The experiment was conducted in Bordeaux for two years by the association La Fumainerie and its partner Un Petit Coin de Paradis. 35 households have disconnected from the mains drainage network and recovered their urine and excrement in town thanks to dry toilets.
Between July 2020 and July 2022, 35 households and micro-enterprises in Bordeaux tried the experiment of disconnecting from the city’s sewage system and recovering their waste by installing dry toilets.
This experiment, conducted by the association The Fumainerieaimed to promote in an urban environment ecological sanitation and to propose alternatives to the evacuation of urine and stool from traditional toilets into the sewers. Their solution: dry toilets at home.
For two years, the association tried to set up a chain of door-to-door collection and recovery of waste by creating compost and fertilizer. Every week, a cargo bike came to collect the cans and crates from the volunteers, exchanged them for clean containers and then took the waste thus collected to a composter.
Almost everyone has come across dry toilets at festivals or even village festivals. Many of us have used them and praised their usefulness and ecological benefit. But are we ready to take the plunge and use them daily at home?
We realize that often the obstacle, the first obstacle, is the smell – Mathilde Le Cadre, coordinator of La Fumainerie
– A little corner of paradise
Compost and fertilizer
You should know that our excrement and urine can be recycled and therefore valued. Feces are compostable, but over a long period: 18 months. As for the urine, their use can be immediate, “that’s why they say you shouldn’t hesitate to pee in the garden”. Used pure, it is an excellent weedkiller, diluted, they can be used as fertilizer.
In order to separate these materials, the partner company A little corner of paradise provided volunteers with separative dry toilets.
Between crates and cans
During this experiment, La Fumainerie provided its volunteers with Bibok model dry toilets offered by Un Petit Coin de Paradis. These new lavatories using so-called low-tech technology (useful, durable and accessible to all) appear at first sight as traditional toilets, but the differences are significant: no water to evacuate, sawdust of wood to absorb moisture and odors and above all a system that separates urine and faeces.
It forces you to sit down, simply to properly separate the materials – Mathilde Le Cadre
– A little corner of paradise
Two compartments are hidden in the Bibok model: a 24-litre box that receives faeces and a 10-litre container for urine. The separation of materials is done through an earthenware funnel “with a part that acts as a hem” to allow distribution in the correct containers.
Easy to install, you don’t need to be a plumber to disconnect traditional toilets and install their replacements. The only difficulty is to take the right hand to remove the crate and the container when they are full, but nothing hard.
There have been no accidents that I know of. It was still well prepared – Mathilde Le Cadre
Collection
Each week, cans and crates were collected and exchanged for clean containers. On average for a family of four, a cargo bike collected 30 liters of urine distributed in three cans and 24 liters of excrement contained in a crate.
– The Fumainerie
In the middle of writing the results of the experiment, only mid-term figures are available. In one year, 2.4 tons of faeces and 7,500 liters of urine were collected and recycled.
A promising record
After two years of experimentation, it would seem that the people of Bordeaux are ready to take the plunge and install dry toilets in their apartment or, for the lucky ones, in their shop (Bordeaux townhouse).
Mathile Le Cadre reveals that La Fumainerie had no difficulty in recruiting volunteers: “We had 35 homes and there were 170 additional requests […] so it was pretty easy to have people in this experiment and that’s pretty encouraging.”
About a third of the households that had volunteered connected to mains drainage after these two years of experimentation, but some volunteers decided to persevere: “I have a couple in mind, in particular, who have actually installed a second composter who, in addition, shares it with another co-producer.”
Despite these encouraging results, Mathilde Le Cadre regrets that the local authorities have not taken over, even if they find this approach interesting. Far from giving up, La Fumainerie plans in several months to create a place where visitors would find a composting site, but also a place where awareness, information and training workshops would be offered.