Research project
Open-design NoMix toilets
Together with EOOS NEXT, a social entreprise based in Vienna, we co-create appropriate front-end and backend solutions for off-grid (non-sewered) circular sanitation with a focus on low-resource area and urine recovery for fertilizer production.
More than 35% of the world‘s population lack access to safe sanitation. The vision of this project is to empower local craftsmen around the world to integrate EOOS Social Design’s ‘URINE TRAP’, a passive urine separation technology, into toilets that can be produced locally and integrated into already existing toilet slabs (see also https://urinetrap.com/).
The urine trap is commercially availbe in the SAVE! Toilet which is only affordable and accessible to a privileged part of the society which is connected to a sewer system.But urine diversion toilets have a high potential in low-resource areas, for instance in remote areas to produce fertiliser locally and to reduce the volume of hazardouse feacal sludge, the mixture of human excreta and urine. To make the Urine Trap accessible and affordable for these contexts, EOOS NEXT has developed the EOOS NEXT Open Design Mould. The ODM allows to produce urine diversion squatting toilet pans locally using a do-it-yourself template, a metal sheet, and concrete. We work with EOOS NEXT and Eawag to further develop the design and test it in different context for upscaling.
Funding:
Private foundations
Partner:
Team:
Dr. Dorothee Spuhler
UMTEC Institut für Umwelt- und VerfahrenstechnikProjektleiterin, Dozierende globale Zusammenarbeit, Wasser & Abwasser
+41 58 257 17 11dorothee.spuhler@ost.ch