New SOIL EcoSan Toilet Models Being Tested
The world of composting toilets is full of different models and technologies. At SOIL we strive to design toilet models that are desirable to the users and affordably constructed entirely from locally-available materials. Almost all SOIL toilets use urine diversion (also known as UD) funnels which separate the pee and poo through a specially designed toilet seat (see photos below, and related links following this post). Urine diversion technologies benefit both the toilet users (by preventing smells and flies) and SOIL (by reducing the weight of the toilet buckets that need to be removed from communities for safe treatment at one of SOIL’s decentralized composting facilities).
Currently our Cap-Haitien office is producing two different urine diversion toilet models: a concrete model and a wood model. The difference between the two toilets is in price, convenience, and durability under different conditions. The concrete model is cheaper to mass-produce and resistant to water damage but also heavier, less attractive, and can break when dropped. The wood model is lighter (which enables it to be moved out of the way at night in small homes) and better looking. But the wood model it is also more expensive and more vulnerable to wet conditions such as heavy rains and flooding.
Both toilet models are beginning to be offered to SOIL customers around the Cap-Haitien area of Northern Haiti, and we plan to continue refining our designs with their feedback overtime. As SOIL’s toilet services continue to expand we expect economies of scale to help us reduce the per toilet costs of building toilets and we plan to pass these savings on to our beneficiaries. In the long-run we believe that sustainable social businesses will be able to use SOIL’s toilet technology designs and service delivery models to affordably provide EcoSan toilet services through Haiti… and maybe the world.
Thank you for your support in this exciting project!
Toilet Photos
[slickr-flickr search=”sets” set=”72157635384142190″ items=”20″]Related Links
Check out the videos and articles of our tech process as we continue our exciting and ongoing search for the perfect EcoSan toilet!
- How Does SOIL Make Its Toilet Seats? With a Vacuum Cleaner, a Stove Top Burner and a Roll of Aluminum Foil
- Theo Talks Episode 12: Making UD Toilet Seats
- The 11 Steps to Using a Urine Diversion Toilet
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