Un Nuevo Modelo de Urinario Sin Agua / A New Model of Waterless Urinal

(Scroll down for English.)

Necesitamos orinar mucho más de lo que hacemos popó (en especial cuando estamos en planteles educativos y lugares de trabajo), entonces es clave en el EcoSan armar Urinarios Sin Agua que sean eficaces, libres de olores y económicos. Ahora quisiera compartir con ustedes un modelo que recién inventé, que es de casi puro material reciclado, aparte de un embudo de 2 dólares.

(1) Calienta en el fuego un extremo de una manguera negra de polietileno de media pulgada e inserta el pico del embudo (de 18 cm de diámetro). Se conectan firmemente, sin necesidad de pegamento. 
(2) Con una sierra, corta el otro extremo, en sesgo, a una longitud que alcance el fondo de la caneca.
(3) Con un cuchillo, corta un tapón para la caneca de una vieja sandalia tipo 'croc', en la parte gruesa cerca del talón, incluyendo unos centímetros de la parte que abraza el pie. Asegura que sea suficientemente grande para que entre apretado, al empujar un borde debajo del labio de la caneca.

(4) Con una navaja, corta un hueco en forma de rombo (de unos 1.5 cm), al lado de la parte que abraza el pie. Coloca la manguera en este hueco.
(5) Corta un cuadrado (de 4 cm) de la parte plana de una botella desechable de plástico tipo PET. Enróllalo para formar un tubo (7 mm de diámetro) e introdúzcalo en un hueco que se hace en el tapón con un gran clavo caliente.

(6) Haz un filtro del aire con tierra fértil, de dos botellas PET (de unos 400 ml), que la una entra justo en la otra. Llena las botellas cortadas y unidas de 7 cm de tierra, con un material fibroso (como cáscara de arroz) y mallas plásticas en ambos extremos.

(7) Corta un hueco redondo de 7 mm en la tapa de una botella, para poder colocarla encima del tubo de PET, y amarra el otro cuello de botella al filo del embudo.


¿Por qué no apesta?
(1) La manguera va hasta el fondo, por lo tanto los vapores de amoniaco que acumulan en la parte superior de la caneca no pueden salir por el embudo.
(2) Cuando la persona orina, el mismo volumen de aire con malos olores tiene que salir, pero se limpia durante su paso a través de la tierra.

Es fácil para los hombres usar, pero ¿qué pasa con las mujeres? También.
-- Algunas mujeres dicen que pueden orinar fácilmente en este urinario.
-- La mayoría de las mujeres preferirían hacer cuclillas completamente y se preocuparían de los microbios, entonces cada una puede tener su propia recipiente vacía de yogur o helado, orinar allí, verterlo en el urinario, enjuagarlo con agua, botar esa agua en el suelo de jardines o maceteros, colocar su tapa y guardarlo hasta la siguiente urgencia de devolver a la naturaleza.


La orina puede quedar en el urinario el tiempo que quiera, sin malos olores, y luego se le puede usar para fertilizar las plantas. Recuerda a diluirla con 3 o más veces más agua y regarla en el suelo (no en las hojas), en especial si las plantas están todavía delicadas y recién estabilizándose. Si no se ha sembrado el campo todavía, se le puede fertilizar con casi cualquier cantidad de orina y esperar al menos una semana antes de sembrarlo, para permitir a las bacterias asimilar el nitrógeno y así evitar el sobredosis de los cultivos.


Este urinario sencillo y sin agua debería ser aplicado en todas partes donde el agua es escasa, no se quieren sobrepoblaciones de algas en los ríos, las personas que viven aguas abajo no quieren tomar nuestros fármacos o queremos que nuestra agricultura sea más productiva (en otras palabras, en todas partes).


Avísame cómo te va en la construcción del tuyo ... o si desean ayuda.

Noticias de 2018: Ya hemos visto la manera de hacer el filtro de aire con una sola botella, haciendo huecos pequeños en el asiento con un clavo caliente ... y unas mañas para desdoblar las mallas plasticas, incluyendo un alambre o una piola en la mitad de las mallas más cerca de la boca de la botella para poder jalarlo. (Digo "las" porque es bueno poner 2 o más, para mayor fuerza.) Esto permite usar una mayor variedad de botellas (y evita la entrada de cucarachas a poner sus huevos). También, es mejor cortar el tapón de una espuma plástica gruesa (blanca en esta foto).

A New Model of Waterless Urinal

People need to pee a lot more than they need to poop (especially when they are in schools and work places), so it is key in EcoSan to work out Waterless Urinals that are effective, smell-free and economical. Now, I would like to share a model I just worked out that is almost entirely recycled, aside from the $2 funnel.

(1) Heat up in a fire the end of a section of half-inch, black, polyethylene hose and stick the tip of the funnel into it. They will attach firmly to each other, without the need for glue.

(2) With a saw, cut the other end of the hose, at an angle, such that it reaches to the bottom of the jug.

(3) With a knife, cut a plug for the jug from an old, worn-out croc sandal, from near the heel, including a few centimeters of the part that hugs the user's foot. Make sure that it is big enough to fit snugly, with one edge pushed under the lip of the jug.

(4) With a pocket knife, cut a diamond-shaped hole (roughly 1.5 cm on each side) next to the part that hugs the foot. Put the hose through this hole.

(5) Cut a square (4 cm on each side) from a flat section of a PET plastic beverage bottle. Roll it into a tube (7 mm diameter) and stick it through a hole in the plug that you can make with a large, hot nail.

(6) Make an air filter with fertile soil (as shown), from two 400 ml beverage bottles that happen to fit one into the other. Place 7 cm of soil into the joined bottles, with fibrous material (like rice hulls) and plastic mesh at each end.

(7) Cut a 7-mm hole in the bottle cap, so you can place it on the PET tube, and tie the other bottle neck to the edge of the funnel.

Why does it not stink?

(1) The hose goes all the way to the bottom, so the ammonia vapors that accumulate in the top of the jug cannot get out the funnel.

(2) When the user urinates, an equal volume of smelly air comes out, but it is cleaned as it passes through the soil.

Note that we do not use any random soil. Read more in the second part of this interview:

http://www.chekhovskalashnikov.com/water-sanitation/

This is easy for men to use, but what about women? They can, too.

-- Some women say that they could easily urinate in this urinal.

-- Most women would like to squat all the way down and would be worried about germs, so each could have her own empty yogurt or ice cream container to pee in, empty it into the urinal, rinse it with water, throw that water in the soil of gardens or flower pots, put the lid back on the container, and save it until the next urge to give back to Nature.

Urine can sit in this urinal as long as one likes, with no smell issues, and then be taken to fertilize your plants. Remember to dilute the urine with 3 or more times as much water, and to spread it on the soil (not the leaves), especially if the plants are delicate and are just getting established. If the field has not been planted yet, it can receive nearly all the urine you like to give it, and then wait a week before planting, to let the bacteria assimilate the nitrogen and avoid overdosing your crops.

This simple, Waterless Urinal should be used everywhere that water is scarce, algae blooms in the river are not desired, the people downstream do not want to randomly drink our pharmaceuticals, or we want our agriculture to be more productive (in other words everywhere).

Let me know how things go building yours ... and if you need any help.

A Free Minimalist UDDT (part 1)

A Free Minimalist Urine-diverting Dry Toilet (UDDT) for the Unhoused, Poor or Disaster-stricken

(This was first graciously published at

http://www.phlush.org/2013/10/14/a-minimalist-costless-urine-diverting-dry-toilet-uddt-for-the-unhoused-poor-or-disaster-stricken/

after they had asked me about simple options for homeless people.) 

(Para español, vea:
http://inodoroseco.blogspot.com/2013/11/un-inodoro-seco-sin-costo-que-cualquier.html.)

Shifting from wasteful, expensive, contaminating, water-based toilets to decentralized, environmentally friendly, dry toilets should be more a matter of paradigm shift than capital investment. This is especially true for those who have little money, are potentially living on the street, or are in the upheaval of an emergency.

The key things that a UDDT needs to do are: (1) jail up the potentially dangerous feces that may transmit many terrible diseases (including diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, and intestinal worm eggs) long enough for these to die and (2) set the urine free on the soil, where it is excellent fertilizer for the plants and transmits no disease. This separation also greatly reduces the potential for stench and keeps the volume of dangerous material small and manageable.

The following minimalist toilet is entirely functional and is made with just a few readily available materials that can be rescued from the garbage:

• Two 4-liter plastic bottles, like those used to sell bleach.
• 50 centimeters of tape.
• 2 meters of string.
• Four sticks, 25 centimeters long (or a box the right size).
• Some normal, woven, polypropylene sacks, like those used to sell 100 pounds of flour, rice, or whatever. Biodegradable, jute bags (like coffee sacks) can also be used and even have an advantage (see #7, below).
• A small sheet of plastic.

Instructions

(1)   Make a portable, ecological urinal from the two bottles, cutting one diagonally (as shown) and joining them together mouth-to-mouth with tape and then firmly with string. This is a very useful item, even if one has a more up-scale outhouse, as it can be used for peeing next to bed in the middle of the night, without having to go out into the dark among snakes, insects, rapists or other creatures. It can also be used during the day wherever there is enough privacy.

 

While standing with urine in it, this urinal emits very little smell, since the mouths of the bottles are small and the top bottle blocks the movement of air across these mouths. Each day, it gets rinsed with water to avoid smell developing with the fermentation of the urine.

This costless urinal is very practical for collecting urine, diluting it with at least three times as much graywater, and pouring this excellent fertilizer on the soil among one’s crop plants … or among the ornamental plants in the city park to help them flower more beautifully. One could also dump the urine into a sewer drain, but that would waste the nutrients, increase public spending on wastewater treatment, and contribute to the formation of anoxic dead zones in rivers and oceans.

(2)   Push the four sticks into the ground, to a height of about 12 centimeters. If one prefers (or especially if the floor is cement and you cannot poke sticks into the ground), a cardboard, wooden or plastic box the right size could be used instead of the sticks.

(3)   Roll down the edge of the sack and place it over the sticks. Put in a cup of dry soil where the first deposit will fall. If you like, a layer of dry leaves can be placed in the bottom of the sack first.

(4)   Put your heels against the sack, squat down, hold the urinal inclined in front of you, and release your load of nutrients. The feces will fall neatly into the sack, while the urine flows neatly into the urinal. Then, stand up the urinal until the next convenient opportunity to spread it on the soil. Place the paper, leaves, corn cobs or whatever was used for wiping together with the feces. (Arrange for privacy however you like, maybe with palm fronds stuck in the ground.)

(5)   Put a cup of dry soil on top of the feces to cover them, control the smell, keep flies from laying their eggs, and inoculate them with beneficial decomposer soil microbes. Keep a stick in the sack to accommodate the feces and paper, facilitate them being covered adequately by the soil, and fill the space in an orderly way (always grabbing the non-sh*tty end of the stick). One of the best soils for this consists of the decomposed feces from a previous cycle, as seen here, with some sawdust mixed in if it is too compact.

(6)   When not in use, cover the whole thing tightly with a sheet of plastic to keep rain, flies and curious eyes out.

(7)   When full (to a height of nearly the 12 cm), or when the users are moving on, tie the sack shut with a tag that says something like, “Open this package of rich organic soil only after XX/X/20XX (say a year from now) when it is safe to use in agriculture” and hide it somewhere protected against the rain and sun, like under a bridge. Another option would be to bury the sack, preferably in dry, well aerated soil (potentially under that same bridge). These sacks could also be stacked on a layer of rocks or sticks and covered with a sheet of plastic to protect them from the rain (maybe under a tree to protect the plastic from the sun).

The feces should dry and decompose for at least 6 months in the Tropics or a year in Temperate Countries (longer if buried in the soil), so that the pathogens die and it is no longer dangerous.

If the users are there long enough, or come back, they can use this new soil themselves in agriculture, or recycle it as an excellent cover material for new feces in the UDDT once again. More fecophobic people might want to only put it in the bottoms of holes for planting trees, which is also a great use.

The advantage of using biodegradable, jute sacks is that one can just throw the recently filled sack in the bottom of a hole, plant a tree on top of it, and forget about it (until you wonder why the tree is growing so fast and with such luscious fruits).

(Continue reading for a discussion of this system here.)

Urinarios Ecológicos / Ecological Urinals

 (Scroll down for English)

Los Urinarios Ecológicos tienen cada vez más popularidad. Es fácil cortar una poma de 4 litros en diágonal y unirla con cinta y piola a otra poma que ha quedado intacta. Hombres y mujeres podemos orinar directamente en este urinario, en la privacidad del dormitorio u otro cuarto, para luego dispersar este excelente fertilizante en el suelo entre las plantas. En lugares secos, o cuando se trata de plantas delicadas, es mejor diluir la orina con 3 o más veces más agua (que puede ser "aguas grises" de haber lavado los platos o de habernos bañado). Después, se le enjuaga con agua, no hay problema con olores y está listo para usarse de nuevo.

Se agradece a la Lavandería La Mocita de Puyo (que donó las pomas que habían tenido cloro), a Federico (un voluntario uruguayo que ayudó a armar estos urinarios) y a las 4 modelos.

El acompañamiento de la boa constrictor es opcional.

Ecológical Urinals

Ecological Urinals are getting more and more popular. It is easy to cut a 4-liter jug diagonally and connect it with tape and string to another, intact jug. Men and women can urinate directly into these, in the privacy of their bedrooms, to later spread this excellent fertilizer on the soil among crop plants. In dry places, or when the plants are particularly delicate, it is best to dilute the urine with 3 or more times more water (which may be "greywater" from having washed the dishes or from having bathed ourselves). Afterwards, it should be rinsed with water, to avoid any smell problem, and it is ready to use again.

Many thanks to Lavandería La Mocita in Puyo (that donated these jugs that had previously held bleach), to Federico (a Uruguayan volunteer who helped to put this batch of urinals together), and to the 4 models.

The watchful eye of the boa constrictor is optional.