We may soon live in a world where people ask to spray you with fatberg as you make your way through the mall.
The grosser cousin to the thing that sunk the Titanic, the fatberg refers to the sewer lumps that form as a result of non-biodegradable solids combining with the fat, oil and grease that you pour down the drain or flush down the toilet.
As disgusting as that sounds, the BBC reports that professor Stephen Wallace of Scotland’s University of Edinburgh uses fatbergs to create a much more pleasant product: perfume.
“It’s a crazy idea,” Wallace tells the BBC. “But it works.”
The fatberg-to-perfume process starts by first sterilizing the lumps and then introducing a bacteria that then eats the fatberg as it dissipates. When that’s all finished, a pine-like smell is produced.
We’ll see if fatberg perfumes actually make their way into stores. For now, it’s probably just nice for a fatberg’s self-esteem to hear “What’s that smell?” in a nice way instead of a horrified one.