Urinals are popular urine collection devices mainly used by men to relieve themselves.
Most urinals are built to use water to dispose of the urine but in recent times waterless urinals are becoming more commonplace.
The same goes for commercial waterless toilets that have been built to reduce ecological footprints by consuming little to no water in the disposal of wastes.
The commercial waterless toilets and urinals are set to change the urban landscape.
This is because their installation, maintenance, and use bring a huge reprieve from the conventional water toilets known to have a negative impact on the environment.
In this article, we’ll look into ways through which these waterless trends are changing the disposal of wastes in the urban areas.
1. Commercial Waterless Toilets
Waterless toilets come in different designs and are of various types. The commercial waterless toilets are set to change the urban place by using different waterless technologies in the disposal of human wastes.
Some of the technologies include:
- Incineration
- Composting
- Vaporization of poop
- Nanotechnology
The waterless toilets are fast changing how human wastes are disposed, especially in terms of recycling and reusing such sterilized wastes and other byproducts.
For instance, composting toilets decompose human waste into compost using anaerobic bacteria. The compost can then be treated on-site and used for urban farming.
Nanotechnology works by separating fluid wastes from the solid refuse before vaporizing the liquid and further condensing it back to water and treating it for use in the urban household.
Further, the dry residue after poop has been vaporized can be sanitized and used on urban gardens as fertilizer.
The different commercial toilets have numerous benefits but they have their limitations as well.
Pros and Cons of Waterless Toilets
The Benefits
- Reduced Utility Bills
The green toilets save on water allowing urban households to use the scarce resource for other needs, not waste disposal.
Urban families are able to reduce their water utilities using the waterless facilities.
- Cheaper to Install
The waterless toilets are easy to install and maintain. They do not require complex plumbing works and sewerage systems associated with conventional flush toilets found in the urban landscape.
For urban households, this goes a long way in their waste disposal preferences since the waterless toilets significantly cut back on installation and disposal costs.
- Save Space
With the population of the urban landscape quickly multiplying, there is limited space available for a single household.
This means that the space available to install sewerage systems is also limited and more and more people are seeking ways of maximizing what is available.
Waterless toilets do not require huge tracts of land to install.
In fact, there are several waterless toilet designs that allow you to custom-make your commode to your needs. This makes it possible to install a toilet facility in the little space available.
The Limitations
Despite the numerous benefits of commercial waterless toilets, the facilities have their downside.
- Maintenance Costs
The waterless toilets require thorough maintenance practices failure to which the facilities can be a potential health hazard.
The waterless toilets are also prone to bad smells when the wastes are being disposed of using the various waterless technologies.
Click here for some tips on how to keep waterless toilets clean.
- Expensive Fixtures and Equipment
Some of the waterless technologies can be quite costly to set up. Incineration of wastes, for example, requires the installation of an incinerating chamber that does not come cheap.
A composting toilet, on the other hand, requires a composting chamber located either remotely or beneath the toilet.
This takes up a lot of space and might require the acquisition of more land for the process. This can be quite costly in the urban landscape.
Commercial Waterless Urinals
The increasing popularity of waterless urinals is due to the ease with which materials available locally can be accessed and used to build and repair them.
As the name suggests, the waterless urinals do not make use of a constant water supply to flush.
In fact, as opposed to the conventional flush urinals, the waterless urinals help in saving gallons of water that would ordinarily wash down the drain to clean off urine from the devices.
Benefits of Waterless Urinals
- The commercial ecofriendly urinal doesn’t require skilled personnel to operate. It is not costly to build, making the capital and costs of operation affordable to locals.
- Normally, most people cringe at the mention of a waterless urinal as they can’t imagine the stench that would emanate from such a facility. Such concerns are valid but you will be surprised that the waterless urinals, if well maintained, produce less odor compared to the flush urinals. This means emphasis should be placed on how to clean a commercial toilet.
This is because the lack of water prevents the formation of urine cakes that are the cause of foul smelling urinals.
- The use of waterless urinals helps in saving water that can be used in other activities.
Some urban centers face challenges accessing the scarce resource and the waterless urinals are a good way of saving water for other purposes for which water is a necessity.
- The urine collected from the waterless toilet is concentrated and pure since it is not diluted with water. This makes it suitable for sterilization after which it can be applied in urban cultivation or agriculture as fertilizer. The treated urine can be reused in farms and can be utilized in anaerobic treatment contributing to closed loop economy.
- The separate collection of urine prevents it from mixing with water and reduces the possibility of the waste sipping into aquifers. Any surface water is protected from collected urine and is safe from contamination that may arise from pharmaceuticals and nutrients.
The Downside of Waterless Urinals
1. If not properly maintained, the waterless urinals can be a real health hazard. Further, the facility can pose challenges with foul smells if it is not well maintained.
2. The urine collected and reused from waterless urinals are a potential cause of pollution, if used as fertilizer without proper treatment. This would result in building microbial blocks that are harmful and not recommended.
3. Urinal models are predominantly male. The availability of women models is limited making it widely inaccessible for female use.
However, there are a number of commercial waterless urinal models available for all users.
Installing waterless urinals
The suitability of the type of waterless urinal to be installed in a particular location will depend on a number of factors.
These include the laws and regulations governing waste disposal and treatment in the urban area, the number of users of a facility, the capacity of the urinal, its size, and the space available for installation.
For non-commercial use, the DIY urinal is available where locally available materials such as a jerry can, a plastic funnel, and an old light bulb are used to build the facility.
The main use of the light bulb is to keep the bad stench in the jerry can.
Final Thoughts
The ecofriendly lifestyle is a trend that is fast catching up in today’s world as more and more people seek ways of reducing the negative impact on the environment and saving planet earth.
There are numerous ways through which you can play a role in saving Mother Nature.
Your actions are set to change the urban landscape.
Go green!
