2019 South Australian AgriFutures Rural Women's Award finalist
Clare civil engineer Michelle Verco hopes to 'turn crappy campers into happy campers' with her wastewater idea.
While not an overly spoken about topic, Michelle has recently seen an increase in community groups looking to offer travellers an RV friendly dump point for their grey waste.
So, she's been on a mission to create an RV friendly dump point that ticks all the boxes for small communities.
This thinking led her to nominate for the 2019 South Australian AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award of which she has made the top four finalists - alongside Andrews' Natalie Sommerville.
Her goal is to develop a treatment method where waste from RV cassettes can be disposed of in a land application area (similar to normal septic tank waste), meaning more caravan dump points can be installed in the regions.
The unit would be suited for the chemicals used in RVs and self-contained caravans and their grey waste.
She felt a design would also be simple but technologically advanced.
"I want to come up with something that's practical, economically sound, environmentally sound and that meets the needs of the community," Michelle said.
"It's really exciting."
"The issue is with the chemical that is put in the cassettes (where the waste water is stored)."
Currently, at bigger sites, communities pay the price for an RV dump point, which can be about $1000 per pump out - Michelle hoped she could create a design which resulted in a significant reduction in costs.
"It is a significant amount of money," Michelle said.
"As a result, they (groups and people) are not putting them in or they are putting them in illegally."
She felt, a design like this could also be used in agricultural and viticultural situations.
Michelle said it had been about 18 months since she first started thinking about the notion of creating an RV friendly dump point that didn't have the large costs for maintenance and was suitable for small communities.
"(I thought) What can I do about this? It is not an issue that is prevalent in the city, it is unique to remote and regional Australia."
Michelle hoped she could design a product that not only saw an increase in tourism, reduced the costs to communities but hoped it eliminated illegal dumping of waste.
She also aimed for the design to be suitable for environmentally sensitive locations.
"The issue is topical. It doesn't sit well with me that I can't give a practical solution." Michelle wished the other finalists goodluck. The winner will be announced on March 28.