Here come the toilets of the future

Here is a smelly question : why are we putting together what Nature separates ? This is the question asked by a Swedish researcher about toilets. Putting urine and feces together is not a good idea as it is simply a waste of resources.

Moreover, flushing with liters and liters of perfectly drinkable water is a bad idea as water scarcity is already striking around the world and will spread as climate gets warmer.

Now here come scientists from Singapore with an idea that could revolutionize the way we dispose from our bodily waste.

As Treehugger notes :

What the scientists from Nanyang Technological University are standing around is a urine separating toilet that uses a vacuum to evacuate it instead of water. All you get out of this is urine and poop, much like you do with the Swedish No-Mix toilets

(…) What matters is the whole system, what they do with it. The scientists at NTU have connected it to a vacuum system, like those used in airplanes or in the Roedigner No-Mix vacuum separating toilet.

(…) Vacuum toilets use a fraction of the water of conventional toilets, needing just enough to clean the bowl. Minimizing the use of water makes it easier to deal with the poop and pee at the other end.

(…) The urine goes to a processing facility where they convert it into fertilizers, like they do in Sweden.

The poop is sent to anaerobic reactor where it is digested to make methane, like they do in Boston, Vancouver, California and Uganda.

What do you think ?

2 thoughts on “Here come the toilets of the future”

  1. the way we dispose of our bodily waste reflects the wasteful trends we adopt along a careless path…our society is not yet ready to assimilate the idea of input = outcome = natural matter.
    if we respect that which we consume, then we may arrive at solutions to dispose of the used product..be it solid or liquid..
    the different waste disposal techniques invented over time demonstrate the mindsets of people in all the sanitary issues.
    the sooner we fully accept our natural metabolic condition, the sooner we will allow the improvement of the end by-product use in energy production.
    7 billion people doing the same thing every day; that’s the great equalizer..a rich opportunity!

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