@@kingsfoil435 Really interesting topic this one, it is hard to find good data on where our nutrient goes. The oceans receive most of it and that creates big problems in an already stressed environment. It is not the human manure that is the problem but medications and especially paint. I could go on for hours.
@@CplusO2 Many organic chemicals are degraded in compost, but yes, it is an issue. But still, we are pooping in water, then spending lots of energy getting the resulting sludge out of the water at treatment plants, then applying the biosolids directly to fields or composting the biosolids anyway. All the while the excrement is mixed with industrial waste and other things people dump down drains. Could have just composted it in the first place and avoided all the trouble.
In new, highly efficient buildings here (Netherlands) rainwater gets collected. This collected rainwater is used to flush, clean enough and is a relative cheap system
I live on an island in Croatia, we use ONLY rainwater for everything! We have concrete water tanks where we keep our water, wich we use for cleaning, drinking, bathing, flushing... That is why I don't find this solution good enough...
Feels like it was made for kindergarten. Dont mean that in a good way though...honestly more annoying to watch it as an adult and get the feeling as if it was explained for a 5 year old.
When I was smol, grandma would flush the regular toilet with "grey water" left over from doing the dishes in a pail (she would just NOT use the sink lol), or doing the laundry in said pail, and it worked fine, never clogged, never had any issues. I do believe she's still at it to this day.
I do the same. It's no big deal. There are a million ways to save water. Going after the functional toilet design is silly. IF anything, rainwater capture and grey water usage would do WAY MORE to reduce the waste of drinking water. In CA, people water their yards, lawns, fill their pools and wash their cars with drinking water - some of it world-class, clear, delicious Sierra water. Crazy. People in CA are not going to die of thirst. We don't have a water shortage, we have a water usage problem. And changing toilets isn't the solution!
Agreed. This is indeed a great way. But due to lack of awareness, people don't take this seriously. Water is a finite resource and needs to be used carefully.
@@dudeonbike800 no, changing toilets is definitely part of the solution. We're flushing away drinking water and fertility all at the same time. Compost toilets are the wave.
@@priestesslucy Stop flushing with drinking water! (I've advocated this for years as I'm one of the people who flushes with tasty, pristine Sierra snow melt. Makes zero sense.) Problem solved and not a single plumber called, a new industry promoted, or exorbitant waste created. Nor a cent spent! And you seem to forget that the earth's surface is 70% water. A VERY renewable resource. Stop advocating for the "newest, latest craze." You probably own a "green contracting" company or something. Just the latest sales pitch.
i know huh, in elementary school i was TERRIFIED of the loud high efficiency auto flush toilets...i would try to hold it as long as could, sometimes wetting myself to avoid using them 😕
It used to be like that maybe worse for me but after having my hearing damaged from playing with guns all the time I barely hear anything and everything’s quiet and nice
My aunt took out all her toilets in the early 2000s, and paid $10,000 for several composting toilets with bidets. I loved them. Someone called the city, who called children services on her after an inspection, and for a year they threatened to take away my cousins until she had at least one flushing toilet in her house, even though she had city water running through her house. She complied, and pissed the city off by putting in a pricey "gray water" system that recycled the water. A few years later her city made it illegal to collect rainwater, and that citizens could only use approved gray water systems. She gave up the gun and just moved to Arizona, where her homestead is being attacked again because of newer zoning laws. Fortunately, she's grandfathered in.
It's angering to witness the good deeds and efforts of individuals being obstructed by big and local government, when those are the ones that should be exemplary. I hope you maintain your aunt's tenacity and care to act for a better world.
emm but why? I mean if it works and doesn't break the law and was disposed of properly plus it's not throwing it out the window or the public. What was the problem? Unless that person wanted her house?
@@L3onking Bruh. no, main problem is probably just vague laws trying to keep kids living in awful housing. Honestly though she coulda just kept one in a corner and just never used it, and the city recycles grey water anyways so i really don't understand your aunt Bizzy.
In Hong Kong, mostly we flush our toilet with sea water. The only thing is, we cannot let sea water overflow from the toilet. Or else, we have to change all the floor tiles, even the concrete.
@@runeodin7237 Yes. And they are coming w two separate tanks on the top of each building. (Standard residential building currently is 30+ floor.) However, with such a "cheap" solution, we throw many bizarre things into the toilet. And our other parts of the household waste recycling were being done terribly, way below the standard of an international city except we have one of the best and efficient public transport system that reduce a lot of carbon emissions.
A couple of years ago my daughter and I stayed in a cabin in Lincolnshire England. The toilet had a normal seat, that was all that was normal. Under the seat was a bucket and next to the toilet was a bucket of compost. Each time you used the toilet you covered your excrement with the compost and when the bucket was full emptied it on a new compost heap. No smells and very efficient.
It's a bucket loo. And in the bucket next to the loo there was sawdust, not compost. You balance the nitrogen in the poo and pee with carbon from the sawdust. There is absolutely no smell and if the bucket is full, you can compost it in your garden or you can empty it in the forest. If you're an ecofriendly person, you can use the bucket loo even in your apartment in the city. There is no shame in it, the shame is to use drinkindg water to flush you'r poo. And the water treatnemt facilities use a huge amount of energy. There are also toi-toi style systems, it's called kompotoi in switzerland: th-cam.com/video/uCQyVhu8t6M/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=PlugMeIn
I saw a toilet which had a similar idea in Norway or Sweden I believe except the waste was too much to handle there. So they let it freeze during the winter and cut the frozen waste with a saw and moved it somewhere else.
@@randyme2151 Classic. Doesnt mean you cant use the toilet to produce compost that you can use in your own garden. Or support a number of options for toilets. Bill Gates is drinking poop water, or is he not elite enough?
@@tomo1168 This solution can work in rural areas where you have supply of sawdust. Can you imagine the enormous consumption of sawdust if this "eco-friendly" method was used in cities? Not mentioning that fresh water and sewage water are delivered by electric pumps. Sawdust by road.
After using a composting toilet in a permaculture community, I can't see any other better (ubiquitous) solution, it just makes so much sense, at least for 95% of places in the world.
They work fine in rural areas where a centralised sewage connection is not viable, or installing a septic tank system is too expensive. In the suburbs & cities, they're not suitable. It's basically Outhouse V2.0.
Options: • Grey water (from laundry, sink) • Rain water • Sea water (make sure you use the right pipes) • Waterless compost toilet • Use smaller button to flush pee (if your toilet has 2 size options)
I've pondered this issue for 20 years. Water is increasingly precious. To use clean potable drinking water then urinate and deficate into it is a sad waste.
With my Joe Jenkins compost toilet system I'm able to handle my household humanure in an odor free, closed loop system that generates pathogen free fertilizer with no electricity or water used for the toilet! Definitely a huge innovation and a worthwhile system for rural, eco conscious, or developing areas 🙂
Hi, @Frenchie Powell. I've heard about 'dry'/'composting' toilets and Joe Jenkins before and I'm very curious about how this system works. Have you been using it for long?
@@morgane6108 I have used it for over a year now. Just poop, pee, and toss toilet paper into the receptacle, and cover with sawdust (I got mine from a local school woodworking class). Then when you have a full receptacle, take it to a compost pile, open up a hole in the middle, dump in, wash out receptacle with rainwater, and return. Once your compost pile gets full (which takes about a year), let it sit for a full year while you add to a second one, and cycle through them this way. Joe Jenkins' book "the humanure handbook" is available as a free online pdf Hope this answers your question 🙂
I almost passed this video by because I was aware of the basic premise but I am glad I watched it there was a lot of great new information presented. Keep up the great work.
It seems this video doesn't mention that waste treatment plants actually already collect the solid wastes as biosolids... which are then turned into manure or burned in waste to energy powerplants to generate electricity. A single centralised system serving a city would be much better than tens of thousands of small individual systems in each building, some malfunctioning due to neglect or disrepair. I mean there's a reason why cities switched from cesspits & septic tanks to centralised sewerage systems...
Exactly! Flushing toilets became the golden standard for a reason. Fresh water being pumped into houses using electric pumps and waste water usually flows away using just gravity, modern centralised waste water treatment plants are more efficient than hundreds of small ones. The whole system is very efficient. Treatment plants can also produce clean water for industrial use, irrigation etc., bio gas (methane) and solids for composting / fertilising. Composting toilets produce solid waste locally and if not working properly, they could be source of odour and biological pollution. Waste often cannot be composted on site (in cities) and requires road transport, the same goes for absorbents (usually sawdust). They are great solution for rural areas but a step back in cities. Problem of water usage for flushing could be fixed by secondary water scheme providing households with recycled water for flushing, irrigation, cleaning etc.
Thou they mention that waste water treatment plants, while good, are also inefficient (in the urine part) as what flows to them is not only what comes form the toilet, but also other things that make it more difficult to separate the useful parts.
this is so strange! this is EXACTLY the way i thought water worked when i was little(im 71yo now), waaaay before recycling, i thought that what we flushed got sanitized, sent back and reused for EVERYTHING...wow how prophetic was that 😳
My dear grandfather designed and patented a waterless toilet more than three decades ago. He did this to try to provide those in rural areas, and those who don't have access to basic water and sanitation, an 'off the grid' solution. It's a pity that large corporations and government have mostly stood in our way and brushed off such a viable alternative to the water flush. This goal and mission will eventually be my inheritance! Our goal has always been to set up and decentralize production - giving the power to the people. - Zerho Waterless Toilets
The bare minimum should involve reusing of grey water from sinks and shower/bath basins. Ideally without high-power pumps. Flush litre amount should be the result of the calculation of the suction and minimum flow dynamics for the toilet bowl and waste water piping in the building or typical of construction techniques for the area. That way toilet flush reservoirs can intelligently know (ideally mechanically - no silicon sensors) whether they need a mains/other top-up prior to facilitating a particular flush type. And of course the system needs to be low-maintenance and maintenance-friendly.
As someone who works in a treatment plant I can absolutely say that YOU MUST STOP FLUSHING YOUR GARBAGE!! Your garbage is destroying the sewer system, it blocks the pipes and breaks them. It also burns out the motors on the lift station pumps. Also we can't keep up with all of the damage. You are literally tripling the cost to treat your poo by flushing the garbage. Wet wipes are not flushable, they are doing an enormous amount of damage. PLEASE, trash in the bin and poo in the loo. There are two different systems for a reason!!
Same in Finland. Toilets use the same water that comes out of taps. You could theoretically drink toilet water since it's perfectly drinkable... it's just that the toilets themselves aren't that clean.
Several years ago I replaced all my domestic toilets with dual flush systems that are designed to use less water. I also connected them to a grey water system that collected rainwater. However, the weaker flushing system left stripes on the bowl after a poop which necessitated double and sometimes triple flushing and a good scrub with a toilet brush. Result: Using my “environmentally friendly” toilets has become a cleaning chore to leave them in a fit state for the next person and they use more water. 😡 (It is also less hygienic because the lid is open while the toilet is flushing dispersing aerosols and bacteria int the room.) Fortunately with UK rainfall the grey water system is never in danger of running out.😂
When I lived in southern California in the 70's, we used a brick in each toilet tank, maybe not high tech but it worked! Lower water level in toilet tank first, add your brick, the brick raises the water level for a good flush yet use less water per flush. We also gave away watersaver spa shower massage units for a great strong spa-like shower that saves 33% of the water. Love your uploads! Everyone can help the Earth with just a few adjustments in our everyday lives- it's easy! How about grey/rainwater?!
* I heard of a seaside place that uses sea water for flushing. * For men, there are no-flush urinals. It is connected to a drain, but not a water source. A trap that uses vegetable oil blocks the odor. * You can buy lids that have a small sink and faucet. The faucet connects to the fill mechanism inside the tank. When you flush, some of the water flows into and then out of the faucet. The person who flushed can use this to wash hands. A drain allows this water to flow into the tank.
I always try to get the most out of my toilets. I'm a big guy 340, 6 ft 2. The thing I hate is when you get one of these gallon half flushes and they don't even flush what I have to put out. When I was a kid we had toilets that would flush whatever you gave it it was hard to plug them up. Nowadays everybody's so bent on saving water, they forgot about the big guy that has to visit their house once in awhile and then the end up having a pluged toilet. That's when I refer to those toilets as a 15 gallon flush. I've seen toilets that were set up flush more water if necessary. Right now I'm in an apartment that has one of these special water-saving toilets, and I have to flush it 3 times so the toilet doesn't plug up. If I don't do this then I have to get the 5-gallon bucket out. And if you've ever had to do this yes a lot of fun.
No one, or rather few, would profit from them. Water has ceased to be regarded as a human right in some countries and has become a commodity traded in the stock market, in Australia, for instance...
What I don't understand is why we don't use the other water that goes down the drain to flush our poop. Water from our showers and laundries could be stored in a tank and used for our toilets.
My family's house (multi-family urban in Germany) has been using rainwater for toilets, washing machines, dishwashers and watering the garden eversince it was renovated around 2000. I didn't know that's not the norm
Why don't we just use the waste-water from showers and bath- and kitchen-sinks for toilets? And collect raining-water for the garden and collect water from clothes dryer for dish-washing?
I think one solution could be having a non drinking water pipe system in all new houses, fed by municipalities. So you would not waste drinking water to flush the toilet.
Meanwhile living in Sub Saharan Africa and almost everyone has a flush toilet and access to clean water. Pit latrines have been banned in most areas for decades, mostly found in the remotest areas just like in developed countries.
I’m very interested in composting toilets with urine diverters. The potential for personal use or some kind of aggregator service for agricultural use seems significant.
How does the decentralized treatment mentioned in this video make sure, that germs, antibiotics etc., that are excreted with our poop don't get back to us or family members, for example? - Since Hygiene doesn't stop when the stuff is gone. And a certain percentage of these leftover substances also gets filtered-out in treatment plants (yet not all, of course). And how would vacuum toilets work inside houses, if they were installed there? - Aren't they built to just plop the stuff out into the atmosphere from a plane?
...that water gets cleaned and reused tho. How is it wasteful? No water is lost, it's forever recycled on a city wide level. Why on earth would you want to limit it to a house recycling system? Many places don't have issues with flooding or drought... I'm confused on what the problem is.
Gravity toilet + septic tank at the cabin works great. Only uses a little bit of water. That tank fills up approximately 1/6th as fast as the neighbors with regular toilet and a tank that is 50% bigger.
Many modern toilets have smaller tanks than the old ones - the manufacturers have basically built in the brick. So now they sometimes have to be flushed several times to be effective, wasting more water. Although where I live on a rainy hillside a tonne of water a day comes out of my land and runs off down the hill, so, whatever. And the old Victorian sewers back up because modern efficient toilets don't give them enough water flow.
@@timjackson3954 Had that problem till we needed a new valve...I then installed it to flush the maximum amount the cistern can hold. Only flush once now, more water per flush. Less water overall
I just discovered your channel recently and so far I haven't found a subpar video! Everything is gooooood! Keep doing what you're doing. I hope YT promote channels like you instead of the obnoxious ones. I started to unsubscribe to creators who endorse fast fashion and consumerism.
You have really touched on a very sensitive subject which nobody wants to talk. But, if not today, in near future the world will be forced to think about it. Thanks for taking up such an important issue that concerns the health of our planet & environment!
I live in a rural area (desert) with a well and septic. I currently haul water from the well to the house as the waterline trenches are not finished. Water to flush is secondhand water, from washing hands & handwashing dishes (the soapy part; rinse dish water goes on plants). I want a permanent plumbing setup, something more sophisticated and easier than my buckets. Why isn't household plumbing designed for better graywater collection?
@@drmodestoesq I wonder if there is a way to use a similar concept in a regular home. I'm building my own house and am almost ready to set up a bathroom. I'm using a composting toilet now, but can also hook up to an existing septic system. Just trying to figure out the best solution.
@@Susie_Spann The problem...as always...is room. It would be easy to pump the shower drain water to a 100 gallon storage tank and then run that to the toilets in the house. Just use a couple of extra water pumps. But where are you going to put a 100 gallon tank? So, unless you're in the desert with limitless space and have to pay to have water delivered. Most people are going to decide...it's just not worth it.
Vacuum toilets suck. Half the poop doesn't go down. For the same reason you need water in sewers, you need it to flush the poop away. I live somewhere with no end of clean fresh water and fertile land - so high water flow flush toilets work fine here and are sustainable. I understand most of the world is parched - so in a very different position than I am here in London, Ontario situated between 3 great lakes and millions of hectares of the best most fertile farm land.
I'm from Heerenveen, a small town in the Netherlands, we have a half closed system, our waste first goes to a company called Swiss Combi, and when they've taken all the waste from it it goes to the local water purification plant again, and obviously then we drink it again.
If we do move towards decentralised solutions using local recycling or composting, the savings for municipal governments could be enormous! Can't deny the incredible convinience of the flush toilet though which I reckon is what most people would be reluctant to give up.
I've long wondered what happens with the water being flushed down an ordinary toilet system, exactly where the water goes, what happens with everything being flushed, and some people improperly use toilets, so ...?. I began trying to diminish my flushing several years ago because of not knowing how this system operates and knowing that flushing means use of a good amount of water, while many people on this planet seriously suffer due to lack of water, including locally, regionally, here, in Canada, due to lack of rainfall, like for agri., f.e. We have municipal water treatment, sure, but that's all I know about it, not knowing exactly how this operates.
Listen, to me the best features of a flush toilet are convenience and it's diminishing effect on smell. Make a toilet that won't be a pain to use and won't smell, and I will be able to adopt it.
If you look at Campers/Motorhomes, they have lots of different approaches to save water. "If its yellow, let it mellow, if its brown, flush it down" you really only need to flush the poop, I've done some work on my motorhome setup using a regular flush toilet. Using pressure, you can reduce the water to less than 1 gallon. And the holding tanks really need the water to keep the poop flowing when you empty them.
Back in the 80s, a school friend's father was already quite eco conscious and he had build himself a tank in his apartment where he collected sink/shower/laundry water to be then used to flush the toilet. He probably saved 50% of water usage, and that was already 40 years ago. No clue why this hasn't become a more common thing yet.
In the uk we have plenty of water. We also have sewers that cope with large amounts of water. That’s how they were designed. We now have silly modern toilets that use ever smaller amounts of water so there is a higher propensity for blockages. It’s nonsense. Same with dishwashers. In the 60’s -80’s, dishwashers used gallons of water and some did the whole job in 30 mins. Now as a result of ‘savings’ it takes 2-3 hours to achieve similar results.
Yes exactly! It's another from the series of German self-bashing videos. In countries like UK, Ireland Germany, Nordic countries, central Europe there's no shortage of water and flushing with drinking water is perfectly fine, there is no any issue. It is how the system is designed. By the way the water doesn't disappear at the end, it is returned back to the rivers from wastewater treatment plants or used in industry. Those plants can also produce bio gas (methane) and solids for composting or fertilising. The situation is different in arid countries where water is rare, often produced by reverse osmosis from sea water (think Saudi Arabia). Water saving should be a priority in those regions.
In Japan, I have seen a smart set up in which the wash basin was above the toilet‘s water tank and the grey water from washing your hands was reused to flush the toilet. Reusing grey water from wash basins and showers could be potentially a good solution as well.
what i like about your videos so far is that when ppl speak they sound like normal humans. not like some politicians or some greedy ppl trying to sell sth or an idea just for their own good. and they dont sound stiff. im a big fan it beeing that way :)
@@SolarizeYourLife Risk of different waters mixing. That's the reason UK has hot and cold taps because of the old boilers. They don't need them now though.
I once worked at a mission farm. Groups would do community service each day, but one day in the week your group works the farm. Many people had trouble getting passed that they used "hu-manure". Only 1 flushing toilet in each bathroom. The others were sawdust toilets. Pit sawdust in bottom of bucket, cover your solids each use, make a pile. The piles of hu-manure rotate every 4 years, so it's just really good soil and the bad bacteria is gone by the time it is used. Though they still make sure to wash the produce well.
From the van life community has come the idea of a recirculating shower run on 10 gals of water . You have endless hot Water but the same10 gals . A series of Filters and a UV se
This was a very interesting video. I originally clicked on it bc there was a rainbow on the thumbnail and I’m gay. There wasn’t much gay content but I was still satisfied. Good video🧍🏽
Collect rain water (in water barrels connected to downpipes), or "grey" water from certain washing. Refill your toilet cistern with this water by using a recycled (and cleaned) 5 litre plastic container (sunflower oil, and mineral water bottles in our case) during it's refill phase (during & immediately after the toilet is flushed). To do this simply take off the lid of the cistern. 5 litre containers of water weigh 5kgs and this isn't too heavy & cumbersome. Also, an easy way to collect grey water (used water that would've simply gone down the drain) is to use a bucket (a toddler bath from IKEA, in our case) when washing hair, or after our small child takes a bath. Do not use water that's too dirty, and definitely never anything with food waste in it. We also use rain water to fill our regular front-loading washing machine. Simply pour rainwater in via the detergent drawer during the initial machine filling phase (wait for the machine to start filling to know when is the right time). Allow the final rinse phase to be done using regular mains water. Take shorter showers, and TURN OFF the shower while you soap/shampoo yourselves. We've been doing this since last winter and now average UNDER 100 LITRES of water (household) usage per day. The savings are significant for both the environment and my wallet.
We come to that conclusion five years ago and since then we collected rain water, that rain water is the input for washing machine, the washing machine output is then used for the toilet.
"It takes 6 liters of clean drinkable water to flush" - "We flush 140 liters every day" Okay, is that per family, or something? Because if that's a single person, that's more than 20 flushes a day. You need to see a doctor or something?
It is all good using less waste, but a better solution also needs to be more hygienic. We can treat water to an extent and even tap water itself isn't perfect, but perhaps it is not the best idea to be overzealous with recycling waste water, recycling waste water back into a toilet is a great idea for saving water, but maybe it's better to have showers, kitchen facilities and general taps use a different water source for health and safety purposes to prevent any form of cross-contamination. Access to clean water should be a human right, and we don't want to create a society where the impoverished have to drink, wash themselves and wash their dishes in treated water that needs to be chemically polluted, while cleaner, less chemically polluted water is treated as a more expensive luxury.
I've been saving everything for environment, serious in 3R practice from the reduce level, but I'd excuse water usage on flushing. This is the part I'd cheat and stick to conventional flush because getting rid of whole evidences after toilet is so important that we seem to have no other option except that extra water to really make sure it all gets pushed down to every little spots that even the odor quickly gets away. I do still acknowledge the need for different levels of water flush for different form of toilet wastes, speaking of liquid waste should be using less water flushing and not the same big amount of water as the long call ones, and as for that we already see solutions from many toilets with double flush buttons, one is for lesser water flushing and one is more, which till this day I still couldn't tell which one is which as they don't give writing instructions on the buttons so they did not seem effective. For now we'd need to improve on displaying the writing instruction on the buttons that's all and as for using way lesser water than already is, I'd keep that aside for now.
Most toilets I've seen with two flush settings have the lesser one occupying a smaller portion of the circle, whether separated by a cresent shape or a squiggly line. In our apartment we have the fancier, modern style with the hidden tank and push button with concentric circles on the wall where you push a little for the small flush, and all the way for the big one.
If you mix poo and pee and leave it in a ceptic tank, it becomes a stinky mess. However, if you have a garden that is big enough (500 square meters) and you could spare the time, you could separate the poo from the pee and fertilize your garden. Put the poo on the compost heap and cover it with soil. It will quickly decay without smell. Next, take the pee and mix it with rain water and water your garden with it.
In places where there is water, there is no problem. In places where there is little water i.e. hot areas, an average air conditioner produces about one bucket of water every hour (clean like rain)! use it for flushing water or irrigation. end of your problem - PEROID.
One thing wasn't mentioned here, and it shows how complex the topic is, while in this video only one aspect was looked at. In Germany people, especially kids, were advertised to safe water since about the late 80's. And as the kids grow older with that mind set, less water was 'wasted'. But the consumption of cosmetics and detergents went up. Energy saving washing machines added to it, as the only way the industry could build significally more energy efficient washing machines was to reduce the water used - less water which needs to be heated = less enegy. The result was, and even years and years before the drought came: Many many wastewater treatment plants couldn't work right, concentration especially of detergents and cosmetics and all the chemical stuff was too high, thus they had to pump in fresh water. This means, effectively not much water has been saved, if at all! It's just the people who **think** they've done something for the environment. It's to silence one's conscience, and not knowing the truth is a bliss. Saving water must come together with saving detergents and stuff (and/or using more easily biodegradable ones, with much less fragrance especially regarding laundry). Or the whole water treating has to be revolutionised (which makes the idea of revolutionising our toilets a laughable small one in comparison). And those who were born some decade before the millenium may remember how bad the water quality in rivers actually was, before water treatment got significally improved and standards were set for both, industry and individuals. To change this system and make a tiny mistake might have catastrophic consequences. I'm all for composting stuff that can be composted, *but* a major environmental skandal and catastrophy in South Germany showed what it can cause if done wrong: Waste of paper recycling which couldn't be used anymore in the recycling process was given to farmers as 'compost' to put on their fields. The recycling companies saved money for the disposal and the farmers got fertiliser without too much nitrogen to improve soil quality, for free. Win/win. It's just old paper, what could go wrong, right? Wrong. Some years ago a water supplier ringed alarm, as quite high amounts of PFCs were found, substances which at that times wasn't usually looked for when the water was tested, as it wasn't mandatory. The levels were so high, that in the communities in that area people were asked to not prepare food with tab water, to not bath or fill pools with it where longer skin contact is given and better not to wash smaller children with that water. But it was only a peak of an iceberg. It was found that the PFCs got into the groundwater via fields of farmers that were treated with this paper compost. But it did not end there. Soon it were hundreds of hectares of farmland, which was affected and should have been decontaminated. But it still not ended, as further investigation showed there were farmers across the state which also took advantage of this 'free compost'. And it still not ended, as then PFCs were found in other states of Germany, too, with more and more farmland contaminated, which was impossible to decontaminate at that scale! Bur back to the region where the iceberg peaked first, in the Upper Rhine Valley, were a giant groundwater body was contaminated with immense loads of PFCs, a groundwater body which moved. Towards the biggest city of the area with about 350.000 citizens. And further, as it can be described as a giant invisible river under the river Rhine. Which flows all the way to the north, and through the most populated state of Germany. Yet still, this major environmental catastrophy was hardly mentioned in news. And to just think of removing poo and pee without even informing oneself what kind of wastewater treatment plant the local community has is just as bad. If it's a biological treatment plant with a complex set of micro organisms to treat the water it again might not work as designed if you remove certain parts from the equation. To just say 'We are wasting so much water in our toilets, we need to stop this' is way too narrow minded, stop looking at certain aspects allone and start looking at complexes as a whole, everything else is unscientific eyewash.
Products made not biodegradable is also a problem but are you really saying compost is wrong? 😂😂😂😂😂 You are the narrow thinker. We need to demand quality versus quantity.
I live alone. As a general practice, I flush my toilet once a day. Since most of my toilet usage is for urination, I urinate into a capped jug. When the toilet is used, I dump the jug into it.
as a person with OCD, toilet business is not something i like to talk about, as it can jumpstart a minor mental breakdown in the wrong case. even through this, i agree the systems in place for toilets are wasteful. i might not be able to go as far as using my excrement to feed plantgrowth, thanks to my mental issues, but i would totally have an outhouse hut that gets moved to a different hole every year or so, as the old waste hole is covered up with soil and plants grown on top (compostable TP, of course.)
In Belgium, newer homes have a rain water tank and use that water to flush toilets and use it for the washing machine or garden watering. This water ends up in the sewer anyway, though newer streets have a separate system so excess rain water doesn't end up in the sewer anymore.
Yes that solution actually makes sense. Treatment plants often become overwhelmed with sudden heavy rainfall. Cities don't manage these runoffs well, most of them come from roofs and paved areas straightto drains. The key should to retain the rainwater and use it later, rather then mixing it with sewage.
We use gray water from the washing machine etc. and rain water for flushing the toilet. When there's enough rain water we supplement with clean water :) This year there were only about 15 days where we had to use clean water but that's because the summer in Germany wasn't as hot this year. Still think it's a pretty good way to do it for now. We're currently looking into composting toilets because I've seen a lot of people use them in tinx houses 🤔
Less wasteful ways: In Taos, New Mexico there is an architect, Michael Reynolds, that builds homes called Earthships. In his homes water is used at least three times before it goes to a leach field. The first time the water is used in the kitchen, Laundry, shower or bathroom sinks. The water is then directed to an enclosed planter bed where it grows food, is filtered and collected. Then it will travel back to the bathroom when someone flushed the toilet. The water finally heads out to the septic leach field. Where it could grow plants for beneficial insects and such. In Australia they use worms to process the poop in what looks similar to a regular septic tank system. The water released is used to irrigate plants. There is a channel on youtube that has several videos explaining it: A&A Worm Farm Waste Systems . What about neighborhood composting systems that create biogas for cooking, that could be sent back to the houses in the neighborhood. There is such a plant in India and they have a video on here just can't find it at the moment. The big problem of dealing with sewage is not the pee and poop (as in the video, we have uses for those) but with all the mixing chemicals that people put down the drain.
I live in Canada and everyone in my community poops in buckets or bins and cover it with sawdust or leaves. The collection goes on the compost pile and rainwater is plentiful in tanks for hand washing and garden watering as a result. Oh I also add fine charcoal to make biochar with it too, it helps with odours. I like the simplicity of this system but I am interested in experimenting with biogas and also pooping in a worm bin too. I hear they fill up much more slowly as the worms eat all the poop as you go.
Another thing that urine has is urea which is very useful especially in a chemical called ad-blue which is used to reduce emissions in diesel veichles (and which there is a shortage of in Australia
I live in Namibia, a country greatly affected by droughts. As far as I know our capital, Windoek uses recycled water for tap water. This is for as long as I can remember, and there are people living in Windhoek not having a clue they're drinking poop water and the rest of us just don't care. People would bring water from farms because they didn't want to drink the city water. My generation seems to be used to it and doesn't make a great deal of it.
There’s a considerable element of ‘poetic justice’ in converting waste back into consumable resources - sort of the reverse of picking up the puppy poop and putting it in the empty dog food bag
I have a compost toilet. It uses no water. It's a second-hand commode with the potty removed and a 25 litre brewing bucket underneath. And a bag of sawdust. And three 330 litre dalek compost bins. Each one takes 18 months to fill (one person's humanure) and therefore the material in the one I need to dig out to refill next is about 4 years old, is down to about 100 litres, and goes well under fruit trees and hedges. Problem solved.
Do you think there's a less wasteful way to dispose of our waste?
Absolutely, in our experience the best way to treat human manure is by fungal composting. We use the compost on nut trees, great cycling of nutrient.
COMPOST, seriously.
@@kingsfoil435 Really interesting topic this one, it is hard to find good data on where our nutrient goes. The oceans receive most of it and that creates big problems in an already stressed environment. It is not the human manure that is the problem but medications and especially paint. I could go on for hours.
@@CplusO2 Many organic chemicals are degraded in compost, but yes, it is an issue. But still, we are pooping in water, then spending lots of energy getting the resulting sludge out of the water at treatment plants, then applying the biosolids directly to fields or composting the biosolids anyway. All the while the excrement is mixed with industrial waste and other things people dump down drains. Could have just composted it in the first place and avoided all the trouble.
You can try backyrd and clean it with leaf inatead of paper
In new, highly efficient buildings here (Netherlands) rainwater gets collected. This collected rainwater is used to flush, clean enough and is a relative cheap system
I live on an island in Croatia, we use ONLY rainwater for everything! We have concrete water tanks where we keep our water, wich we use for cleaning, drinking, bathing, flushing...
That is why I don't find this solution good enough...
@@saniburin4361 you use rain water for drinking? Isn’t that unsafe?
So where the poo ended
@@RosesAndIvy if it's treated properly before use (I hope) it's not very safe for bathing in either
@@RosesAndIvy that depend on where u are
You guys are really CREATIVE with illustrations. Different ideas in different episodes.
Open-minded people! Watch "The Connections (2021) [short documentary]" on youtube! 💖
Feels like it was made for kindergarten.
Dont mean that in a good way though...honestly more annoying to watch it as an adult and get the feeling as if it was explained for a 5 year old.
When I was smol, grandma would flush the regular toilet with "grey water" left over from doing the dishes in a pail (she would just NOT use the sink lol), or doing the laundry in said pail, and it worked fine, never clogged, never had any issues. I do believe she's still at it to this day.
i like your grandma, she's efficient
I do the same. It's no big deal. There are a million ways to save water. Going after the functional toilet design is silly.
IF anything, rainwater capture and grey water usage would do WAY MORE to reduce the waste of drinking water.
In CA, people water their yards, lawns, fill their pools and wash their cars with drinking water - some of it world-class, clear, delicious Sierra water. Crazy.
People in CA are not going to die of thirst. We don't have a water shortage, we have a water usage problem. And changing toilets isn't the solution!
Agreed. This is indeed a great way. But due to lack of awareness, people don't take this seriously. Water is a finite resource and needs to be used carefully.
@@dudeonbike800 no, changing toilets is definitely part of the solution.
We're flushing away drinking water and fertility all at the same time.
Compost toilets are the wave.
@@priestesslucy Stop flushing with drinking water! (I've advocated this for years as I'm one of the people who flushes with tasty, pristine Sierra snow melt. Makes zero sense.) Problem solved and not a single plumber called, a new industry promoted, or exorbitant waste created. Nor a cent spent! And you seem to forget that the earth's surface is 70% water. A VERY renewable resource.
Stop advocating for the "newest, latest craze." You probably own a "green contracting" company or something. Just the latest sales pitch.
Everytime I flush a vacuum toilet I almost get a heart attack, even if I think I'm mentally prepared for the shock.
Nobody is stopping you to shit on the forest
Ikr xD
Speically on planes...sounds like the entire cabin is going to sucked out.
i know huh, in elementary school i was TERRIFIED of the loud high efficiency auto flush toilets...i would try to hold it as long as could, sometimes wetting myself to avoid using them 😕
Lol imagine being sound asleep and someone in the house has to pee in the middle of the night
It used to be like that maybe worse for me but after having my hearing damaged from playing with guns all the time I barely hear anything and everything’s quiet and nice
My aunt took out all her toilets in the early 2000s, and paid $10,000 for several composting toilets with bidets. I loved them. Someone called the city, who called children services on her after an inspection, and for a year they threatened to take away my cousins until she had at least one flushing toilet in her house, even though she had city water running through her house. She complied, and pissed the city off by putting in a pricey "gray water" system that recycled the water. A few years later her city made it illegal to collect rainwater, and that citizens could only use approved gray water systems. She gave up the gun and just moved to Arizona, where her homestead is being attacked again because of newer zoning laws. Fortunately, she's grandfathered in.
It's angering to witness the good deeds and efforts of individuals being obstructed by big and local government, when those are the ones that should be exemplary. I hope you maintain your aunt's tenacity and care to act for a better world.
My question is, how tf did anyone know what toilet she had? like I’ve never seen anyone talk about their toilet system in my life
emm but why? I mean if it works and doesn't break the law and was disposed of properly plus it's not throwing it out the window or the public. What was the problem? Unless that person wanted her house?
@@ryukoros a system built on capitalism means if the government can't profit off of you, then they need to make how you live illegal.
@@L3onking Bruh. no, main problem is probably just vague laws trying to keep kids living in awful housing. Honestly though she coulda just kept one in a corner and just never used it, and the city recycles grey water anyways so i really don't understand your aunt Bizzy.
In Hong Kong, mostly we flush our toilet with sea water. The only thing is, we cannot let sea water overflow from the toilet. Or else, we have to change all the floor tiles, even the concrete.
Wow that is great
@@locacharliewong So you have two sets of pipes , for seawater and drinken water, in your houses?
@@runeodin7237 Yes. And they are coming w two separate tanks on the top of each building. (Standard residential building currently is 30+ floor.) However, with such a "cheap" solution, we throw many bizarre things into the toilet. And our other parts of the household waste recycling were being done terribly, way below the standard of an international city except we have one of the best and efficient public transport system that reduce a lot of carbon emissions.
Sorry if this is a dumb question and the answer is obvious, but why would you have to change all of the floor tiles/concrete?
Wow! Really very interesting, we never knew it!
A couple of years ago my daughter and I stayed in a cabin in Lincolnshire England. The toilet had a normal seat, that was all that was normal. Under the seat was a bucket and next to the toilet was a bucket of compost. Each time you used the toilet you covered your excrement with the compost and when the bucket was full emptied it on a new compost heap. No smells and very efficient.
It's a bucket loo. And in the bucket next to the loo there was sawdust, not compost. You balance the nitrogen in the poo and pee with carbon from the sawdust. There is absolutely no smell and if the bucket is full, you can compost it in your garden or you can empty it in the forest.
If you're an ecofriendly person, you can use the bucket loo even in your apartment in the city. There is no shame in it, the shame is to use drinkindg water to flush you'r poo. And the water treatnemt facilities use a huge amount of energy.
There are also toi-toi style systems, it's called kompotoi in switzerland: th-cam.com/video/uCQyVhu8t6M/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=PlugMeIn
I saw a toilet which had a similar idea in Norway or Sweden I believe except the waste was too much to handle there. So they let it freeze during the winter and cut the frozen waste with a saw and moved it somewhere else.
also called a dry toilet with mulch. very cool and mostly odorless.
@@randyme2151 Classic. Doesnt mean you cant use the toilet to produce compost that you can use in your own garden. Or support a number of options for toilets. Bill Gates is drinking poop water, or is he not elite enough?
@@tomo1168 This solution can work in rural areas where you have supply of sawdust. Can you imagine the enormous consumption of sawdust if this "eco-friendly" method was used in cities? Not mentioning that fresh water and sewage water are delivered by electric pumps. Sawdust by road.
I loved everything about this video-the script, the stop motion, the poop puns
And the brilliant use of retro 8-bit games music, giving this a strangely playful tone!
After using a composting toilet in a permaculture community, I can't see any other better (ubiquitous) solution, it just makes so much sense, at least for 95% of places in the world.
as much as i like them, they're really not suitable for any sort of urban area
They work fine in rural areas where a centralised sewage connection is not viable, or installing a septic tank system is too expensive. In the suburbs & cities, they're not suitable. It's basically Outhouse V2.0.
Options:
• Grey water (from laundry, sink)
• Rain water
• Sea water (make sure you use the right pipes)
• Waterless compost toilet
• Use smaller button to flush pee (if your toilet has 2 size options)
I've pondered this issue for 20 years. Water is increasingly precious. To use clean potable drinking water then urinate and deficate into it is a sad waste.
With my Joe Jenkins compost toilet system I'm able to handle my household humanure in an odor free, closed loop system that generates pathogen free fertilizer with no electricity or water used for the toilet! Definitely a huge innovation and a worthwhile system for rural, eco conscious, or developing areas 🙂
Hi, @Frenchie Powell. I've heard about 'dry'/'composting' toilets and Joe Jenkins before and I'm very curious about how this system works. Have you been using it for long?
@@morgane6108 I have used it for over a year now. Just poop, pee, and toss toilet paper into the receptacle, and cover with sawdust (I got mine from a local school woodworking class).
Then when you have a full receptacle, take it to a compost pile, open up a hole in the middle, dump in, wash out receptacle with rainwater, and return. Once your compost pile gets full (which takes about a year), let it sit for a full year while you add to a second one, and cycle through them this way.
Joe Jenkins' book "the humanure handbook" is available as a free online pdf
Hope this answers your question 🙂
Composting toilets are excellent! Been using one for over two years, no issues at all. 🌲👍
Our ancestors had the eco system figured out perfectly
We need to re learn better ways of living
Love it
I almost passed this video by because I was aware of the basic premise but I am glad I watched it there was a lot of great new information presented. Keep up the great work.
Thank you!
It seems this video doesn't mention that waste treatment plants actually already collect the solid wastes as biosolids... which are then turned into manure or burned in waste to energy powerplants to generate electricity. A single centralised system serving a city would be much better than tens of thousands of small individual systems in each building, some malfunctioning due to neglect or disrepair. I mean there's a reason why cities switched from cesspits & septic tanks to centralised sewerage systems...
Exactly! Flushing toilets became the golden standard for a reason. Fresh water being pumped into houses using electric pumps and waste water usually flows away using just gravity, modern centralised waste water treatment plants are more efficient than hundreds of small ones. The whole system is very efficient. Treatment plants can also produce clean water for industrial use, irrigation etc., bio gas (methane) and solids for composting / fertilising.
Composting toilets produce solid waste locally and if not working properly, they could be source of odour and biological pollution. Waste often cannot be composted on site (in cities) and requires road transport, the same goes for absorbents (usually sawdust). They are great solution for rural areas but a step back in cities.
Problem of water usage for flushing could be fixed by secondary water scheme providing households with recycled water for flushing, irrigation, cleaning etc.
Thou they mention that waste water treatment plants, while good, are also inefficient (in the urine part) as what flows to them is not only what comes form the toilet, but also other things that make it more difficult to separate the useful parts.
@@melaniey.5596 Urine and other things suspended in wastewater are not useful enough to merit any measure of separation from the rest of the waste.
Have you ever questioned whether or not we shoud even be living in cities?
have you questioned whether or not you should live in the country?
this is so strange! this is EXACTLY the way i thought water worked when i was little(im 71yo now), waaaay before recycling, i thought that what we flushed got sanitized, sent back and reused for EVERYTHING...wow how prophetic was that 😳
We should be flushing toilets with gray water like desert cities do.
Great job on the delivery!
My dear grandfather designed and patented a waterless toilet more than three decades ago. He did this to try to provide those in rural areas, and those who don't have access to basic water and sanitation, an 'off the grid' solution. It's a pity that large corporations and government have mostly stood in our way and brushed off such a viable alternative to the water flush. This goal and mission will eventually be my inheritance! Our goal has always been to set up and decentralize production - giving the power to the people. - Zerho Waterless Toilets
Make a video show us how it's made and share it with the world.
What an awesome production! And a very funny anchor.
Surprised composting toilets weren't discussed more. I can't wait to have one myself to feed my gardens.
Better to use it on fruit trees. Leftover Pathogens can still get in annuals.
Yuck
French Ed Norton did a good job presenting this subject.
The bare minimum should involve reusing of grey water from sinks and shower/bath basins. Ideally without high-power pumps. Flush litre amount should be the result of the calculation of the suction and minimum flow dynamics for the toilet bowl and waste water piping in the building or typical of construction techniques for the area. That way toilet flush reservoirs can intelligently know (ideally mechanically - no silicon sensors) whether they need a mains/other top-up prior to facilitating a particular flush type. And of course the system needs to be low-maintenance and maintenance-friendly.
As someone who works in a treatment plant I can absolutely say that YOU MUST STOP FLUSHING YOUR GARBAGE!! Your garbage is destroying the sewer system, it blocks the pipes and breaks them. It also burns out the motors on the lift station pumps. Also we can't keep up with all of the damage. You are literally tripling the cost to treat your poo by flushing the garbage. Wet wipes are not flushable, they are doing an enormous amount of damage. PLEASE, trash in the bin and poo in the loo. There are two different systems for a reason!!
Don't put Anything in the loo which hasn't first been eaten. Mums 'n Dads should constantly remind All kids, particularly teenage girls.
Here in Slovakia, we have so much water, that we flush toilets with drinking (sometimes almost mineral) water...
Whaaatttt?! That's unbelievable man
Same in Finland. Toilets use the same water that comes out of taps. You could theoretically drink toilet water since it's perfectly drinkable... it's just that the toilets themselves aren't that clean.
Same in Germany
Same in india. We use same tap water for toilets.
But in india tap water is not that much clean so water purifiers industry is booming.
Several years ago I replaced all my domestic toilets with dual flush systems that are designed to use less water. I also connected them to a grey water system that collected rainwater.
However, the weaker flushing system left stripes on the bowl after a poop which necessitated double and sometimes triple flushing and a good scrub with a toilet brush.
Result: Using my “environmentally friendly” toilets has become a cleaning chore to leave them in a fit state for the next person and they use more water. 😡
(It is also less hygienic because the lid is open while the toilet is flushing dispersing aerosols and bacteria int the room.)
Fortunately with UK rainfall the grey water system is never in danger of running out.😂
When I lived in southern California in the 70's, we used a brick in each toilet tank, maybe not high tech but it worked! Lower water level in toilet tank first, add your brick, the brick raises the water level for a good flush yet use less water per flush. We also gave away watersaver spa shower massage units for a great strong spa-like shower that saves 33% of the water. Love your uploads! Everyone can help the Earth with just a few adjustments in our everyday lives- it's easy! How about grey/rainwater?!
Low flow toilets ruined life.
* I heard of a seaside place that uses sea water for flushing.
* For men, there are no-flush urinals. It is connected to a drain, but not a water source. A trap that uses vegetable oil blocks the odor.
* You can buy lids that have a small sink and faucet. The faucet connects to the fill mechanism inside the tank. When you flush, some of the water flows into and then out of the faucet. The person who flushed can use this to wash hands. A drain allows this water to flow into the tank.
This has got to be the most quirky informative video I’ve ever seen. It’s beautiful!
I always try to get the most out of my toilets. I'm a big guy 340, 6 ft 2. The thing I hate is when you get one of these gallon half flushes and they don't even flush what I have to put out. When I was a kid we had toilets that would flush whatever you gave it it was hard to plug them up. Nowadays everybody's so bent on saving water, they forgot about the big guy that has to visit their house once in awhile and then the end up having a pluged toilet. That's when I refer to those toilets as a 15 gallon flush. I've seen toilets that were set up flush more water if necessary. Right now I'm in an apartment that has one of these special water-saving toilets, and I have to flush it 3 times so the toilet doesn't plug up. If I don't do this then I have to get the 5-gallon bucket out. And if you've ever had to do this yes a lot of fun.
Composting toilets have been around for a long time. Why not give them more visibility?
Laziness
No one, or rather few, would profit from them. Water has ceased to be regarded as a human right in some countries and has become a commodity traded in the stock market, in Australia, for instance...
Using a composting toilet isn’t much different from pooping in a bucket. I would rather squat in the woods.
Someone still has to come and collect it whenever it gets full and that makes it inefficient on a macro level if handle on a government level.
@@troyt6532 that's what dogs and cats do and some of them even hide the poop themselves
What I don't understand is why we don't use the other water that goes down the drain to flush our poop. Water from our showers and laundries could be stored in a tank and used for our toilets.
My family's house (multi-family urban in Germany) has been using rainwater for toilets, washing machines, dishwashers and watering the garden eversince it was renovated around 2000. I didn't know that's not the norm
Australia does that, they also have a valve that when the tank is empty it switches to mains water.
Toilet Systems on cruise ships are a great way to study a way on optimising it on land. Great video and great job! Thank you
Why don't we just use the waste-water from showers and bath- and kitchen-sinks for toilets? And collect raining-water for the garden and collect water from clothes dryer for dish-washing?
I think one solution could be having a non drinking water pipe system in all new houses, fed by municipalities. So you would not waste drinking water to flush the toilet.
Would be good but you know that's just not feasible with the current system, better off with a decentralized solution like the one shown here
Meanwhile living in Sub Saharan Africa and almost everyone has a flush toilet and access to clean water. Pit latrines have been banned in most areas for decades, mostly found in the remotest areas just like in developed countries.
I’m very interested in composting toilets with urine diverters. The potential for personal use or some kind of aggregator service for agricultural use seems significant.
How does the decentralized treatment mentioned in this video make sure, that germs, antibiotics etc., that are excreted with our poop don't get back to us or family members, for example? - Since Hygiene doesn't stop when the stuff is gone. And a certain percentage of these leftover substances also gets filtered-out in treatment plants (yet not all, of course).
And how would vacuum toilets work inside houses, if they were installed there? - Aren't they built to just plop the stuff out into the atmosphere from a plane?
Also residues of hormonal contraception are big problem, together with antibiotics. Common waste water treatment plants are unable to filter them out.
@@jirislavicek9954 would pyrolysis be any use?
It goes to a storage tank on the plane, when you land a truck removes it
I love all your DW Planet A videos. Great work guys! Greetings from Monterrey, Mexico.
many thanks! :)
What a smart fun way of presenting the subject!
TH-cam recommended this video to me while I was sitting on the toilet!😂
...that water gets cleaned and reused tho. How is it wasteful? No water is lost, it's forever recycled on a city wide level. Why on earth would you want to limit it to a house recycling system?
Many places don't have issues with flooding or drought... I'm confused on what the problem is.
Gravity toilet + septic tank at the cabin works great. Only uses a little bit of water. That tank fills up approximately 1/6th as fast as the neighbors with regular toilet and a tank that is 50% bigger.
Just put a brick in your cistern, or collect shower water or rain and use that instead. We need to make this small changes to have big benefits!
Many modern toilets have smaller tanks than the old ones - the manufacturers have basically built in the brick. So now they sometimes have to be flushed several times to be effective, wasting more water. Although where I live on a rainy hillside a tonne of water a day comes out of my land and runs off down the hill, so, whatever. And the old Victorian sewers back up because modern efficient toilets don't give them enough water flow.
@@timjackson3954
Had that problem till we needed a new valve...I then installed it to flush the maximum amount the cistern can hold.
Only flush once now, more water per flush. Less water overall
I absolutely the creativity in this video- made me smile as well as more educated about toilets!
I just discovered your channel recently and so far I haven't found a subpar video! Everything is gooooood! Keep doing what you're doing. I hope YT promote channels like you instead of the obnoxious ones. I started to unsubscribe to creators who endorse fast fashion and consumerism.
I like this guy. Keep the rhymes coming.
Thank you, sir :)
You have really touched on a very sensitive subject which nobody wants to talk. But, if not today, in near future the world will be forced to think about it. Thanks for taking up such an important issue that concerns the health of our planet & environment!
This host is a great storyteller!! Awesome video ❤️
Thanks sir :)
I live in a rural area (desert) with a well and septic. I currently haul water from the well to the house as the waterline trenches are not finished. Water to flush is secondhand water, from washing hands & handwashing dishes (the soapy part; rinse dish water goes on plants). I want a permanent plumbing setup, something more sophisticated and easier than my buckets. Why isn't household plumbing designed for better graywater collection?
What about composting toilets? Can gray water be collected in a holding tank and used to flush the toilet?
Loved the idea.
I heard someone say that some RVs use used shower water to flush the toilet. I guess because there's a limited amount of water in the storage tanks.
@@drmodestoesq I wonder if there is a way to use a similar concept in a regular home. I'm building my own house and am almost ready to set up a bathroom. I'm using a composting toilet now, but can also hook up to an existing septic system. Just trying to figure out the best solution.
@@Susie_Spann The problem...as always...is room. It would be easy to pump the shower drain water to a 100 gallon storage tank and then run that to the toilets in the house. Just use a couple of extra water pumps. But where are you going to put a 100 gallon tank?
So, unless you're in the desert with limitless space and have to pay to have water delivered. Most people are going to decide...it's just not worth it.
@@Susie_Spann If you want to go super hippy..you can just fill a pail with water and dump it in the toilet to flush it.
Vacuum toilets suck. Half the poop doesn't go down. For the same reason you need water in sewers, you need it to flush the poop away. I live somewhere with no end of clean fresh water and fertile land - so high water flow flush toilets work fine here and are sustainable. I understand most of the world is parched - so in a very different position than I am here in London, Ontario situated between 3 great lakes and millions of hectares of the best most fertile farm land.
I'm from Heerenveen, a small town in the Netherlands, we have a half closed system, our waste first goes to a company called Swiss Combi, and when they've taken all the waste from it it goes to the local water purification plant again, and obviously then we drink it again.
Watch this on the toilet for more enjoyment about the topic !
Natural gas from waste water is a fun thing to cities.
Love how you have done the illustrations and animations
If we do move towards decentralised solutions using local recycling or composting, the savings for municipal governments could be enormous! Can't deny the incredible convinience of the flush toilet though which I reckon is what most people would be reluctant to give up.
I've long wondered what happens with the water being flushed down an ordinary toilet system, exactly where the water goes, what happens with everything being flushed, and some people improperly use toilets, so ...?. I began trying to diminish my flushing several years ago because of not knowing how this system operates and knowing that flushing means use of a good amount of water, while many people on this planet seriously suffer due to lack of water, including locally, regionally, here, in Canada, due to lack of rainfall, like for agri., f.e. We have municipal water treatment, sure, but that's all I know about it, not knowing exactly how this operates.
Listen, to me the best features of a flush toilet are convenience and it's diminishing effect on smell.
Make a toilet that won't be a pain to use and won't smell, and I will be able to adopt it.
Sike!?!? I don't know why but that really cracked me up. 😂 1:44
If you look at Campers/Motorhomes, they have lots of different approaches to save water.
"If its yellow, let it mellow, if its brown, flush it down" you really only need to flush the poop,
I've done some work on my motorhome setup using a regular flush toilet. Using pressure, you can reduce the water to less than 1 gallon. And the holding tanks really need the water to keep the poop flowing when you empty them.
Back in the 80s, a school friend's father was already quite eco conscious and he had build himself a tank in his apartment where he collected sink/shower/laundry water to be then used to flush the toilet. He probably saved 50% of water usage, and that was already 40 years ago. No clue why this hasn't become a more common thing yet.
In the uk we have plenty of water. We also have sewers that cope with large amounts of water. That’s how they were designed. We now have silly modern toilets that use ever smaller amounts of water so there is a higher propensity for blockages. It’s nonsense. Same with dishwashers. In the 60’s -80’s, dishwashers used gallons of water and some did the whole job in 30 mins. Now as a result of ‘savings’ it takes 2-3 hours to achieve similar results.
Yes exactly! It's another from the series of German self-bashing videos. In countries like UK, Ireland Germany, Nordic countries, central Europe there's no shortage of water and flushing with drinking water is perfectly fine, there is no any issue. It is how the system is designed. By the way the water doesn't disappear at the end, it is returned back to the rivers from wastewater treatment plants or used in industry. Those plants can also produce bio gas (methane) and solids for composting or fertilising.
The situation is different in arid countries where water is rare, often produced by reverse osmosis from sea water (think Saudi Arabia). Water saving should be a priority in those regions.
In Japan, I have seen a smart set up in which the wash basin was above the toilet‘s water tank and the grey water from washing your hands was reused to flush the toilet. Reusing grey water from wash basins and showers could be potentially a good solution as well.
can a topic be more creative than this 👍👍👐👐
what i like about your videos so far is that when ppl speak they sound like normal humans. not like some politicians or some greedy ppl trying to sell sth or an idea just for their own good. and they dont sound stiff.
im a big fan it beeing that way :)
We use water for flushing but we collect rain for toilets and gardening. It’s not the best option but certainly better than using drinking water
We respect the efforts you take to create this content.
To be fair, we don't "consume" water by flushing it. We merely move it. All the water is still there.
But why drinking water to do it, it took all of time and money to get it drinkable...
@@SolarizeYourLife
Risk of different waters mixing.
That's the reason UK has hot and cold taps because of the old boilers.
They don't need them now though.
I once worked at a mission farm. Groups would do community service each day, but one day in the week your group works the farm. Many people had trouble getting passed that they used "hu-manure". Only 1 flushing toilet in each bathroom. The others were sawdust toilets. Pit sawdust in bottom of bucket, cover your solids each use, make a pile. The piles of hu-manure rotate every 4 years, so it's just really good soil and the bad bacteria is gone by the time it is used. Though they still make sure to wash the produce well.
From the van life community has come the idea of a recirculating shower run on 10 gals of water . You have endless hot
Water but the same10 gals . A series of
Filters and a UV se
My goal now while renovating my house - MAKE POPO HAPPY...!!!
Aren’t the sewers of Berlin literally rotting because the residents don’t flush often enough?
This was a very interesting video. I originally clicked on it bc there was a rainbow on the thumbnail and I’m gay. There wasn’t much gay content but I was still satisfied. Good video🧍🏽
Collect rain water (in water barrels connected to downpipes), or "grey" water from certain washing.
Refill your toilet cistern with this water by using a recycled (and cleaned) 5 litre plastic container (sunflower oil, and mineral water bottles in our case) during it's refill phase (during & immediately after the toilet is flushed). To do this simply take off the lid of the cistern. 5 litre containers of water weigh 5kgs and this isn't too heavy & cumbersome. Also, an easy way to collect grey water (used water that would've simply gone down the drain) is to use a bucket (a toddler bath from IKEA, in our case) when washing hair, or after our small child takes a bath. Do not use water that's too dirty, and definitely never anything with food waste in it.
We also use rain water to fill our regular front-loading washing machine. Simply pour rainwater in via the detergent drawer during the initial machine filling phase (wait for the machine to start filling to know when is the right time). Allow the final rinse phase to be done using regular mains water.
Take shorter showers, and TURN OFF the shower while you soap/shampoo yourselves.
We've been doing this since last winter and now average UNDER 100 LITRES of water (household) usage per day.
The savings are significant for both the environment and my wallet.
We come to that conclusion five years ago and since then we collected rain water, that rain water is the input for washing machine, the washing machine output is then used for the toilet.
"It takes 6 liters of clean drinkable water to flush" - "We flush 140 liters every day"
Okay, is that per family, or something? Because if that's a single person, that's more than 20 flushes a day. You need to see a doctor or something?
Never thought that climate change would also mean having to rethink how we go to toilets.
It is all good using less waste, but a better solution also needs to be more hygienic. We can treat water to an extent and even tap water itself isn't perfect, but perhaps it is not the best idea to be overzealous with recycling waste water, recycling waste water back into a toilet is a great idea for saving water, but maybe it's better to have showers, kitchen facilities and general taps use a different water source for health and safety purposes to prevent any form of cross-contamination.
Access to clean water should be a human right, and we don't want to create a society where the impoverished have to drink, wash themselves and wash their dishes in treated water that needs to be chemically polluted, while cleaner, less chemically polluted water is treated as a more expensive luxury.
I've been saving everything for environment, serious in 3R practice from the reduce level, but I'd excuse water usage on flushing. This is the part I'd cheat and stick to conventional flush because getting rid of whole evidences after toilet is so important that we seem to have no other option except that extra water to really make sure it all gets pushed down to every little spots that even the odor quickly gets away. I do still acknowledge the need for different levels of water flush for different form of toilet wastes, speaking of liquid waste should be using less water flushing and not the same big amount of water as the long call ones, and as for that we already see solutions from many toilets with double flush buttons, one is for lesser water flushing and one is more, which till this day I still couldn't tell which one is which as they don't give writing instructions on the buttons so they did not seem effective. For now we'd need to improve on displaying the writing instruction on the buttons that's all and as for using way lesser water than already is, I'd keep that aside for now.
Most toilets I've seen with two flush settings have the lesser one occupying a smaller portion of the circle, whether separated by a cresent shape or a squiggly line.
In our apartment we have the fancier, modern style with the hidden tank and push button with concentric circles on the wall where you push a little for the small flush, and all the way for the big one.
If you mix poo and pee and leave it in a ceptic tank, it becomes a stinky mess. However, if you have a garden that is big enough (500 square meters) and you could spare the time, you could separate the poo from the pee and fertilize your garden. Put the poo on the compost heap and cover it with soil. It will quickly decay without smell. Next, take the pee and mix it with rain water and water your garden with it.
In places where there is water, there is no problem. In places where there is little water i.e. hot areas, an average air conditioner produces about one bucket of water every hour (clean like rain)! use it for flushing water or irrigation. end of your problem - PEROID.
Having lived aboard boats and off grid cabins for 45 years I’ve never needed a flush toilet
One thing wasn't mentioned here, and it shows how complex the topic is, while in this video only one aspect was looked at.
In Germany people, especially kids, were advertised to safe water since about the late 80's. And as the kids grow older with that mind set, less water was 'wasted'. But the consumption of cosmetics and detergents went up. Energy saving washing machines added to it, as the only way the industry could build significally more energy efficient washing machines was to reduce the water used - less water which needs to be heated = less enegy.
The result was, and even years and years before the drought came:
Many many wastewater treatment plants couldn't work right, concentration especially of detergents and cosmetics and all the chemical stuff was too high, thus they had to pump in fresh water. This means, effectively not much water has been saved, if at all! It's just the people who **think** they've done something for the environment. It's to silence one's conscience, and not knowing the truth is a bliss.
Saving water must come together with saving detergents and stuff (and/or using more easily biodegradable ones, with much less fragrance especially regarding laundry). Or the whole water treating has to be revolutionised (which makes the idea of revolutionising our toilets a laughable small one in comparison). And those who were born some decade before the millenium may remember how bad the water quality in rivers actually was, before water treatment got significally improved and standards were set for both, industry and individuals. To change this system and make a tiny mistake might have catastrophic consequences.
I'm all for composting stuff that can be composted, *but* a major environmental skandal and catastrophy in South Germany showed what it can cause if done wrong:
Waste of paper recycling which couldn't be used anymore in the recycling process was given to farmers as 'compost' to put on their fields. The recycling companies saved money for the disposal and the farmers got fertiliser without too much nitrogen to improve soil quality, for free. Win/win. It's just old paper, what could go wrong, right? Wrong.
Some years ago a water supplier ringed alarm, as quite high amounts of PFCs were found, substances which at that times wasn't usually looked for when the water was tested, as it wasn't mandatory. The levels were so high, that in the communities in that area people were asked to not prepare food with tab water, to not bath or fill pools with it where longer skin contact is given and better not to wash smaller children with that water. But it was only a peak of an iceberg. It was found that the PFCs got into the groundwater via fields of farmers that were treated with this paper compost. But it did not end there. Soon it were hundreds of hectares of farmland, which was affected and should have been decontaminated. But it still not ended, as further investigation showed there were farmers across the state which also took advantage of this 'free compost'. And it still not ended, as then PFCs were found in other states of Germany, too, with more and more farmland contaminated, which was impossible to decontaminate at that scale!
Bur back to the region where the iceberg peaked first, in the Upper Rhine Valley, were a giant groundwater body was contaminated with immense loads of PFCs, a groundwater body which moved. Towards the biggest city of the area with about 350.000 citizens. And further, as it can be described as a giant invisible river under the river Rhine. Which flows all the way to the north, and through the most populated state of Germany.
Yet still, this major environmental catastrophy was hardly mentioned in news.
And to just think of removing poo and pee without even informing oneself what kind of wastewater treatment plant the local community has is just as bad. If it's a biological treatment plant with a complex set of micro organisms to treat the water it again might not work as designed if you remove certain parts from the equation.
To just say 'We are wasting so much water in our toilets, we need to stop this' is way too narrow minded, stop looking at certain aspects allone and start looking at complexes as a whole, everything else is unscientific eyewash.
Products made not biodegradable is also a problem but are you really saying compost is wrong? 😂😂😂😂😂
You are the narrow thinker.
We need to demand quality versus quantity.
@@ivonned32 re-read. Might help.
This is a great video every way you look at it.
I live alone. As a general practice, I flush my toilet once a day. Since most of my toilet usage is for urination, I urinate into a capped jug.
When the toilet is used, I dump the jug into it.
as a person with OCD, toilet business is not something i like to talk about, as it can jumpstart a minor mental breakdown in the wrong case.
even through this, i agree the systems in place for toilets are wasteful. i might not be able to go as far as using my excrement to feed plantgrowth, thanks to my mental issues,
but i would totally have an outhouse hut that gets moved to a different hole every year or so, as the old waste hole is covered up with soil and plants grown on top (compostable TP, of course.)
Popo is adorable tho.
Well done! Such a well done video!
In Belgium, newer homes have a rain water tank and use that water to flush toilets and use it for the washing machine or garden watering. This water ends up in the sewer anyway, though newer streets have a separate system so excess rain water doesn't end up in the sewer anymore.
Yes that solution actually makes sense. Treatment plants often become overwhelmed with sudden heavy rainfall. Cities don't manage these runoffs well, most of them come from roofs and paved areas straightto drains.
The key should to retain the rainwater and use it later, rather then mixing it with sewage.
We use gray water from the washing machine etc. and rain water for flushing the toilet. When there's enough rain water we supplement with clean water :) This year there were only about 15 days where we had to use clean water but that's because the summer in Germany wasn't as hot this year. Still think it's a pretty good way to do it for now. We're currently looking into composting toilets because I've seen a lot of people use them in tinx houses 🤔
Less wasteful ways: In Taos, New Mexico there is an architect, Michael Reynolds, that builds homes called Earthships. In his homes water is used at least three times before it goes to a leach field. The first time the water is used in the kitchen, Laundry, shower or bathroom sinks. The water is then directed to an enclosed planter bed where it grows food, is filtered and collected. Then it will travel back to the bathroom when someone flushed the toilet. The water finally heads out to the septic leach field. Where it could grow plants for beneficial insects and such.
In Australia they use worms to process the poop in what looks similar to a regular septic tank system. The water released is used to irrigate plants. There is a channel on youtube that has several videos explaining it: A&A Worm Farm Waste Systems .
What about neighborhood composting systems that create biogas for cooking, that could be sent back to the houses in the neighborhood. There is such a plant in India and they have a video on here just can't find it at the moment.
The big problem of dealing with sewage is not the pee and poop (as in the video, we have uses for those) but with all the mixing chemicals that people put down the drain.
I have been thinking about this.. For a long time... Nice work
I live in Canada and everyone in my community poops in buckets or bins and cover it with sawdust or leaves. The collection goes on the compost pile and rainwater is plentiful in tanks for hand washing and garden watering as a result. Oh I also add fine charcoal to make biochar with it too, it helps with odours.
I like the simplicity of this system but I am interested in experimenting with biogas and also pooping in a worm bin too. I hear they fill up much more slowly as the worms eat all the poop as you go.
Hello Tom! Would you mind sharing what's the name of your community? It would be amazing if someone did a 'case study' about it...
Another thing that urine has is urea which is very useful especially in a chemical called ad-blue which is used to reduce emissions in diesel veichles (and which there is a shortage of in Australia
I live in Namibia, a country greatly affected by droughts. As far as I know our capital, Windoek uses recycled water for tap water. This is for as long as I can remember, and there are people living in Windhoek not having a clue they're drinking poop water and the rest of us just don't care. People would bring water from farms because they didn't want to drink the city water. My generation seems to be used to it and doesn't make a great deal of it.
Good work
no, it does not... it has a perfect waterflow system and modern ones got two switches to choose from, regarding volume.
There’s a considerable element of ‘poetic justice’ in converting waste back into consumable resources - sort of the reverse of picking up the puppy poop and putting it in the empty dog food bag
I respect the restraint shown.
I have a compost toilet. It uses no water. It's a second-hand commode with the potty removed and a 25 litre brewing bucket underneath. And a bag of sawdust. And three 330 litre dalek compost bins. Each one takes 18 months to fill (one person's humanure) and therefore the material in the one I need to dig out to refill next is about 4 years old, is down to about 100 litres, and goes well under fruit trees and hedges. Problem solved.