18 replies to this topic

[zararina]

I just watched about it on a local show presentation about toilet sanitation in some areas here in our country. There are some group composed of youth that making their own kind of toilet bowls and sharing it to some provinces that does not have proper toilets.
The toilet have two holes (urine and stool) that was connected to a container where it will be collected. There was a compost mixture placed in the "stool hole" to compost the waste. When those containers are full, it will be then used as organic fertilizers.

[kathie_san]

I've seen and read an article about this invention before, it was made by I think an American furniture designer (if I'm not mistaken). Looks promising, but I doubt it if it really would make it big once marketed. You know not a lot of people care about living "green", thus they rely on being practical, they already have a toilet back home why get one that cannot be used over and over again?

[SpiroFlo]

I think that's fairly standard thinking for most people, kathie_san. The green angle is only one part of the decision-making process.

[GreenQueen]

I've never seen this before but I did hear that there are some toilets that have buttons for both so that it doesn't use much water to flush down urine and it take to flush down poop. I thought that this was a pretty cool idea. i may be late but I've never seen one.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Just Google "composting toilets" ; it brings up a ton of sites for information.

[JBMedia]

That's very interesting. Can't say I've ever seen or even heard of something like that before. It is quite the superb idea though. I wonder how much it would actually help though.

[anEgrahm]

When I was on my school camps outdoors, they had toilets called "rota loos". There was no flush button in these - I went to an all boys school, and when we had to do a 'number two' all we did was use the portable loo. Although there were a few of my classmates who said things like, "Ew, you can see everyone else's ____", the leaders and mentors repeatedly reminded us that our waste was going to be reused as compost.

[artistry]

This is an interesting concept, but as someone mentioned, I don't think that there would be a huge market for such a product. But in areas where they do not have standard toilet facilities or limited facilities, as well as sanitation problems, this would be good to have for use. Don't know if the composting part would be very applicable.

[MakingCents]

So where is the stool stored?  Does it go underground somewhere where it's stored, or is it stored in your bathroom.  I don't think too many people (myself included) would be interested in having everyone's stool stored in their bathrooms for several days. No matter how green it was

[makeitmom]

MakingCents, on 18 December 2011 - 06:25 PM, said:

So where is the stool stored?  Does it go underground somewhere where it's stored, or is it stored in your bathroom.  I don't think too many people (myself included) would be interested in having everyone's stool stored in their bathrooms for several days. No matter how green it was

I too would hope that it would be stored underground. I love the green concept of this but I hate to admit I'm a little squeamish about handling 'stool' much less dealing with the smell -- unless I have to.

Maybe they can test market this kind of toilet station in place of the community 'mobile' outdoor bathrooms (if they haven't already) for camp grounds and or outdoor events, then it would drum up enough interest for people to start putting them in their homes.

I know that horse, sheep, and cow manure make for wonderful fertilizer, why not our own?

[joeldgreat]

About the "market" issue. I think its not about it, its about more on the education of the people that affects a low market potential of these eco-friendly products. Its only about mind-shift of all the people in the world. We are used to the idea of having the most convenient products and the idea of environment friendly products is only an option. Changing the mind set takes a lifetime and hopefully we all had set our minds to help mother nature before its too late.

[MakingCents]

makeitmom, on 22 December 2011 - 12:13 PM, said:

I too would hope that it would be stored underground. I love the green concept of this but I hate to admit I'm a little squeamish about handling 'stool' much less dealing with the smell -- unless I have to.

Maybe they can test market this kind of toilet station in place of the community 'mobile' outdoor bathrooms (if they haven't already) for camp grounds and or outdoor events, then it would drum up enough interest for people to start putting them in their homes.

I know that horse, sheep, and cow manure make for wonderful fertilizer, why not our own?

And on that same note, WHO turns it into fertalizer?  is the home-ownere required to get the stool out and make the fertilizer?  Where is the fertilzer used...

I'm all for going green, but human excrement in my garden... YUCK

[makeitmom]

MakingCents, on 22 December 2011 - 07:26 PM, said:

And on that same note, WHO turns it into fertalizer?  is the home-ownere required to get the stool out and make the fertilizer?  Where is the fertilzer used...

I'm all for going green, but human excrement in my garden... YUCK

Yes indeed who would? I guess that would take a long while to get used to the idea.

I grew up next to a farm where you could smell the cows, so the idea of animal manure doesn't phase me, but I'm in agreement with handling my own (or need I say some other persons) waste. I'm sure though, where there's a will, there's a way - someone will come up with a plan to figure that out.

[SpiroFlo]

makeitmom, on 23 December 2011 - 05:03 AM, said:

Yes indeed who would? I guess that would take a long while to get used to the idea.

I grew up next to a farm where you could smell the cows, so the idea of animal manure doesn't phase me, but I'm in agreement with handling my own (or need I say some other persons) waste. I'm sure though, where there's a will, there's a way - someone will come up with a plan to figure that out.

You're familiar with biosolids (treated solids from wastewater), right? There's a lot of hate on them, and, of course, with any heated issue, a lot of conflicting information (about how effective treatment is, their acceptability for land use, how long it takes for pathogens to grow back, etc.).

There's a thread on altenergyshift about it, too: http://www.altenergy...iosolids-thread

There are some treatment processes that make biosolids a really dry pellet. Pro-biosolids groups like to show pics of bare hands lifting up these products, but for most people, there's still that yuck factor.

[Pushhyarag2000]

MakingCents, on 18 December 2011 - 06:25 PM, said:

So where is the stool stored?  Does it go underground somewhere where it's stored, or is it stored in your bathroom.  I don't think too many people (myself included) would be interested in having everyone's stool stored in their bathrooms for several days. No matter how green it was

In many small towns in India, as it possibly would be in many other Afro-Asian nations, where there's no sewer pipes and sewage treatment plants, people build only such toilets which are connected to large underground pits in th backyard that are called soak pits or septic tanks. The excretion, with pour flesh is drained out into those soak pits big enough in size to collect for long days. It doesn't produce foul smell as I know. And over time, the whole thing turns into sludge, which people pay to get turned over. I'm not sure those that remove actually take it for manure.

With sanitation projects requiring huge capital outlay and customers refusing to pay for service, many small municipalities don't undertake sanitation projects at all. People in such small towns have no better option than making these septic tanks in their backyard. as I mentioned.

The UNDP had formulated Millennium Development Goals for terminal year 2015 covering certain minimum water & sanitation targets. Haven't checked in recent times where & what is the achievement so far. Low cost sanitation options certainly can help sustainable achievement of MDGs

[MakingCents]

There are some places in the US that use septic tanks as well.  I'm still not such a fan of them.  I understand their use and necessity but I just draw the line sometimes when it comes to human waste.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

http://en.wikipedia....mposting_toilet
http://www.letsgogre...ilets-work.html
http://tlc.howstuffw...ting-toilet.htm

[Pushhyarag2000]

Large scale sewerage systems, apart from requiring huge capital outlays which many small countries and the municipal authroities within them find completely unssutainable, the land area requirement for sewage treatment plants is huge and is always a controversial issue. very one wants good hygienic sewerage treatment but there is this Not In My Backyard [NIMBY] syndrome because of which securing land required for plants is a huge challenge. In such situations, the use of home composting chambers of the kind demonstrtaed in Shortpoet GTD's post above seem good alternatives, if economical for the communities. In fact, individual sewer treatment plants like those if used reuce the pressure on large scale treatment plants.

[greenking]

Never seen this before... Amazing!!!