The scoop on poop

NEW YORK (FORTUNE) – This is a column about poop: cow manure that can turned into electricity, “green” baby diapers that can be put in the toilet and waterless urinals that don’t flush.

Hold your nose if you must, but it turns out that there’s money to be made in finding ways to dispose of waste in ways that are cleaner and better for the planet.

A company called Environmental Power Corp., with headquarters in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, operates three methane digesters in Wisconsin that process cow manure into natural gas, which can then be converted to electricity. The company is developing poop-to-power projects in Texas and California, too.

Then there’s a startup called gDiapers, which sells a “diaper system” with an inner layer that can be safely flushed down the toilet, thereby keeping disposable diapers out of landfills – where 18 to 20 billion are thrown away each year.

Fortune