Spotlight on eco-friendly, odour-free toilet

KUCHING: A dry eco-friendly toilet that’s odour-free, water-free, sewage-free and energy-free will be one of the topics at the 15th World Toilet Summit and Expo (WTSE), which kicks off today.

The sustainable toilet, dubbed Ecoloo, uses biotechnology and special enzyme to treat human waste to minimise the use of water.

“Ecoloo is a waterless toilet that doesn’t require flushing.

It is totally enclosed and centralised with no connection to the sewage treatment plant or septic tank,” explained Ecoloo Malaysia co-founder and chief executive officer Zuraina Zaharin.

All it takes to get the toilet up and running is to plug and connect it to a wind turbine fan.

“A special enzyme needs to be applied once a month to treat the waste so the solid will be transformed to ashes, while the liquid dispensed to another bottom layer of Ecoloo which converts it into fertiliser that’s full of nutrients, contains no pathogen, E-coli or other bad bacteria.”

According to Zuraina, who is one of the speakers of the three-day WTSE, this fertiliser can be applied to the plantation or even disposed off in the drain as it is environmentally-safe.

“However, the fertiliser will be very salty, so dilute it with water before applying to the plantation,” she told reporters when met after paying Kuching City South Mayor Dato James Chan a courtesy call with the WTSE delegation at Kuching South City Council (MBKS) building yesterday.

“We emphasise fertiliser because it is natural and full of nutrients. We have tested it in five labs around the world namely Kenya, Sweden, Germany, Korea and India, and they all showed the same results, meaning it (Ecoloo) kept nutrients but there were no bad bacteria,” she revealed.

She noted that conventional toilets these days use up to four litres of water per flush.

“Human waste takes up about 0.4 litres while the water to flush about four litres, and sometimes you may flush twice or even three times. There are places in the world with no access to water or face water shortage such as Jordan – the second most water-scarce country in the world.

“So when you flush using that much water, it’s wasting water that could have been used for drinking, as some countries don’t even have enough water for drinking,” she said.

To-date, Ecoloo has been sold to 17 countries including Jordan.

“In Malaysia, we are still quite new because we only started manufacturing last year. However, we have sold Ecoloo to Kenyir Lake Floating Chalet in Terengganu, and these are installed in the chalets. Penang is also considering to take up the Ecoloo,” she said.

Apart from Zuraina’s talk, other topics that will be presented during WTSE include ‘New Generation Disruptive Sanitation Technologies’ which will be presented by South Africa’s Water Research Commission executive manager Jay Bhagwan.

According to him, there are two billion people in the world who do not have access to basic sanitation, but there are also six billion people around the globe using inappropriate forms of sanitation.

“I think if we are innovative enough, we can bring technology for treating human waste to households and produce beneficial products from it,” he said.

He felt privileged to join the summit to share on sanitation technology that could provide solutions to many challenges faced in developing countries.

World Toilet Organisation (WTO) founder Jack Sim said this was the first time WTSE was being held in Malaysia.

“Each year, we organise the summit in different cities to create awareness of the importance of good toilet culture. We use the toilet six to eight times a day so we need to share this culture even though people might be shy to talk about it. It is WTO’s job to make sure everybody feels comfortable talking about good toilet culture,” he said.

During the three-day summit, Sim, who hails from Singapore, said participants will be exchanging views and information on the latest technology and best practices regarding good toilet culture.

“We are trying to create a normalisation of the subject so people won’t feel shy to discuss about it anymore. Besides, the toilet is an enjoyable place to be in and, in fact, it is the happiest room in the world,” he said.

WTSE, which will be held from today until Oct 29, will see participants from 15 countries converge here for the summit which aims to identify the main challenges countries face in developing and enhancing sustainable sanitation infrastructure.

Organised by MBKS in collaboration with WTO, this year’s summit themed ‘Happy Toilet, Happy City’ will address topics of capacity building, technology, design and maintenance, government policies, hygiene education, social development and corporate social responsibility.