sustainable straw urinal design

It is inefficient and unsustainable to haul human waste back in from remote festivals and other places typically populated with port-a-potties. So why not use on-hand materials to make something simple and green?

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sustainable straw urinal close up

Thus L’Uritonnoir by Faltazi which turns an everyday farm item into a urinal by means of simple funnels attached on various sides and connected via a loop running around the perimeter. The composted results can be recycled right back into the local land.

sustainable straw urinal compost
sustainable dry urinal design straw

“An uritonnoir is a hybridisation of two everyday products, an urinal and a funnel (literally in french, “urinnoir” et “entonnoir”). This system is used either used in public spaces during festive events (slotted into round bales) or in private gardens (slotted into small straw bundles). L’Uritonnoir is an utensil filling a volume of straw (carbon) with urine (nitrogen) in order to compost it during a 6-12 month period and convert it into humus.”

sustainable straw urinal plastic collector

The flat-pack design makes it easy to transport and deploy then clean or discard, minimizing waste and transit costs and making for easy assembly at events. A stainless-steel alternative is less portable but easier to clean and reuse. Urine is naturally rich in nitrogen, an essential nutrient that boosts plant growth.

“The round bale stays and composts on-the-spot. Six months later the manure can be used by local farmers. The following year, it can be used as a giant planter to be enjoyed by new festival-goers !”

About the designers:

The Faltazi are designers, of the industrial kind. They have collaborated with the SEB group, and have designed for them steam irons, vacuum cleaners or electric jugs. They designed products for Schneider Electric, Baby Buggy for Bébé confort. They produce prospective projects as Monsieur Faltazi, Ekokook Kitchen or “Les Ekovores” . The Faltazi are often described as being atypical, but what they are involved in doing is to propose a concrete vision of the world and of their profession. Their commitment to ecology and society, their genuine aspiration to help develop a sustainable world, combined to their practical experience of industry makes their approach all the more interesting and unusual.”