US woman reveals you can earn $280k-a-year selling your poo
A woman has revealed an enterprising, albeit odoriferous, way to earn up to $280,000 per year — but it’s not for the faint hearted.
A clip detailing her pretty-gross life hack reveals she began making an extra income after she discovered you can sell faeces for science, and the video has amassed nearly 170,000 views on TikTok already.
“Wanna make $$$ donating your [poop]?” the US woman, who uses the handle @Isafidelino, wrote in the post to her almost 30,000 followers.
According to the clip, prospective stool donors simply go to HumanMicrobes.org, where they can earn an eye-popping $500 ($AU780) per “stool donation,” the New York Post reports.
If you’re having a bowel movement every day, that works out to $180,000 ($AU280,000) a year for simply sitting on a toilet, per the USA and Canada-based stool donor network.
A similar donor scheme launched in Australia in 2018, but it’s nowhere near as financially rewarding, with donors receiving up to $250 a week.
So why do they offer such a massive sum for excrement overseas?
The site explains the majority of people suffer “a major problem” caused by modern life which creates “poor health and a damaged gut microbiome”.
To help maintain people’s faecal-librium, Human Microbes is trying to find “people who are healthy enough to be high-quality stool donors, and connect them with doctors, researchers, clinical trials and individuals who need to rebalance their gut microbiome”.
They then harvest their dung — the easiest way to collect gut microbes — and use it for research or procedures to battle deadly gut infections.
To see if their faeces are fit for the job, contributors must meet a series of requirements, including filling out a “screening questionnaire”.
They also must undergo a test to verify their “stool type and physical fitness” and complete a video interview.
If approved, the stool donor is finally ready to poop for pay.
The actual collection process involves storing one’s dung in a plastic bag and then shipping it to Human Microbes or a recipient on dry ice — the costs of which are prepaid for, per the site.
Best of all, manure merchants are kept “completely anonymous” so people will never know that your business is literally doing your business.
Needless to say, the idea of going from faeces to fortune set the wheels turning on TikTok.
“Finally get something out of my IBS,” said one intrigued viewer, while another wrote, “I’ll be the first Poollionaire.”
“For $180 thousand a year? Sign me up,” exclaimed another of potentially heeding nature’s call for cash.
But don’t be lured by the idea of a gastrointestinal gold rush just yet: Becoming a dung donator involves more than the ability to go No. 2.
According to Human Microbes, prospective poop donors must be in the “tiny 0.1 per cent of people who are still healthy enough to qualify as a high-quality stool donor,” per the site.
This means being in “exceptional physical and mental health” — top athletes are best — and under 30, although there is no minimum age requirement.
Minimal antibiotic usage is also a must, so you don’t upset the balance of the faecal system.
The selective criteria certainly mean most applications will go down the toilet.
In fact, despite screening 26,000 potential donors, Human Microbes still hasn’t found the supply of high-quality donors they’re looking for — hence the $500 ($AU780)
per poop financial incentive.
The requirements may seem stringent, however, Human Microbes says selectiveness is essential given deteriorating health levels nationwide.
“Chronic disease and general poor health have been drastically increasing over the past decades to the point where the vast majority of the population is now extremely unhealthy,” they write.
“It goes well beyond a single generation being a little overweight due to eating too much.”
They add: “It is an exponentially worsening crisis with each generation, in large part due to the loss of our host-native microbes that get passed down generationally.”
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The Australian Centre for Digestive Diseases did a call out for faeces donors in 2018, offering $50 for each delivery — meaning you could make as much as $250 a week — which equated to an impressive $13,000 a year.
Just like the US system, Australia has a shortage of donors, and participants have to face the same rigorous qualifying process.
This article originally appeared on The New York Post and was reproduced with permission
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