Austrian design firm EOOS and a Swiss water research institute have teamed up to create a toilet for Laufen that tackles the "urgent" environmental issue of pollution caused by wastewater.
EOOS, bathroom brand Laufen, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG) created the Save! separation toilet with a trap to siphon off urine that can then be turned into fertiliser.
By trapping the urine ? which contains a high number of nutrients ? the device allows the liquid to be repurposed.
EOOS designed the Laufen toilet to divert polluting urine for fertiliser
"A series of studies by leading scientists rank excessive nitrogen levels caused by sewage and the agricultural use of fertilisers as more threatening even than rising CO2 levels and climate change," said Laufen. "If the different types of wastewater are kept separate rather than mixed, these different streams can be sustainably processed and usable resources can be extracted," the brand explained.
In order to separate the urine, EOOS has designed an internal curved section to catch liquid onto and around the bowl. This "urine trap" keeps it separate from the stool.
The design is intended to be as discrete as possible, but requires its user to always sit down.
It features an internal curved section that catches liquid on and around the bowl
Urine's nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium counts make it a good fertiliser and compost accelerator, but it needs to...