With the ever-growing popularity of bacon is the inevitable growing pile of—you guessed it—poo. Upwards of 43 billion gallons of pig manure is produced per year worldwide, according to the National Science Foundation, putting hog farmers in a stinky situation.
However, the future of pig waste may not be as dirty as previously thought. Ellie Fini, a civil engineer with North Carolina A&T State University, has found a way to turn pig manure into a bioadhesive—the sticky stuff that holds asphalt together.
Supposedly, the material she and her team has come up with is just as durable as the petroleum-based asphalt used on roadways today but without relying on nonrenewable fossil fuels. That means it won’t chip or crumble as heavy semis roll overtop of it.
Not only does this emerging technology help farmers deal with all that poo, the byproduct of the bioadhesive can be returned to farmers for use as a soil amendment. Win win!
