Sustainablewashrooms
Stuart Hands from Tork manufacturer Essity looks at ground-breaking ways toilets around the world are becoming more sustainable, and considers simple changes to save paper and reduce waste in public washrooms.
Most toilets have a negative impact on the environment. Fact. Vast volumes of water are required to flush the waste away, for example, while a great deal of paper is used in the form of toilet tissue and hand towels.
High levels of energy are needed to heat and light the facilities and to power any washroom hand dryers. Items such wet wipes and sanitary products are also often flushed away down the toilet, where they will go on to block sewers and pollute the oceans.
However, great strides are being made the world over to come up with more sustainable washroom solutions. These game-changing inventions use technology, ingenuity and creative design to save water, offset energy, and recycle waste products.
For example, a Norwegian company has created a toilet that is said to use only 10% of the water required by standard flush systems.
Jets Vacuum has teamed up with a design company to create a lavatory that incorporates a vacuum pump. Such toilets are commonly used on ocean vessels and on offshore platforms, but Jet Vacuum plans to enter the on-land market and supply sustainable toilets in global environments where water is scarce.
Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Stirling have come up with a toilet that may be connected to an anaerobic digester. This then converts human waste into biogas, which can be used as a clean cooking fuel, and fertiliser for use when growing crops.
40 | SUSTAINABILITY
Similar efforts to repurpose washroom waste are currently being made at a South Korean university. An eco-friendly toilet created in 2021 is offsetting energy bills and helping to grow plants on the university campus. A mechanism in the toilet pumps human waste into an underground tank where it’s broken down by microorganisms and turned into methane and manure. The fertiliser is then used in the university gardens, while the methane helps to power the facility’s ovens and boilers.
Earlier this year, Scottish start-up Carbogenics announced it was trialling a new eco-friendly method of dealing with the wet wipes, nappies, and sanitary items that are frequently flushed down toilets. The waste material is collected, roasted at high temperatures and turned into a charcoal-like substance which is then added back into the wastewater treatment process. This ‘biochar’ absorbs contaminants and stimulates microorganisms which are then said to efficiently purify the water.
Workers on a building site in the Swiss Alps are currently using what is believed to be the world’s first toilet to be made entirely fromplastic waste. The lavatory has been 3D printed by Spanish studio Nagami.
Such ground-breaking systems and ‘world firsts’ are inevitably grabbing the sustainable washroom headlines, but there are plenty of smaller, less dramatic changes being made below the radar that can also dramatically improve the sustainability of toilets.
For example, waterless urinals are becoming fairly commonplace in public facilities. Besides their water-saving
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