Category: Dry toilet

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SUPERFERTIL: an advertisement for water and nitrogen!

Réclame illustrée pour l’urinoir SUPERFERTIL : un homme s’émerveille devant les économies d’eau, avec les messages « 1 bidon = 50 pipis », « 1 chasse d’eau = 3 L » et « 3 × 50 = 150 L d’eau potable économisés ».

A urinal atop a canister—that certainly deserves an advertisement. To mark the launch of SUPERFERTIL, we’ve chosen to revisit the classic style of advertising: expressive characters, quirky situations, a simple concept, and tangible benefits.

Behind these small scenes, inspired by 1950s American comic books, lies a single intention: to bring visibility to resources that we are otherwise accustomed to discarding.

150 liters of drinking water saved

A container full of urine represents about 50 individual instances of urination. By avoiding the use of 3 liters of flush water each time, this amounts to 150 liters of drinking water saved.

Plenty to get excited about, don’t you think?

By collecting urine separately, SUPERFERTIL eliminates the need for flushing. The concept is simple: a waterless urinal attached to a removable container. There is no flushing mechanism and no connection to a drainage system. Once the container is full, it can simply be moved, allowing for the potential repurposing of its contents.

Nitrogen for the garden

But the benefits of collection go beyond water savings.

Urine naturally contains nitrogen, an essential nutrient for plant growth. If collected separately, it can serve as a resource for fertilizing the garden, rather than being flushed away with wastewater.

This is the other subject of our advertisement: a woman discovers that her container holds something that can help fertilize her garden—an unexpected use for a resource rarely viewed in this light.

However, this form of utilization requires adherence to good usage practices, particularly with regard to dilution.

Changing practices, renewing our collective imagination

With SUPERFERTIL, we seek to make visible certain actions and resources that our habits lead us to overlook.

Faire évoluer les usages commence parfois par changer de regard. C’est particulièrement vrai lorsqu’il s’agit de l’urine.

SUPERFERTIL is designed by FALTAZI Studio for EKOVORE.

SUPERFERTIL FOR MEN
SUPERFERTIL WOMEN

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SUPERFERTIL: A Story About a Canister

Urinoirs SUPERFERTIL Homme et Femme mobiles dans une salle de bain

Two new products are joining the EKOVORE catalog: SUPERFERTIL FEMME and SUPERFERTIL HOMME—two waterless urinals designed to collect urine directly into a container.

Genesis: a piece was missing from the system.

Last May, we launched SUPERFERTIL voluntary drop-off points—street furniture designed to collect a fertilizer we produce daily: urine.

The goal was to enable individuals to drop off their urine so that it could be collected and utilized as agricultural fertilizer.

For this collection process to work, one essential component was missing: a vessel capable of collecting the urine, storing it temporarily, and—above all—enabling its transport to the drop-off point.

The solution takes a very simple form: a urinal screwed onto a container that detaches once full, making it easy to transport.

That is how SUPERFERTIL urinals were born.

All in all… a handy little item for everyday use!

Once these new objects were before our eyes, something became obvious.

Why would their usefulness necessarily depend on a voluntary drop-off point?

Thanks to their compact design, SUPERFERTIL urinals fit easily into existing restrooms or any other room in the house, offering practical, self-contained use. They collect urine at the source, requiring neither a flush nor a connection to the drainage system.

The principle is simple: instead of mixing urine with several liters of drinking water to flush it away with wastewater, it is collected separately in a container.

No potable water used to flush away urine, and nutrients recovered rather than mixed with wastewater.

The benefits don’t stop at saving water!

Urine naturally contains nutrients, notably nitrogen and phosphorus, that are beneficial for plant growth.

Once collected, they can therefore be considered a fertilizing resource rather than merely an effluent to be disposed of.

For use in the garden, the collected urine can be diluted with ten volumes of water before watering.

Two urinals, two positions

SUPERFERTIL WOMEN

SUPERFERTIL FEMME features an inclined polypropylene collection tray. It collects urine and directs it into the container.

Its 360° rotation allows it to be positioned out of the way of the feet, making it easier to squat. After use, it can also be moved to a storage position.

SUPERFERTIL FOR MEN

SUPESUPERFERTIL HOMME features a vertical polypropylene receptacle designed for use in a standing position.

The receiver can also be rotated 360°, allowing its position to be adapted to the available space and the intended use.

In both cases, the urinal is directly connected to a container intended for urine collection.

And the smells?

Collecting urine separately obviously requires being able to store it without generating odors.

SUPERFERTIL combines three complementary devices to ensure comfortable daily use:

  • a dry trap with elastomeric flaps, which creates a barrier between the canister and the urinal;
  • prior acidification of the urine, using approximately 4 g of household citric acid per litre of urine at the start of filling the container;
  • regularly spraying the shower tray with white vinegar after use.

This combination eliminates odors under normal conditions of use.

Design less, but design right.

This approach reflects an idea we hold dear at Ekovore: designing simple objects that meet a concrete need while optimizing the amount of material required for their manufacture.

A urinal paired with a container is enough to transform the purpose of a liquid we usually regard as waste.

Discover SUPERFERTIL urinals here!
SUPERFERTIL for women & SUPERFERTIL for men

Design of SUPERFERTIL urinals: FALTAZI Studio

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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! 💥

Would you like to give it a try? Just click here !
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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! 🍅

And if you want one… it’s over here!
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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!

And if you want one… it’s over here!
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Uritrottoir MIXT

Uritrottoir MIXT | L'uritrottoir mixt est un uritrottoir cabine inclusif qui propose un urinoir féminin et un urinoir masculin

The Uritrottoir MIXT is a public waterless toilet with a urinal for men and women.
It meets the public’s requirements in terms of gender, modesty and safety.

GENDER
The uritrottoir offers an inclusive solution with a female urinal and a male urinal.

MODESTY
A global cabin, separated in two by a technical room, ensures modesty for both sexes.

SAFETY
The women’s cabin is lockable, a secure solution that allows it to be used at any time of day.

COMFORT
For women, the cubicle is equipped with a dispenser for sanitary towels and toilet paper. Both cabins are equipped with waste bins and hydro-alcoholic gel to ensure optimum service.

HYGIENE & ROBUSTNESS
The MIXT uritrottoir is made entirely of stainless steel.

STAND-ALONE OR CONNECTED TO THE SEWAGE SYSTEM
It can be connected to the sewage network or operate independently, thanks to its 400-litre tank. The urine collected, once pumped, can be used as fertiliser for agriculture. These two operating modes are reversible.

EASIER MAINTENANCE
Side maintenance doors provide access from either side to a single technical area. This area allows urine to be pumped out and access to refill racks for consumables such as toilet paper, hydro-alcoholic gel and sanitary towels.

To find out more, contact us.
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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
Uritrottoir | Mini
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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.

NPK | Female urinal
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NPK | Waterless urinals for both sexes

NPK Femme | Urinoir sec féminin (sans eau) pour installation en maison individuel, habitat collectif et ERP (établissement recevant du public)

Production of the NPK range of waterless stainless steel urinals at APPI (Angers-France) has started! This range has been designed for both sexes, with a consistent look. It can now be installed in any public building (school, swimming pool, etc.) or in private homes that have decided to reduce their water consumption.

Principle of the dry siphon

NPK Women & Men | Dry siphon
NPK Women & Men

INSTALLATION CONFIGURATIONS | On BA13 and wall with visible or invisible pipe.

Dimensional drawing of male and female dry urinals