Cloacina Development Blog » urinals

Portable Composting Toilets for Multi Day Events

molly — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 23:37:23 +0000

The Cloacina Project with design and implementation from PNCA’s graduate students in Collaborative Design created an open source hardware platform for toilets, urinals, hand sinks and privacy screens for portable low cost dry toilets. Recognizing that hardware is only half the problem the PNCA students addressed the user interface by creating a training protocol, help line using GroupMe and signage to assure the safe and hygienic conditions for the users.

The toilets: The toilets use one 55 gallon drum cut in to two pieces to act as the throne that shields the 15 gallon collection drum underneath the toilet seat and the cut off piece acts as a step up to the throne. Materials required include a 55 gallon plastic drum, a 15 gallon drum (fiber or plastic), nuts, bolts and metal brackets. The total cost were $43/toilet. This includes the price of buying hazardous material certified plastic liners because we chose fiber drums as our collection vessel. We paid $8 to 10 per 55 gallon drum. After a user uses the toilet they are encouraged to put a scoop or two of coffee hulls on top of their deposit. Our motto was ”if you can see it, we can smell it.”

The urinals: The urinal design was not as elegant as the toilet design though proved functional during the convergence. The urinal is a simple funnel mounted to a privacy screen made from a cut up 55 gallon drum and costs $47 per unit. For odor control their is a ping pong ball in the base of the funnel that allows urine to flow in but seals the pipe into the urine barrel when not in use (>see DIY urinal explanation).

The hand sink: The hand sink is a modification of a Finish design called the “andy handy” and cost less than $6 per unit.

The privacy screen was designed by Dave Laubenthal and Morgan O’hara and implemented with help from the across the Collaborative Design MFA program. Each structure was made from lashing bamboo with zipties. The structure included one stall for a urinal, two for Step Up toilets and one stall with a Sit Down toilet and a hand sink. A hand sink hung outside each station.

Basic Design Principles
Our goal was to design a private portable composting restroom that would:
collection method
-have no offensive odors
-commode can support users and provide solid connection to the floor
-connects commode directly to composting chamber
-prevents user contact with human wastes during normal operation and failure
-free of corrosive parts, rough or sharp edges, or other hazards which could cause injury to persons adjusting, servicing or using device.
-all access ports are sealed to prevent the infiltration of pests
-be acceptable to users

compost chamber
-prevents infiltration of rainwater and groundwater
-watertight
-provides adequate access for regular service and removal of humus

Opening May 21 at AT1 Projects, LA

Mathew — Fri, 21 May 2010 02:28:02 +0000

Things have been quiet here on our blog, because we’ve been preparing an exhibition. An essay/text and prototypes of ours will be featured in the Super/Prime Pavilion at Volume, AT1 Projects opening show. Super/Prime is curating a collection of works about transformations in process. We’re excited, but won’t be able to make the opening. If you’re around 3229 Casitas Ave, LA 6-10pm, stop in.

Others in the Super/Prime Pavilion:

Harry Gassel, Brendan Griffiths & Mylinh Nguyen, Riley Hooker, Gary Kachadourian, Brian Randolph, Steven Sarkozy, and Stacia Yeapanis

Towards ubiquitous public urinals

Mathew — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:13:32 +0000

We got started on waterless urinal development through talking to Carol McCreary of PHLUSH at Recode’s Greywater celebration and revised our plans through discussions with Carol, Jeff, Barbara, and everyone in PHLUSH.

I gave a talk on this subject over at Research Club Sunday, 4/10 at the Tribute Gallery. Special thanks to Tribute director Brian Wilson for his hospitality when we showed up unannounced with a home-made urinal.

From our research talking to portable toilet companies, 9 out of 10 visits to public restrooms are for urination only. We think there is a great need for gender-neutral urinals designed for easy and comfortable use, and a cultural shift towards making urinals acceptable for women. Urine is a much easier product to handle and clean of pathogens than feces, or urine and feces together.
Urinals can solve two problems: gender equality in bathroom access, and the often disgusting toilet seats that women have to sit down on in portable toilets.

Make your own

We have designed a very simple $8 gender-neutral urinal for our house. The urinal is nice because we used to have a “let it mellow” policy for our toilet, but that system carries an odor. With our simple urinal we have no smell in the bathroom, but it does need to be emptied every 3-7 days (four people use it, holds about 40 “events” + a small wash of water). Our inspirations were the Little John, Lady “J”, Urifemme, and the ubiquity of 5-gallon buckets.

Urinal Design Issues, Patterns
Our urinal uses a standard automotive funnel (NAPA part#BK8215212) that conformed fairly well to our design pattern. The primary problems we want to mitigate are back-splash from the urinal and misses.

Amongst male urinals, I prefer “scoop” urinals. Upright privacy urinals with walled sides have, I think, an unacceptable amount of back-splash. They trade functionality for an infantile male desire for privacy. Design at its worst: playing to insecurity and then punishing the user with poor performance. The scoop urinals are also similar in shape to female urinals (more info and images here and here)- both function well because the walls of the urinal meet a stream of urine at an obtuse angle to direct rather than reflect the flow. [[[I'm not using a public urinal unless it's in a stall -Molly]]]

While our urinal presents a small target, it is a close and approachable target because it does not splash back. For male users, a standard toilet is a 10″ x 12″ oval target roughly 18-20″ away, whereas our urinal is a 5″ circle 4-6″ away. Although an unfamiliar configuration, it is actually an easier target.

For female use our NAPA funnel is the best pre-made funnel we could find but not the ideal shape. A long oval with a curved top would be best (see illustration), like the Lady J with a more obtuse angle. We’re considering vacuum forming our own, but are not yet ready to invest in the equipment and mold-making.

Right now toilet paper goes in our flush toilet. We’re thinking that a foot-peddle-type trashcan would work best, possibly with a cover material like sawdust.

Urine Diversion: risks & mitigation
Our urinal is a collection system because we are excited about the possiblities of land application/ fertilization. healthy adults have sterile urine and urine contains high-value fertilizers.

Although a low risk, urine can still contain pathogens such as hepatitis A & B, CMV, JCV and BKV (flu-like viruses), albeit at low levels with a low risk of infection*. It appears that urine retention can kill most of these pathogens through pH changes, but hepatitis is very environmentally persistent.

So we’re investigating a point-of-collection sterilization system based on UC Berkeley designs for the UV-Tube, a simple UV-C sterilizer tested in fluorescent and LED Models. Such a system would make urine a non-pathogenic material, drastically simplifying handling and the deployment of public urinals.

Alternatively (or additionally) urine is a perfect nitrogen source for jump-starting compost, and mixtures of carbonaceous material (sawdust, paper, etc.) and urine are very fast to decompose.our research indicates that 3lbs of urine can be soaked in to 1lb of sawdust (along with some additional water)**. High temperature composting can sterilize urine, and appropriately configured with a bio-filter, capture all nutrients.

*WHO: Urine Diversion: hygienic risks and microbial guidelines. Schönning, Caroline. Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI): 2001.

**statistics from Integral Urban House Book, page 214

Other great sources and design guidelines

Urine diversion components: Overview of urine diversion components such as waterless urinals, urine diversion toilets, urine storage and reuse systems. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GTZ), Sustainable sanitation – ecosan program, December 2009.