The bacteria and fungi would eat the waste, using oxygen from the air to remove nutrients and toxins. So, it was also "a stomach and a lung". "We are aiming at reducing water consumption at the house by 40 to 60 per cent. You would still have sewage leaving the house, but it would first go around two or three times."
While existing sewage treatment plants already use bacteria, the new technology was significantly more efficient, and a fifth the cost.
Conventional treatment systems also use oxygen, creating bubbles in the sewage. "But bubbles are very expensive to make," Dr Taylor said. "They use a lot of electricity, producing lots of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels."
The technology could make money by linking sewage recycling with prawn, yabby and fish farming. Organisms grown on the bio-reactor could be harvested as their food.
Dr Taylor, who conceded that diners might not want to know how their seafood had been raised, said his team was looking for commercial partners.
Initially, he predicted, the biggest market would be in rural areas, where water had to be trucked in.