When making a list of the most promising new sustainability innovations, sewage probably wouldn’t be the first topic that springs to mind. Let’s face it – beyond being the butt of jokes, what other good can come out of human waste? Well, one company thinks they’ve figured out how to use sewage to reduce humanity’s environmental impact and oil dependence.

Wastewater treatment plants could be a gold mine in the quest to replace the petroleum used every year to make plastic for packaging. energyNOW! correspondent Lee Patrick Sullivan got a whiff of how sewer sludge is being turned into sustainable plastic.