I’ve personally tried to make the mental shift to living in a spacecraft where energy supply is the principal challenge, units of energy become the basic unit of exchange and life support is a closed system.
excellent article Lloyd! Lots of history that I was unaware of. Another good read is "The Humanure Handbook" by Joseph Jenkins. He's kind of a modern day advocate for "night soils" He inspired me to build a portable outhouse with a "bucket" toilet on one of my remote jobsites. We still use it to this day on our Missouri farm, mainly as a backup to the chemical toilet the county requires for our events.
SHARC Energy Systems , Vancouver BC , has been recovering waste heat from sewage to heat urban water and heat and cool the buildings in a closed energy loop for over a decade. Its technology is so successful that natural gas use is eliminated 100% for heating condos. Bio sewage dried has an energy equivalent of charcoal brickettes, and is used for cooking and heating in areas that formerly denuded the land of forests.
This has been on our minds a lot, especially since we toured the Bullitt Center in Seattle last year. They began with composting toilets, which for several reasons, were not the best long term solution for such a building. So they switched to vacuum toilets, which are pretty impressive. Just wondering how we spread this to the masses...
I agree, I was excited to learn more about them, but I must say that the vacuum toilets are quite impressive and seem rather efficient. Your point is right on when you say that it is a cultural issue. Designing between the US and Europe means that we are constantly trying to bring better efficiencies to both places (though that predominantly means to the US), and bathrooms and bathroom culture is always a topic of conversation!
I'm glad I'm not alone on this issue driving me bonkers! We humans seem to be so good at turning a resource into a problem! One of the chapters in the book 'The World Without Us' was about an ancient city in Turkey that was dug out of soft volcanic stone. One of its features was hundreds of thousands of nesting spots that were dug out of the cliffs to attract pigeons as a source of protein and fertilizer. It really struck me how, in these modern times, we can only seem to think of pigeons annoying Sky Rats.....
Great post. I’ve thought about this for years, after reading Sim Van der Ryn’s little book, “The Toilet Papers: Designs to Recycle Human Waste and Water : Dry Toilets, Greywater Systems and Urban Sewage”. 20+ years ago, Baltimore was under a consent decree from the EPA for a $90 million project to reline and otherwise fix all of our leaking 100-year-old sewers. I thought the money would be better spent giving everyone composting toilets and setting up a utility to maintain them and collect the compost on a regular basis, just as trash collection happens.
For some reason, this reminds me of some of the toilets I've read about in Motorhome magazines in the 70s.
One, had a heating coil somewhere, and would turn the fecal matter into a powder.
Another had a somesort of a hookup to feed into the exhaust pipe, and would feed small amounts into the pipe as the vehicle was traveling, thereby getting rid of the waste water also. The heat of the pipe was suppose to either turn the fecal matter into waste or, sterilize it (I can't remember which).
They may have been the same system. All I know is, the were designed to eliminate emptying the holding tank so that motorhomeing would be more enjoyable.
However it goes without saying that I can't wait to read next weeks article.
Please share the results! I am trying/dreaming of building a small development in Ireland - I can sort out the upfront carbon, the heating, the electricity, the landscaping/re-wilding but I am absolutely flummoxed as to how to design the waste systems. I don't want to waste the water and I don't want to waste the waste. I also don't want to build a bunch of concrete underground pits to try and sort things/ have them accessible to withdraw the liquids or solids. So if you gents need some direction in your rethinking of first principles then what is the best alternative to a toilet and a septic tank? Best of luck!
Please research SHARC Energy Systems. Ca for recycling building waste heat. The False Creek Energy District has been heating and cooling itself for over 12 years. The Metro Vancouver project is so successful that it has expanded to 4 more energy districts inVancover B C . New York State has mandated the recycling of heat waste from all buildings. A Burnaby condo 200% replaced it’s use of natural gas with waste heat recycling. Dishwashers, showers use copious amounts of hot water, integrated that waste water into flush toilets would be more efficient that loosing all that heat down the drain into sewers.
I’ve personally tried to make the mental shift to living in a spacecraft where energy supply is the principal challenge, units of energy become the basic unit of exchange and life support is a closed system.
Superb
excellent article Lloyd! Lots of history that I was unaware of. Another good read is "The Humanure Handbook" by Joseph Jenkins. He's kind of a modern day advocate for "night soils" He inspired me to build a portable outhouse with a "bucket" toilet on one of my remote jobsites. We still use it to this day on our Missouri farm, mainly as a backup to the chemical toilet the county requires for our events.
SHARC Energy Systems , Vancouver BC , has been recovering waste heat from sewage to heat urban water and heat and cool the buildings in a closed energy loop for over a decade. Its technology is so successful that natural gas use is eliminated 100% for heating condos. Bio sewage dried has an energy equivalent of charcoal brickettes, and is used for cooking and heating in areas that formerly denuded the land of forests.
This has been on our minds a lot, especially since we toured the Bullitt Center in Seattle last year. They began with composting toilets, which for several reasons, were not the best long term solution for such a building. So they switched to vacuum toilets, which are pretty impressive. Just wondering how we spread this to the masses...
I also visited the Bullitt Center (and used the sweetest smelling toilets anywhere, as they suck air downwards) I was saddened to see them ripped out; I conclude in my post here that the problem was more cultural than it was functional. https://www.treehugger.com/bullitt-center-removing-its-composting-toilets-5186499
I agree, I was excited to learn more about them, but I must say that the vacuum toilets are quite impressive and seem rather efficient. Your point is right on when you say that it is a cultural issue. Designing between the US and Europe means that we are constantly trying to bring better efficiencies to both places (though that predominantly means to the US), and bathrooms and bathroom culture is always a topic of conversation!
"...before I end with the bathroom of the future."
This ought to be amusing...or should it be "just bemusing"?
I'm glad I'm not alone on this issue driving me bonkers! We humans seem to be so good at turning a resource into a problem! One of the chapters in the book 'The World Without Us' was about an ancient city in Turkey that was dug out of soft volcanic stone. One of its features was hundreds of thousands of nesting spots that were dug out of the cliffs to attract pigeons as a source of protein and fertilizer. It really struck me how, in these modern times, we can only seem to think of pigeons annoying Sky Rats.....
Great post. I’ve thought about this for years, after reading Sim Van der Ryn’s little book, “The Toilet Papers: Designs to Recycle Human Waste and Water : Dry Toilets, Greywater Systems and Urban Sewage”. 20+ years ago, Baltimore was under a consent decree from the EPA for a $90 million project to reline and otherwise fix all of our leaking 100-year-old sewers. I thought the money would be better spent giving everyone composting toilets and setting up a utility to maintain them and collect the compost on a regular basis, just as trash collection happens.
"...rich people had better diets and made better quality fertilizer."
I can't get over this sentence.
🙂
Dang you, you've done it again. Now I have to re-think another part of Canadian Life I thought was sorted.
For some reason, this reminds me of some of the toilets I've read about in Motorhome magazines in the 70s.
One, had a heating coil somewhere, and would turn the fecal matter into a powder.
Another had a somesort of a hookup to feed into the exhaust pipe, and would feed small amounts into the pipe as the vehicle was traveling, thereby getting rid of the waste water also. The heat of the pipe was suppose to either turn the fecal matter into waste or, sterilize it (I can't remember which).
They may have been the same system. All I know is, the were designed to eliminate emptying the holding tank so that motorhomeing would be more enjoyable.
However it goes without saying that I can't wait to read next weeks article.
Next week’s article won’t be such a big deal! But your motorhome solution of feeding it into the tailpipe is interesting.
And I thought, Lloyd, you didn't like "emissions" (snicker!)?
Perhaps that's why municipal gravel spreaders and snow ploughs carry signs to stay back 30 metres ...
Would you like compare notes on rethinking the future of the toilet from first principles?
sure, given that I have a week to think about it. lloydalter@me.com
Please share the results! I am trying/dreaming of building a small development in Ireland - I can sort out the upfront carbon, the heating, the electricity, the landscaping/re-wilding but I am absolutely flummoxed as to how to design the waste systems. I don't want to waste the water and I don't want to waste the waste. I also don't want to build a bunch of concrete underground pits to try and sort things/ have them accessible to withdraw the liquids or solids. So if you gents need some direction in your rethinking of first principles then what is the best alternative to a toilet and a septic tank? Best of luck!
Read the humanure handbook. Bucket toilets done properly are great. And they are really quite easy to do properly.
Please research SHARC Energy Systems. Ca for recycling building waste heat. The False Creek Energy District has been heating and cooling itself for over 12 years. The Metro Vancouver project is so successful that it has expanded to 4 more energy districts inVancover B C . New York State has mandated the recycling of heat waste from all buildings. A Burnaby condo 200% replaced it’s use of natural gas with waste heat recycling. Dishwashers, showers use copious amounts of hot water, integrated that waste water into flush toilets would be more efficient that loosing all that heat down the drain into sewers.
100%