Thomas Crapper, the brains behind the modern flush toilet, likely had no idea there would be over seven billion people living on this planet. The materials, energy and dollars spent on infrastructure and operation of using perfectly good drinking water to flush away our "poop and pee" away is considerable
Toilets: past, present and future
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The future of the toilet may not be as we know it. Photo / Getty Images
Composters do need to be designed into houses as they often have a lower-level chamber, or a more energy hungry drying model will need to be used. If we want state-of-the-art, sustainable or even "living" houses and buildings, especially on small urban sites, the modern composting toilet will likely be part of the solution.
A recent six story office building in Seattle, the Bullit Centre, has super low-flush foam toilets with basement compost units, to eliminate 70 per cent of water use.
Read more about composting toilets at sustainable building website Level.
This article was originally published in Element magazine. Check out the website here. For weekly Element news sign up to our newsletter.
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- www.nzherald.co.nz