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L’URITONNOIR | Clever urinal

Uritonnoirs installés aux USA avec pare-vues et sous une tente

URINE is a captivating subject!
When the uritonnoir was launched, we had a great article in the GUARDIAN.
“L’Uritonnoir: the straw bale urinal that makes compost from ‘liquid gold'”.

Let’s support it as best we can by carefully preparing two essential aids to understanding it:

💪 an assembly guide | just a reminder: the object is shipped flat-packed and requires two parts to be assembled once delivered. Tutorial available online!

💪 an instruction manual to help you understand the message conveyed by this new, somewhat exotic tool: combining straw+urine (carbon+nitrogen) to generate manure (human dung). It should be pointed out that it is made from UV- and FROST-resistant material and can therefore be kept outdoors. It is also washable and can be stacked for easy storage.

Now it’s time to take a closer look at the countries it’s being used in and the contexts in which it’s being used.

First observation | The uritonnoir is very popular in Europe, especially in Northern Europe.
Hypothesis: beer country… mystery…

Second observation | The photos received illustrate the diversity of installation methods in terms of :

👉 modesty, by cleverly arranging straw bales together

👉 audience diversity, by managing the height for children, adding privacy screens for women who want to use it with a pisser-debout

👉 accessorising, litter bins, beer racks, etc.
👉 diversion of use, by using it directly planted in windrows of COMPOST 🪱 to activate its transformation for free

Third observation | The dry material used to plant the uritonnoir also varies according to local availability:

👉 some prefer our recommendation, STRAW, a waste product from cereal crops and perfectly suited to this use. 20€ per 300 kg straw bale.
👉 others install them in hay when they have plenty of it. Less relevant, since hay is primarily a livestock feed and its price can be five times that of straw. On the plus side, hay is much more absorbent than straw!
👉 And at the other end of the planet, in New Zealand, the mystery remains. We’ve never been able to identify the plant fibre used in the bales.

After more than ten years in existence, the URITONNOIR remains the :
👉 the lightest (only 400 grams)
👉 and the cheapest on the market! 💥

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L’uritonnoir | The TEST

Pisseur d'uritonnoir au Hellfest

We know that the uritonoir works perfectly in the backyard, but we still had to assess the absorption capacity of straw bales on a larger audience!

What festival do we have on hand near Nantes?

Well … Hellfest! 😈 A quick call to the KING of Hellfest logistics, always on the lookout for sanitary solutions.

He suggested we install nine round bales of straw, each fitted with 3 uritonnoirs. 27 uritonnoirs in the centre of WHITE CAMP HELLFEST, where 30,000 festival-goers pitch their tents!

A small observation team is organised. Like all conscientious and dedicated designers, we also pitch our tents at one end of the straw bales, equipped with hand-held counters.

The festival opens its doors! Go! Go!

How strange… after a few hours, the festival-goers gave up their 25 cl cups in favour of 1.5 litre jugs… 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺

A tsunami of urine!

Fortunately, we’re not alone: additional sanitary solutions are in place. The first day passed calmly, with wave after wave of festival-goers. They put their jugs on the straw bales and empty their bladders at a frantic pace. At what point, after how many litres, will the straw bales implode? The third day was more complicated! A ball change would have been useful. A ball change would have been useful. But on such a busy festival, handling vehicles are banned for safety reasons.. This is what we call a full-scale crash-test of a technical function!

The small victory is hearing festival-goers exclaim: ‘Ah! But it’s for making manure… clever!’ 🪱
There it’s won: this little object does convey the essential message!

We now have our information:
We can now correctly size the number of uritonnoirs according to the number of users!

The uritonnoir is therefore highly effective in the following contexts:

– micro-festivals, which often have little money to hire sanitary facilities
– agricultural festivals (where straw is readily available)
– green classes, scouting and other nature camps
– sporting events (along trails and other running routes)
– family celebrations, birthdays
– corporate events
– campsites and farm gites
– accrobranche and via ferrata sites
– adventure parks
– and of course in ALL GARDEN AREAS without distinction!

Wherever this precious liquid is harvested to be used in situ as fertiliser for tomatoes! 🍅

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THE URITONNOIR | GENESIS

Uritonnoir installé sur balle de paille au fond d'un jardin

Planting a urinal in a straw bale… What a funny idea!

At the Center for Alternative Technology in Pantperthog, Wales, visitors are invited to urinate on bales of straw!

An invitation to combine two common types of waste:
👉 urine (nitrogen)
👉 straw (carbon)

A goal: To make manure. A free soil improver for the vegetable garden!

First observation: urinating on a bale of straw can cause a few inconveniences… splashes in return from an unwelcome stream of urine.

The ideas are flowing…

What if we were to urinate directly into urinals made from straw… in other words, agglomerate this cereal waste to make an object! Make a mould and produce parts. Only impregnated with urine will they degrade irreparably…

And then… too much energy to manufacture and transport… An LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) that’s not really optimised!

Another solution: what if we simply planted a funnel in the middle of a bale of straw? A urinal/funnel… a URITONNOIR! 💡

The first silhouettes are sketched out. The choice of material seems strategic.

An object linked to the environment… so necessarily biodegradable… in corn starch for example to be compostable? Another dead end in terms of LCA.

The limit of biodegradable materials… in contact with urine. The urinal will become, by default, DISPOSABLE. It will require a lot of energy and materials to produce it and produce it and produce it again…

This utensil MUST BE REUSABLE, so let’s think “SUSTAINABLE”.

Stainless steel? Too heavy to hold in the straw!

Let’s make it out of the same material as ecocups, the returnable cups commonly found at festivals. In other words, plastic. There are contexts where this material has real relevance. We chose PP, polypropylene, a recyclable plastic.

And as the urinal is designed to be used outdoors, we need to protect it from UV rays and frost.

One of the main difficulties in eco-design is identifying the RIGHT material.

Unlike ecocups, which are accumulated at home (the deposit applied is still not high enough, €1…), no-one will leave a festival with a urinal under their arm…

And so the uritonoir was born!

A small, affordable object, cut out of a sheet of PP, shipped flat and easy to assemble yourself.

A small object that tells a simple story:

Stop scattering your urine all over the place!
Instead, concentrate it in a bale of straw.
And use it as fertiliser for your vegetable garden!

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MINI price, MINI size | MAXI discreet, MAXI volume

Uritrottoir Mini | Déclinaison couleur selon nuancier RAL pour répondre aux exigences des architectes des bâtiments de France

Introducing the MINI uritrottoir!

For streets, building sites and festive events.

Entirely redesigned to meet your expectations with even greater precision:

  • fighting urinary incivilities
  • offer an instant service that’s easy to install
  • respond to your QSE strategy by offering a tool for collecting urine with a view to recycling it as fertiliser

Technical specifications :

  • simplified manager access
  • 3 collection volumes 30L | 90L | 120L
  • with or without planter
  • brushed stainless steel or powder-coated according to RAL colour chart
  • customizable
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NPK IS AN EFFICIENT, HYGIENIC, AND ECOLOGICAL SOLUTION

Illustration d'une installation d'urinoir NPK femme dans un établissement recevant du public

Designers Victor Massip and Laurent Lebot of French studio FALTAZI introduce NPK, the waterless female urinal for EKOVORE.

Fast, hygienic, and environmentally friendly, the NPK makes the public urinating experience more swift and easier for women, eliminating restroom queues with its express peeing feature. Designed to accommodate the squat position, the urinal ensures touch-free use and prevents bowl contact. An integrated grid also effectively breaks up strong urine splashes for added cleanliness, and can be easily removed for quick sanitation between uses. Beyond convenience of use, FALTAZI promotes environmental responsibility. NPK conserves significant amounts of water and encourages urine collection for use in agriculture. Its natural properties, rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, make it a perfect fertilizer for growing plants. FALTAZI envisions NPK to be installed in public spaces, including schools, stadiums, and swimming pool, as well as within the home. Designers Victor Massip and Laurent Lebot have constructed its form entirely from corrosion-resistant stainless steel, with an easy to install technology and a dry siphon for odor prevention to enhance practicality and use.

Specifically designed for collective housing and public buildings, the NPK urinal system introduces a range of waterless sanitaryware comprising three components: a male waterless urinal, a female waterless urinal, and a facade tank. The male and female urinals can both operate independently or as part of the complete NPK collection. Each element can be supplied separately, providing flexibility in installation.

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ROSILUV at the Parc Maximilien Farm in Brussels

ROSILUV Ferme du Parc Maximilien à Bruxelles

In Brussels, the Ferme du parc Maximilien collective, set up on a wasteland, has no water supply.

He chose the ROSILUV GALVA self-contained rainwater collector for watering.

Thank you to Maral Voskertchian, project manager, for her feedback:

“The structure seems to be holding up well and the first rain has already partly filled the tank. This collector will now give us access to water on an urban wasteland so that we can grow a few planters with the help of local residents”.

Rosiluv is a clever rainwater collector that can be installed on top of 1000-liters intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) so that they can be filled without the need for a nearby roof.

It’s an economical solution for watering vegetable gardens, allotments and shared gardens, educational school gardens and urban wasteland. Rosiluv also provides a simple solution for access to water for eco-pasture.

This robust, low-tech 4.3m2 funnel is made from galvanised steel.

Using Rosiluv :

– you have easy access to water for irrigation.
– you reduce your water bills.
– you have a rain shelter to store your tools.
– optimise the life of your IBC tank by protecting it from UV rays.

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Uritonnoir is 10 years old!…

Tableau pour fêter les dix ans de l'uritonnoir

Uritonoir is 10 years old!…

… 10 years of providing a light, environmentally friendly and economical sanitary service,

  • for the vegetable gardens
  • for micro-festivals
  • for gîtes and campsites on the farm
  • for agricultural events
  • for sporting events, trails, marathons
  • for ecomuseums

In France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and even the USA!

#urine #fertiliser #agriculture #nitrogen #phoshore #npk #circulareconomy #waterless

And for its 10th anniversary, throughout the month of May, the uritonnoir offers you a 10% discount

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ROSILUV, a new tool for the vegetable garden!

Rosiluv, collecteur d'eau pluviale en forme de toiture-entonnoir qui s'installe au sommet des tonnes à eau (IBC 1000 litres)

The economical solution for watering the garden with rainwater.

Rosiluv is a clever solution for collecting rainwater efficiently for later use in your garden.

Rosiluv is a 4m2 funnel that can be easily installed on top of a water tank (IBC 1m3).

Rosiluv collects rainwater directly into your tank.

Rosiluv is a low-tech, robust equipment made of galvanized steel.

Using Rosiluv :

  • you have water available for watering the garden, even in times of drought.
  • you reduce your consumption of drinking water.
  • you reduce your water bills.
  • you optimise the life of your tank by protecting it from solar radiation.
  • vous disposez d’un abri-pluie pour entreposer vos outils.

    Découvrez Rosiluv !
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L’Uritonnoir: the straw bale urinal that makes compost from ‘liquid gold’ | The Guardian

French design studio Faltazi has developed a plug-in funnel to upcycle urine and bring an eco message to summer festivals.

“Are you used to going for a number one in the back of your garden?” asks French design studio Faltazi. “Do not waste this valuable golden fluid by sprinkling on inappropriate surfaces!”

Their solution to the problem of peeing al fresco is l’Uritonnoir, a hybrid of a urinal (“urinoir” in French) and a funnel (“entonnoir”) that plugs into a straw bale to make your very own urine upcycling factory.

As the bale is filled with your “liquid gold”, the nitrogen in the urine reacts with the carbon in the straw to begin the process of decomposition – forming a rich mound of composted humus within 6-12 months.

L’Uritonnoir was originally dreamt up with summer festivals in mind, where straw bales are often in frequent supply, but portaloos are not. The device comes as a flat polypropylene sheet, which is folded into shape and slotted together, then threaded on a looping band around the bale, its funnel wedged deep into the centre of the straw to channel the fluid to the composting core. A deluxe version is also available in stainless steel – presumably for the VIP bale urinal area.

The designers say their mission is to raise festival-goers’ awareness of “dry urination, water saving and urine upcycling,” and suggest the compost can kept on site and used in planters the following year to demonstrate its value. Production is set to begin in June, when the design will debut at the French heavy metal festival Hellfest.

L’Uritonnoir is just one part of Faltazi’s wider Ekovores project, which is looking at how to introduce locally integrated systems of waste management and food production – from prefab modules for processing and preserving food, to facilities for reclaiming organic waste and an online platform for exchanging know-how.

L’Uritonnoir joins a growing trend for dry, organic toilets, and it is not the first time that urinating on to straw bales has been advocated. In 2009 the National Trust introduced “pee bales” in some of its gardens for male members of staff to relieve themselves, and encouraged people to do the same at home.

“Most people can compost in some way in their own gardens,” said Rosemary Hooper, Wimpole estate’s in-house master composter. “Peeing on a compost heap activates the composting process helps to produce a ready supply of lovely organic matter to add back to the garden. It’s totally safe, and a bit of fun too.”

Oliver Wainwright

Complete article