Turning Toilets Into Trees

What if you could turn your feces into food? The idea may seem crass and unsanitary, but that concept is actually becoming the basis of sanitation projects across the developing world.

Composting toilets -- known as ecological sanitation (or eco-san for short) -- offer sustainable solutions to hygiene and sanitation problems. Not only do composting toilets safely dispose of human waste and bring a bit of dignity to the process, they also have the potential to help with poverty alleviation and malnutrition.

The idea of composting toilets is not new, but in recent years, innovations in the eco-san field have made serious headway. In East Africa, Catholic Relief Services is piloting a comprehensive water and sanitation project based on their Arbor Loo -- a shallow, self-composting latrine with at twist. When the latrine fills, the concrete slab that covers it is moved to a new location and a fruit tree (or vegetable plant) is grown atop the composted material. Not only does the Arbor Loo promote proper hygiene and decrease incidence of diarrhea, but the produce from the trees also provides families with food and income. Additionally, local masons are able to earn money by producing the slabs. A recent survey shows great success already and the possibility for expansion across the region.

This week, Te-Ping wrote about an ingenious new single-use, compostable toilet called the PeePoo bag, meant to bring the benefits of eco-san to urban slums. Certainly, the safe disposal of excrement will have a tremendous impact on water contamination and disease transmission in cities across the globe. But what also needs to be highlighted is the potential for this simple bag to contribute to health in another way -- by reducing hunger and malnutrition.

What makes the PeePoo invention unique is that unlike the normal plastic bags slum dwellers generally use, the bag actually breaks down waste matter into fertilizer that can be used to grow nutrient-rich veggies. Unless the food-production aspect is promoted heavily (and subsequently used), it's likely these bags will just add to the piles of "flying toilets" scattered about roads and open sewers, and are likely to contaminate water and children's hands long before they compost.

Making composting toilets popular rests on their ability to serve "double duty" (pun intended) -- and all at a price lower than a conventional latrine, says Mayling Simpson-Hebert, a CRS regional technical advisor and champion of the Arbor Loo. Almost 40% of the world's population lacks access to a toilet and consequently, 1.5 million children die annually from diarrhea. Meanwhile, nearly 2 billion people worldwide suffer from food insecurity, 1 billion of whom are chronically hungry. With such huge public health problems on our hands, it's no wonder integrated solutions are emerging as the key to breaking the cycle of poverty, bad health and poor sanitation.

Photo Credit: Sandy Austin