Kazumi Hasegawa
Ecology & Design
What is sustainable? Sustainable may refer to a design that is used constantly by people and lasts long. This may also relates to ecology as somehow you reuse, reduce, and recycle in order to keep the design long lasting. For example, clothes last long. You can use it many times until it gets very dirty and old. You wear it several times because you are “re-using” it after you wore it once, and “reducing” your expenses to buy more clothes. Therefore “sustainable design” may include a daily product that is constantly used by you.
7%
5%
8% 12% 13%
4%
DID YOU KNOW THAT NEARLY 30% A THIRD OF THE WATER USED IN 21% YOUR HOME IS LITERALLY FLUSHED DOWN THE TOILET?
30% ------- TOILET FLUSHING 21% ------- BATHS, TAPS 13% ------- CLOTHES WASH 12% ------- SHOWERS
8% ------- WASHING UP 7% ------- OUTDOORS 5% ------- OTHERS 4% ------- DRINKING
In the UK, every person uses approximately 150L of water a day, with 1% figure that’s been growing every year since 1930. This is quite alarming if you consider that the UK has less available water per person than most other European countries. By making small behavioural changes and choosing more water efficient products you can save water without sacrificing too much money, comfort, or level of service. Water efficiency is about reducing the amount of water you waste on a daily basis, not restricting what you use.
Composting toilets use the natural processes of decomposition and evaporation to recycle human waste. Human faeces in the presence of oxygen naturally break down into pathogen-free compost – another reason why dumping it into water is a pretty silly idea. Urine, which is sterile on exit and full of nitrogen, is an excellent fertiliser straight out of the tube. Pros The good things about composting toilets are that there is not much waste. No use of water, power, or chemicals. It is naturally processing so nothing is harmful. Composing toilets can also be used as rubbish disposer as the process of it is the same as normal composter. There’s also no need for delivering water, or plumbing so that’ll reduce cost of setting up. It is also easy to
set, within a day or so it can be set. And this doesn’t have to be outdoor; it can also be set in the house or wherever as nothing will harm anything. It recycle human waste. Cons “The correct balance between oxygen, moisture, heat and organic material is needed to ensure a rich environment for the aerobic bacteria that transform the waste into fertilizing soil. This ensures odor-free operation and complete decomposition of waste.” – the actual user of the composting toilets odor can be a problem, despite what many manufacturers and advocates contend. And the question is, how much work is required? Surely it needs to be maintained as it is more nature, as if a plant it needs water to keep it green?
of a button on the seat or a remote control; a small wand extends from the back of the rim and begins to jet water towards the backside of the user. Different Washlet models have features such as air fresheners, seat For example, Washlet heaters, and dryers. is an innovative toilet seat that features How this changed an integrated bidet. people’s behavior to The bidet feature the toilet is that activates at the push nowadays peole who use
washlet intergraded toilet they don’t often use toilet paper to wipe the dirts off. They use water to wash things off and then wipe with the paper in the end.
kinds of people but are especially useful, and helpful for elderlies and the patients in the hospitals. Pros of these new features include little needs for cleaning – saves some water usage and feeling more comfortable being in the toilet – different mindset from the past. Cons of these new features include that you might spend more
built by and can be used by anyone. The function of this toilet is that if there’s any disaster etc, people can set the toilet from manhole and use it. It has a tent around it so nobody can actually see inside unless they tear it off. This is convenient for disaster affected area.
Japanese toilet company TOTO is famous for high-tech toilets. They have produced so many toilets that surprised people and changed people’s behavior on using toilets.
expenses on electricity and eventually you might end up using more money on it and not really saving things. There are also few more toilets that are actually changing people’s behaviors and changing people’s usage of the toilet. The one called Manhole toilet is designed for outdoor and for public, which can be
There are also new features such as lighting for the steps, deodorizing, cleaning, and auto lid opening/closing. These are made for all
Bibliography
Kikuo Hayakawa, March 2014, Water Saving Technologies in Japan
Toilets use a lot of water everyday. What we can do to save the water is to quit using water-flushing type of toilet. Use composting toilets instead. But who’s going to do that? Probably not many people will. So buy a high-tech toilet from Japan? Still not many people will do that. How can we save some water from the toilet without switching to the new toilet? My idea is to carry around composting type of toilet in your pocket. So you will not need to pay for the public toilet while not using any water!
Victor Papanek, February 1985, Design for the Real world: Human Ecology and Social Change Unknown, water – the facts Uno Winblad, unknown dates, Towards an Ecological Approach to Sensation Chris Sherwin, September 2012, Sustainability is ‘the ultimate design brief’ Unknown, The Twin-bucket Emergency Toilet Jaswanth Madhavan, November 2014, 7 sustainable toilets that could change the way the world poops Jennifer
Grey, October Compost Toilets
2014,
Unknown, January 2015, Not only cleaning, Now Even Ecological Akbar Adhiutama & Seiichi Yoshikubo, Diffusion of Electronic Bidet Toilet in Japan
Sarah Lewis Hommond, 2014, Composting toilets: a growing movement in green disposal TOTO, Neorest Chinenn, 2013, Where Does Poop Go? Shirai, 2013, Food compost transforming into Composting Toilet Unknown,
How Do Composting Toilets Work?
Alexandra Marks, 2010, Composting toilets: plenty of advances but some problems remain Fumihiro Tachi, unknown date, The structure of Composting Toilets Clara Greed, 2007, Inclusive Urban Design: Public Toilets Joseph C. Jenkins, 2006, Humanure Sensation Kotobuki, Emergency Toilets
Ecology & Design @2015