Instead of landfilling human waste, we could turn it into fertilizer, heating and even crude oil

As a society, we're letting our waste go to waste. And that can have major consequences.

"Human waste isn't waste at all. It's an incredibly versatile resource that all 7 billion of us produce regularly," journalist Lina Zeldovich said on this week's Best New Ideas in Money podcast.

In her book, The Other Dark Matter--The Science and Business of Turning Waste into Wealth and Health, Zeldovich argues that calling it human "waste" is mislabeling because it's actually valuable organic material full of useful nutrients. And human waste can even be converted into multiple useful commodities -- like fertilizer, biogas, and even crude oil.

When we flush our toilets, sewage water is funneled to a wastewater treatment plant, where the particles and pathogens are removed. Then the water is released back into rivers, creeks, and streams. But the problem is that this water, while technically clean, still contains nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

Once the water has been removed from the waste, what you have left are the biosolids. In the U.S, 51% of all biosolids are applied to land, the rest is mostly landfilled or incinerated, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

But we don't know enough about the chemicals and microbial hazards in biosolids. Public health advocates as well as environmental groups have expressed concerns over the use of biosolids.

But humans are going to continue to produce waste, so one solution is to turn the solid waste into crude oil, which can be used to create sustainable aviation fuel, marine biofuel or biodiesel -- or even to heat or cool homes.

Learn more in this week's podcast. And tune in every week to MarketWatch's Best New Ideas in Money podcast with Stephanie Kelton, economist and a professor of economics and public policy at Stony Brook University, and MarketWatch reporter Charles Passy. Each week, they explore innovations in economics, finance, technology and policy that rethink the way we live, work, spend, save and invest.

You can listen to past episodes here.

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