Dutch scientist Gatze Lettinga has been awarded the Tyler Environmental Prize for a wastewater treatment system that is making an impact in the developing world. The process offers inexpensive treatment of industrial waste and sewage in countries that cannot afford centralised systems. The system was developed for agricultural industries in the Netherlands and is currently used in industrial installations around the world. Lettinga refuses to patent the system in order for it to be freely available throughout the developing world. He wants sustainable systems like this to become the norm.

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