Building - New trends
- Enviro Loo; a waterless, on-site, dry sanitation toilet system that functions without water or chemicals
HISTORY
The Enviro Loo system was invented by Dr Brian La Trobe, in his response to the sanitation challenges facing the African continent. His research, starting in the 1980's and extending into the 1990s; culminated in the development of an effective waterless, on-site sanitation system - the Enviro Loo.
With a production ready-product, Dr La Trobe established Enviro Options (Pty) Ltd, registered the Enviro Loo as a trademark of the company, and began manufacturing, marketing and installing the Enviro Loo.
Since then the Enviro Loo system has been tried; tested and evaluated in the field. This ongoing process includes scientific, health and enviromental impact studies as well as community feedback.
The first commercial model was sold and installed in 1993
Although the Enviro Loo was developed in South Africa and is still predominantly manufactured locally, it is now manufactured in other countries and distributed to 39 other countries.
To date more than 47 000 units have been installed worldwide and the company's come a long way since its first exports to Botswana and Ghana.
Enviro Options has been the proud recipient of many awards.
HOW IT WORKS
In the initial phase the system separates liquid and solid waste as it enters the container via the custom designed ceramic toilet bowl. Liquid waste drains to the bottom of the container while soild waste remains on the drying plate.
Both the liquid and the soild waste are exposed to a continuous flow of air that's driven through the unit by the forced aeration ventilation system. The movement of air is assisted by the ventilation extraction unit positioned on top of the outlet vent pipe with air being drawn into the container via the inlet vent pipes and toilet bowl.
As the air moves through the system:
- It dehydrates the solid waste as it migrates down the sloped, ridged, perforated drying plate. * It causes the liquid which has drained to the bottom of the container to evaporate.
At the same time, sunlight absorbed by the black inspection cover increases the ambient temperature within the container. The intense heat, prolonged retention periods and oxygen-rich air drawn in via the toilet bowl and side air inlets, dehydrate and decompose the waste.
At the end of this process the human waste is converted; via the stimulated bacterial and biological activity; into an inoffensive dry stabilised material. At this point it's reduced to roughly 5% of its original volume.
Odour Free
The negative pressure within the container prevents the escape of any odour through the toilet bowl or through the air inlet pipes. The odour is vented into the atmosphere via the wind driven extractor.
