Pee-Cycling: Green Toilet Idea From Olde Europe
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 01.13.07
As we've already posted on poo-cycling today, might as well take in the whole excretory panorama. According to an article in New Scientist:- "Despite making up only 1 per cent of the volume of waste water, urine contributes about 80 per cent of the nitrogen and 45 per cent of all the phosphate. Peeing into the pan immediately dilutes these chemicals with vast quantities of water, making the removal process unnecessarily inefficient". That's certainly true. But there's a "downside" to the design solution being presented. Young tree hugger males will have to sit on the pot to do their "pee-cycling" .
From New Scientist: "...how do you stop pee from getting into sewage in the first place? The answer is to install a special WC called a "urine-separation toilet" or often just a NoMix, after one of the leading brands".
"On casual inspection a NoMix toilet looks pretty much like a normal one. But peer into the bowl and you'll see that there are two waste pipes - a small front one and a larger rear one. The front one collects urine and diverts it into a storage tank (sometimes aided by a tiny trickle of water) to await its fate. The rear works like a standard flush toilet..."The toilet is constructed in a way that if a man or woman sits on the toilet most of the urine is collected," says Bjartur Swart of engineering firm Grontmij in Drachten, the Netherlands, which is conducting urine separation trials across the country".
Were these sold in the US without proper market preparation, there could be substantial risk of it becoming a political "wedge issue". Cable news and talk show hosts could skip the annual 'war against Christmas' stuff and move on to the feindish plot by "greenies" that is threatening American virility. The peventive solution, we think, lies in good old American marketing magic.
Because, "...Sweden is now the urine-separation centre of the western world, with around 3000 NoMix toilets in use," the manufacturer of units made for US sales could take inspiration from the prow of a Viking ship, reshaping the NoMix back and bowl to achieve a Viking look. Very masculine. The ad script for US rollout goes like this:
A Swedish hunk, in Viking costume, is shown watching TV with his significant other. At the right juncture, he excuses himself from her company, heading toward the water closet while saying 'I gotta take a ship.' His wife/girlfriend looks up at the camera and says 'no one knows where the journey takes him.' "Greenland" comes the reply from behind closed door.
Image credit: this site.
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Geoengineering Redux: Fertilizing Trees with Nitrogen to Fight Climate Change
- GreenBuild: I Have Seen the Future and it Flushes
- GreenBuild: Gray Water Goes Under the Counter
- World Toilet Day
Before any marketing magic, a common sense idea would be to attach a small urinal whose pipe is diverted to the same storage tank. So the young treehugger males will simply not change their habits. I am curios to see if all these experiments take into consideration the urinals (100% urine genrators), which are a common feature in public places. The article in New scientist doesn't mention them.
"So what to do with the urine? The answer is, recycle it indirectly - in other words, extract the nutrients and turn them into fertiliser. In the Netherlands, Grontmij trucks the stored urine to a special treatment plant where the phosphate is precipitated out as a mineral called struvite (ammonium magnesium phosphate). This is a useful fertiliser and can help reduce demand for mined phosphate, which can only be a good thing: phosphate rocks are often contaminated with heavy metals, and mining and refining them generates waste and uses lots of energy." Nitrogen and also be recycled from urine.
"Next time you need to take a leak, give the bathroom a miss and head straight for the flower beds. "
The NewScientist article mentions the above important points to make sense of this issue. If you are so worried about standing while peeling, why not install a urinal or pee outside?
What's the issue with sitting? I'll say it to the world:
I'M A MAN! I SIT WHEN I PEE!
Real men sit down to pee, period.
It doesn't make a mess, it's far more relaxing (what's the rush?), and best of all it more completely empties the bladder, making for less chance of funky infections in old age which, well, may result in being swaddled in diapers once again.
Men out there: SIT DOWN WHEN YOU PEE AT YOUR HOME. It's clean, right? If you live with a woman, show her this respect. If you live alone or with other guys, well, I'm sorry.
What I'm wondering is this - why are we North Americans so resistant to change in this department? We cling emotionally to the basic porcelain pan. It seems to me that, in essence and from the user's standpoint (as it were), toilets have changed very little since the days of chamber pots and privies. Oh, sure, we've added the flush of water and a little design tweaking for improved cyclonic action... but that's such small stuff, compared with asking a manly man to sit down to pee...
==== author's response follows ====
Perhaps Freud had that one figured. That, or the design just is as good as it gets.
I have a urine-separation toilet designed for compost toilet use - which means it has no water-flushing for either the piss or crap. The urine is collected in a bucket which I empty out weekly and then pour it onto the trees on my property. I think it much easier to simply use the urine directly on trees than to try to separate the useful elements to make it into more concentrated fertilizer. Collect it locally and use it locally. Instead of a guy pissing on a tree, he pisses into a toilet that collects in a bucket and then he pours the piss onto those same trees he would have pissed on standing up. Of course, it is simpler to just piss on the trees - which is exactly what I do when I am outside. Why go inside to take a leak when I have plenty of trees to choose from. Of course, if you live in an apartment in the city center, these comments aren't aplicable. But if you have a yard with some trees and bushes, then they do.
As for peeing into a toilet sitting down, I do not consider it a problem. As one poster mentioned, it is much cleaner and more pleasant. And I don't see it a less 'manly' - and neither does my wife. Oh, and I am half-American; not all Americans are averse to change.
There's tons of urine diversion going in the United States. Why look to Europe?
See my book, Liquid Gold: The Lore & Logic of Using Urine to Grow Plants
http://www.liquidgoldbook.com
and:
http://www.ecovita.net
and don't forget Pee On Earth Day, June 21!
The simplest solution for males who desire to pee standing up is to use a gardener's privy: a 5 gallon plastic bucket with sawdust in it, which will "fix" the nitrogen in your urine and keep it from smelling bad. When the bucket is full, simply use the urine and sawdust mix to fertilize your garden! I have done this on food crops for my own table, such as carrots and corn, but if you live in a communal situation where there are potentially unhealthy individuals, restrict the fertilizer application to perennials such as trees and shrubs.
Oh wot a kultural world - only in the (white) West do males urinate standing up. Almost everywhere else they squat.
I had to laugh when our bible was Dr Spock, on potty training, which devoted half a page to 'problem' of the boy learning to stand up to pee later in life. Such unnecessary convolutions by the otherwise clear sighted Doctor Expert.
A group has been started that is trying to get people to pee outside on a regular basis. I was one of the first to sign up!
www.peeoutside.org
A group has been started that is trying to get people to pee outside on a regular basis. I was one of the first to sign up!
www.peeoutside.org
As the market crashes, and your grasp on the reality of this strengthens, you may come to realize, that a simple tip like peeing on your garden may save your life in the tragic years to come. The coming depression will be deeper than ever before. Our life styles are very very far from the self-reliant lifestyles of the people of the 1929 crash. It is too late to run for the hills, the party is over!