How the porta potty could be an unexpected key in the climate fight
This company has transformed the 'least inspiring product' into a champion for sustainability.

Everyone poops, but very few think about where their drain ends.
When you flush in most U.S. cities, your poop is carried by valuable water into a vast network of aging pipes – many of which were installed around World War II – to a centralized treatment plant that wasn’t designed to handle extreme weather events or sea level rise, occurrences we’re experiencing more frequently as a result of climate change.
While the future of sanitation may look bleak, it doesn’t need to be.
In fact, you may not know that waste does not need to be wasted. Poop and pee are packed with valuable nutrients that are currently extracted from the earth to make fertilizer. And in nature, these nutrients cycle from food, through the human body, back into the soil to support the growth of new life.
Recycling human waste could help combat climate change
Here’s some context on how climate change is affecting our waste systems. Seas are rising faster than ever (1-2 meters by 2100), and hurricanes are getting more intense and frequent. By 2050, “moderate” (typically damaging) flooding is expected to occur, on average, more than 10 times as often as it does today.
When this flooding occurs, our wastewater treatment plants – often placed on coastlines for ease of effluent discharge – are vulnerable to inundation leading to service disruption.
For example, in 2017, Hurricane Harvey rendered 40 wastewater treatment facilities inoperable due to flooding. Even a month later, 7 facilities remained disconnected, leaving communities with nowhere for their waste streams to be treated before entering surrounding water bodies.
And when these facilities get flooded and services are disrupted, people don’t stop pooping.
Untreated waste leaks into the surrounding environment, causing environmental contamination, aquatic dead zones, biodiversity loss, and public health crises.
We can view this looming disruption as an opportunity to redesign our world in a way that is regenerative, intentional, and informed by nature’s wisdom – where humanity is not only surviving, but thriving along with all life on our planet.
In the case of sanitation, some companies are looking to nature’s design for inspiration.
One of these companies is wasted* – founded to transform the least inspiring product in the world: the porta-potty.
wasted* rents their re-imagined portable toilets to construction sites and events, and transforms the collected waste into fertilizer to support local agriculture.
While their immediate focus is on the traditional porta-potty market, the wasted* vision is to provide climate-resilient, circular sanitation infrastructure in the places that it’s most needed – from large metros to developing countries, disaster relief zones, and refugee camps.
By transforming the portable toilet, wasted* aims to shift the way we relate to what we leave behind – seeing it not as waste, but as a valuable resource. In doing so, their aspiration is to change the way we as humans view ourselves in relation to the rest of life – not as separate from nature, but deeply interconnected.
Other major organizations pushing forward the circular sanitation economy are the Rich Earth Institute, VunaNexus, and Sanitation360 – who are focused on developing processing technologies that transform human waste into fertilizer.
Sanitation is just one piece of a very large puzzle to mend our relationship to the rest of the living world. But as is said by peecycling pioneers at the Rich Earth Institute, we can pee the change we wish to see in the world.
Brophy Tyree is a guest contributor to Upworthy and the CEO/Co-Founder of wasted*
There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."
This article originally appeared in May.