The Poop and Pee Revolution: Ecological Toilets for Everyone!

Excerpted from The Poop and Pee Revolution in Dam Nation: Dispatches from the Water Underground.

Why disconnect from the sewer system?

Think cities without sewers spell a return to the dark days of disease-breeding cesspits and polluting pit latrines? Not necessarily. Traditional Yemeni apartment buildings collect feces, which are dried and burned as fuel; earthen closets in nineteenth century London safely processed feces to remove pathogens and create fertilizer.

Societies on all continents have used natural waste treatment methods for millennia. Currently, ecological sanitation is blooming. Hundreds of thousands of composting and dry toilets in North Vietnam, Mexico, Central America, China, and Africa are used every day. Though many ecological sanitation projects take place in rural areas, their growing acceptance in urban centers heralds a day when civilization will produce neither sewage nor sludge.

Much progress has been made by China, long familiar with the collection of night soil for fertilizer, to standardize urban ecological sanitation systems and apply ecological sanitation principles on a large scale. In drought-ridden northern China, 1,500 new dwellings are being built with modern urine-diverting toilets and constructed wetlands to treat household greywater from the kitchen and bath. The urine and sterilized feces as well as kitchen compost will be collected from each home and processed in an ecostation, much the same way garbage and recycling are collected in parts of the United States. Large-scale ecological sanitation based on this model could be integrated into any urban environment.

Reputable research in urban and rural settings worldwide has shown that human excreta can be collected simply and inexpensively, can be processed to remove harmful pathogens, and can then be put to use as nutrient-rich fertilizer. In the process, ecological sanitation can reconnect us to human waste as a valuable resource. Through nutrient cycles, we are intrinsically and symbiotically connected to plants: we eat plant foods, and plants turn the nutrients we excrete back into food. This is known as a closed loop system. In the industrial world, most such natural cycles have long been broken. Ecological sanitation closes the loop.

Though flush and forget zones have on the whole banished diseases transmitted by feces, they instill what I will call faecophobia fear of feces in people who live in them. The first goal of ecological sanitation systems is to contain and process human feces in a way that kills any disease-causing organisms it may carry. Dry and composting toilets can fill this role. Natural decomposition processes create an environment inhospitable to pathogens without need of synthetic chemicals or water waste. The end product is nutrient-rich humus for use in farms and gardens.

On a broader scale, ecological sanitation manages sewage by drastically reducing water consumption through conservation, rainwater catchment, and on-site greywater and stormwater recycling. Ecological toilets give eating and pooping a new importance. To take care of our bodies and their functions we no longer need to harm the earth. Instead of participating in a system that wastes precious resources, we can be making rich humus and fertilizer each day. We can live our lives knowing that we contribute valuable nutrients to the earth, that we use them in our yards and community gardens and help plants grow.

Using Urine to Fertilize Your Plants

Collecting urine, that magical yellow liquid we excrete from our bodies several times a day, is a key step in recycling human nutrients. Urine contains most of the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium we release. These nutrients are the major components of chemical fertilizers, and urine is an amazing plant fertilizer! It is typically sterile, and, if separated from feces, can be easily and safely reused. Urine collection can be as simple as peeing in a jar or installing a urinal or urine-diverting dry or composting toilet. Although female urinals haven't caught on yet, there are some designs and models available.

The urine your own household produces is safe to use without treatment. To collect urine in your house all you need is a two-to-five gallon jug or bucket. It must be fitted with a tight cover to prevent oxygen from turning the urine's nitrogen into ammonia, which smells bad and causes some nitrogen loss.

Though urine is usually sterile, it can become contaminated if it comes into contact with feces. There are also a few diseases that can be transmitted through urine: leptospirosis and schistosomiasis (bilharzia), which are found almost exclusively in tropical aquatic environments; and typhoid, which is inactivated shortly after excretion. If urine has been contaminated with feces, or if it came from strangers who may carry these diseases, urine should be purified before it is used.

Urine is easy to purify -- all you have to do is wait. Urine leaves the body fairly acidic and then the pH increases rapidly until pathogens are unable to survive. This process takes from fifteen days in warmer Mexico to over three months in the chilly Scandinavian winter.

How to use urine:

• Dilute it--one part urine to three to six parts water--and pour it into the soil around your plants. Don't use on young seedlings, and water alternately with rainwater or city water to flush salts from the soil, or apply urine before a rain.
• Compost it! Pour urine (rich in nitrogen) onto sawdust, leaves, or other carbon-rich materials and let it rot.
• Add it to your greywater system or constructed wetland. Phosphate-rich greywater mixed with nitrate-rich urine is a balanced liquid fertilizer for wetland, food, or ornamental plants.
• Divert it to a leach pit away from natural waterways or drinking water wells.
• Ferment it! Paco Arroyo recommends adding a handful of compost per liter of purified urine and letting it sit uncovered for 1 month, and applying fermented urine at a rate of .5 liter per adult plant per week.

Large Scale Urine Fertilization Projects

In Sweden, researchers from the EcoSanRes Programme, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, have experimented with collecting urine from apartment buildings and storing it in large underground tanks for six months. The miracle fertilizer is then pumped out into container trucks and delivered to nearby farms. The Swedish researchers, like Arroyo, have concluded that urine is a high-quality plant fertilizer.

The ecological sanitation organization Tepoz-Eco collects urine from schools, public bathrooms, and large outdoor events in the small mountain town of Tepoztlan, Mexico. They have created a portable men's urinal facility to set up at town fiestas. Collected urine is stored in a large tank and, after several weeks, used on a local farmer's fields. The municipal building of the town is also a large source of urine. Until recently, Tepoz-Eco collected between 50 and 100 liters of urine per week from the office. Unfortunately, this part of the project is temporarily on hold until the government, elected in 2004, is convinced of the benefits. Town officials may be slow to catch on, but the citizens of Tepoztlan, with their strong agricultural roots, have been very open to collecting and using urine.

The Arbor Loo, a simple composting toilet with a portable slab, seat, and shelter, is gaining popularity in Zimbabwe and throughout Africa. A shallow pit (three to five feet deep) is dug in the ground with a protective lining that prevents the pit from collapsing. Wood ash and soil are added after each use to help the decomposition process. When the pit is three quarters full, the slab and shelter are moved and mounted over another shallow pit. The full pit is topped off with six inches of soil, a young tree is planted over the contents, and the cycle is repeated. The benefit of this toilet is in promoting what EcoSan pioneer Peter Morgan calls sanitary orchards, ensuring the connection between sanitation and food security. Citrus, peach, mango, avocado, mulberry, guava, and paw paw (papaya) trees have all grown vigorously atop Arbor Loos.

China, long familiar with the collection of night soil for fertilizer, has begun to standardize urban ecological sanitation systems and apply ecological sanitation principles on a large scale. In the drought-ridden North, 1,500 new dwellings are being built with modern urine-diverting toilets and constructed wetlands to treat household greywater from the kitchen and bath. The urine and sterilized feces -- as well as kitchen compost -- will be collected from each home and processed in an ecostation, much the same way garbage and recycling are collected in parts of the United States. Large-scale ecological sanitation based on this model could be integrated into any urban environment.

How to construct a composting toilet -- our online plans and instructions.

Composting Humanure

Depending on your budget and how comfortable one is ignoring health and building codes, a composter of excreta has several options.

Manufactured composting toilets conform to building and health codes as well as the mainstream American aesthetic. Manufactured toilets can be a good option for people who can afford to spend a few thousand dollars to deal with their poop and who -- though they don't want to be involved in the handling process -- still desire to dispose of their sewage in a more ecological way. Small, self-contained composting toilets like the Sun-Mar or Biolet have a seat right on top of a compost container. These are designed for seasonal or cabin use and cannot handle the quantity of feces a household produces on a daily basis. Many people make the mistake of buying one because they are comparatively inexpensive and space-efficient. However, they function poorly if overloaded. If the feces is not composting fully, the material can still be removed and further composted elsewhere. Toilets such as the Separette collect the material in a small chamber, which then must be emptied outside into a larger composting container to finish the process.

The do-it-yourself ecological toilet is a perfect choice if you don't want to spend lots of money and you're not scared of breaking city, county, or state codes. Home-built toilets look very different from one another, but they all function on the same basic principles as the manufactured types. Feces are stored for a minimum of one year before being used as fertilizer.

For more greywater stories, plans, and information, read Dam Nation: Dispatches from the Water Underground.