The FINISH Family: Interview with Sanivation

In this recurring column ‘The FINISH Family’ we aim to showcase our partnerships and peers in the field. Sanivation is one of many peers who presented their model with us at Stockholm World Water Week. We admire their work and can see how working together in the future will help the sector reach scale, as we both work toward SDG 6!

A few questions to Andrew Foote, Co-Founder of Sanivation:

In which ways do Sanivation and FINISH activities find synergy?
We find synergy with FINISH Mondial, as we are both trying to solve SDG6.2 at scale. This requires partnership, advocacy, and sharing of what does and does not work.

In your experience, regarding the circular economy of sanitation/waste, what is the most difficult element to address? How are you looking to overcome it?
The most difficult aspect to address is changing how people see waste. Waste is important. We need to talk about waste. It causes pollution to our rivers and communities. We need to treat it with rigor, embrace innovative models, and allocate budgets to solve the problem at scale

What are you most hopeful to achieve in the near future?
We are actively showcasing the financial competitiveness of a circular economy approach for sanitation. We’re showing how a city-wide treatment plant can treat waste in perpetuity at no running cost to the government. Once the waste-to-value infrastructure is in place, we can continue to treat sludge at no cost to governments.