SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- What you flush down the toilet, a city in Texas is more than happy to turn into money. 

Here. cutting edge technology developed by the Massachusetts based company Ameresco takes methane gas from solid waste held in big holding tanks, passes it through pipes and creates clean burning natural gas. 

Sarah Gatewood, from the San Antonio Water System says, "Many plants, including our own, use this gas on that site, but this is the first time that it's to be actually sold on the open market to any customer that wants it." 

Ameresco owns the gas processing facility and will sell the gas itself, but SAWS and the city get paid a percentage of the profits estimated at $200,000 to $250,000a year.  

Sarah Gatewood continues, "and that will go back into our budget and help reduce our operating costs and hopefully help keep SAWS rates affordable for many years to come." 

Currently, the gas that will be sold is just being flared off as useless. The start of this methane gas plant makes essentially everything you flush reusable. SAWS has been recycling waste water for years, putting scrubbed water back into the Medina River.  It’s solid waste recycling operation provides compost material for local nursery companies.  

And now, the methane gas to be sold on the open market will make San Antonio the first U.S. city to complete the biowaste recycling trifecta.