A neat lawn and a set of colorful flower pots outside Kathmandu's Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Nepal conceal an unpleasant underground secret.
The idyllic setting is where hospital staff dump kitchen scraps and biohazardous, pathological waste. The bloody mixture decomposes to release methane — a harmful greenhouse gas. Hospital waste can cause serious risks in many low- and middle-income countries, where disposal methods vary and where resource constraints and lack of training can mean it is not dealt with safely. But at Tribhuvan, workers pour the waste into a hidden, custom-designed biodigester underground, instead of burning it or leaving it to rot at a public dump.
And the gas released? That is safely piped to the staff tearoom, where it is used as cooking fuel.