way to go and think that it is beneficial for agriculture and even to the rest of our environment. Surprisingly a fraction of these people are farmers. You can't blame them because bio solids reduces the need for chemical fertilizers and is free. Then there are people who reside in the city and think things like 'that is just disgusting beyond belief!'. But many of us can't deny that we couldn't even stand the after scents when someone finishes using the bathroom. So my point here is yes, I really do believe that many people are influenced by the western view of human waste as unsanitary and well..nasty. They do not see the potential benefits that bio solids could have on agriculture but also for the environment as a whole.
Even though many people think of the negative effects bio solids 'may' have on our environment, they don't really think about the positive effects it could also have. I don't think it can't be that bad. After all, it comes from our waste; that has to be natural..and natural is good; unless they happened to add chemicals to it, then that just defies my previous sentence.
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