Louise Halestrap has set herself a tough mission: to wean people off the traditional WC in favour of something more environmentally friendly. As organic waste expert at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Machynlleth, Wales, she has become an expert in alternative toilets-and in British bathroom sensibilities. Her main problem, she says, is that most people can鈥檛 face talking about what they do in the lavatory. Beatrice Newbery asks her how she plans to change the habits of a nation, and if possible the entire Western world.
How do people react when you tell them you鈥檙e an expert in alternative toilets?
I am often called the pooh guru or pooh doctor. I鈥檝e got a collection of fake turds given to me by friends-gold-plated turds, bouncy turds, turds made from sawdust. I have them lined up on my computer.
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What does this say about people鈥檚 鈥渢oilet sensibilities鈥�?
Despite this very British lavatory humour, people still like to pretend that they don鈥檛 use the toilet. In polite society there is a necessary hypocrisy that pretends bowel functions don鈥檛 really happen. It is a huge taboo. People in the West are disgusted by their own waste. For them it is both physically and culturally contaminating. From a young age, people are taught to go, flush and forget.
Why do we cling to the traditional WC?
The porcelain water closet has great emotional value. It has helped us go up in the world, got us out of the gutters. Clean drinking water came along at the same time as the WC. That鈥檚 why it is more than just an appliance. It鈥檚 an icon, a symbol of civilisation and progress. We love it because it is familiar, like an old armchair. It鈥檚 white and shiny so it seems hygienic and it is easy to clean. It is also easy to operate, compact and-if you have a good water supply-reliable. It needs no energy and is easily maintained, as long as you can cope with minor blockages. That all adds up to what I call the 鈥減orcelain standard鈥�.
It sounds ideal. Why do we need alternatives?
Well, it鈥檚 not as great as it sounds. Let鈥檚 face it, if you鈥檝e had a night of beer and curry you鈥檒l get the familiar 鈥渂limey, don鈥檛 go in there鈥�. When Granny is staying, you have the clanging pipes and flushing noises in the middle of the night. If you block it, you have to get the brush and poke it down the loo. Men pee on the seat, as the design doesn鈥檛 really suit standing men. Loads of traditional toilets don鈥檛 work properly. They have a pathetic flush and you have to wait around until the tank has filled up before you can flush again. Flushing launches a plume of microbe-laden water droplets into the air, which isn鈥檛 very hygienic. And splashback is always unpleasant. I鈥檝e heard that if the Queen is away from home and needs to go, one of her minions drops a banana from a certain height into the toilet bowl. If it splashes, another lavatory must be found.
What about the environmental drawbacks?
We all know there鈥檚 a water shortage in the world. Most toilets use between 8 and 15 litres every time they flush. Since people go around five times a day, that brings the average to about 50 litres a day per person. It鈥檚 not difficult to see why flushing the toilet is the largest single use of water in most households-and this is drinking-quality water. Meanwhile, the system generates 20 million tonnes of sewage sludge a year-as much as all other household refuse put together.
Are British lavatorial sensibilities one of the major challenges facing alternative toilet designers?
Yes, it means we have to help people become greener but within acceptable cultural limits. Our aim at CAT is to create ecological toilets that Granny wouldn鈥檛 shy away from-that keep up the porcelain standard. That鈥檚 why many ecological alternatives look just like traditional WCs, with a white porcelain chute, but without water. Some dry toilets even play a tape of a flushing noise when you鈥檝e finished.
What is human waste actually like?
Raw faeces are not only unpleasant but also dangerous. They must be kept separate until they are made safe by some kind of treatment process, natural or otherwise. But the amount of solid matter we excrete is quite small, less than 50 kilograms a year-that鈥檚 60 grams dry weight a day. That鈥檚 a very small part of the half a tonne of human waste each person produces annually. In fact, most visits to the loo are urinations and, unlike faeces, urine is not pathogenic.
Is it nutritious?
Both urine and faeces contain valuable mineral nutrients needed by plants and other organisms. For example, there is plenty of highly soluble nitrogen in faeces. Indeed from a composting point of view, faeces can be regarded as a kind of high-quality pre-digested p芒t茅 de foie gras-delicious. The nutrient content of urine is even higher. Apart from nitrogen, faeces and urine also contain phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, iron, sodium and chlorine, plus trace elements, all of which are used by plants. In other words, treated properly, human waste can enhance the soil enormously.
How many types of alternative toilet are there?
The simplest would be the bucket toilets used for camping, which are nothing more than a hygienic collection system for sewage that is then treated elsewhere. At the other end of the spectrum you have things like the 拢7000 M12 Clivus, a toilet block for public use with two pedestals on the female side and one on the male side, a no-flush urinal which drains into the back of the composting chamber, and a fan powered by lead batteries that are recharged by photovoltaic panels. It鈥檚 a major piece of kit. At CAT we have fourteen types of alternative toilet-five different composting toilets, six different waterless urinals and three different types of low-flush toilet.
Do they have drawbacks?
Yes. Personally, I hate the de-watering toilet used in caravans which dries the waste with a fan and a heating element. They basically cook the shit and turn it into something resembling gravy granules. You sit on a toilet bowl, but your bottom is 10 centimetres from the waste. If you have a lot of people round then it can鈥檛 dry the shit quickly enough, so it piles up even higher. To make it worse, when you empty the dried granules onto the flowerbed, they turn back into sewage slurry in the rain because they haven鈥檛 been composted at all. Far from perfect, although all these toilets are appropriate for some situations.
What鈥檚 your favourite?
The real composting toilet, and I dream of having one at home. My partner won鈥檛 let me build one yet, he鈥檚 not ready for it, but I鈥檓 working on him. They are much more sophisticated than the WC. They have vents and fans which take the smell down the toilet and keep the flies away. Flies like shit, so when you鈥檙e composting they become as much of an issue as smell. This is the greenest loo available and the cleanest.
If you own a composting loo, do you have to get your hands dirty?
It鈥檚 quite simple. You have to chuck a scoop full of straw, sawdust or other carbonaceous material down every time you go to the loo. This sorts out the carbon-nitrogen ratio and gets it composting, giving air a chance to get in and around. Once a month, somebody has to go 鈥減eak knocking鈥�. When pooh and sawdust go down the hole, they create a cone. If you leave it, it will grow so high that it comes out of the loo. Peak-knocking involves flattening the pooh tower and mixing it over to the edges.
Should we all go out and buy a real composting loo?
Absolutely not. Composting toilets suit some situations, but not all, because they require enough space for a little microbial degradation plant under your house. I wouldn鈥檛 recommend one if you live in a high-rise block. When choosing an ecological loo you have to choose the most appropriate. There鈥檚 no point in having a huge electric fan in a campsite compost loo where there鈥檚 fresh air around and where people expect something earthy.
It sounds more of an ordeal than choosing a washing-machine . . .
We encourage people to see 鈥渢oilets鈥� in context, rather than in isolation. There鈥檚 no point salving your ecological conscience by having a dry toilet if you have a swimming pool. And there鈥檚 no point in paying a fortune to install a composting toilet to feed your garden when you can get the same result for less effort by composting your other household wastes. At the end of the day, most dry toilets do not fit easily into bathrooms, lifestyles or budgets. And while dry toilets are the best solution from a water-saving point of view, people can achieve 60 to 80 per cent of their water-saving potential by other, easier means.
Such as?
In a conventional setting, an ultra-low-flush WC is probably the most rational choice. These use an average of 3 litres per flush, compared to 10 litres per flush in a traditional toilet. Another easy water-saving alternative is the waterless urinal. People don鈥檛 like urinals because of their public lavatory associations, but they make a lot of sense. Then there鈥檚 urine-separating flush toilets. These are sophisticated enough to separate solid and liquid waste at source. Most work on the principle that people pee forward (if men sit down to pee rather than stand up) and pooh straight down, and they have a separate urine chute at the front of the bowl. You flush away the solid, but the urine flushes away itself. The only problem with these is when small children sit on the front of the loo to read the Beano and pooh into the urine separator.
So how are you going to persuade people they need to ditch their WCs?
When Scandinavians come to our centre and see our ultra-low-flush loos they are very nonchalant and say, 鈥淥h, I鈥檝e got that at home.鈥� For that to happen in Britain we need a psychological shift. I am really trying to break down mental barriers and get people talking and thinking about their waste in an open way before we can encourage them to take responsibility for it. Even I used to be a pooh-phobe, but working closely with turds I soon lost my preciousness. When I am teaching, my students often hover by the doorway of a composting loo, pulling horrified faces. I invite a brave one to come forward and stick their head right in it and see if it smells. Once one person has done it, everybody wants to stick their head down the toilet bowl. Like these students, we all just need a little encouragement to get more pooh-friendly.