In the world today, 2.6 billion people have no access to basic sanitation. Human faeces contains infectious and lethal pathogens, causing diseases such as cholera and diarrhea. The situation could be described as an ongoing emergency.
Designer and concept inventor Anders Wilhelson and codesigners Peter Thuvander and Camilla Wirsen together with peepoopeople have codesigned the peepoobag as a sanitation solution that aims at solving this global problem.
The peepoobag is a personal, single-use toilet that sanitises human excreta shortly after defecation. All this is done within a high performance degradable bioplastic bag coated with urea. It requires no water, and after use as the bag breaks down and disintegrates, the treated faeces become fertiliser with a high market value. its design is adapted in every way so that it might be manufactured at as low a price as possible and sold to the groups with weakest purchasing power in the world.
The peepoo bag is designed to be used once, sitting, squatting or standing. If one uses it with only the hand, the thin gauze prevents all contact with the excrement. It can also be used by being placed in a cut plastic bottle or small bucket and acting approximately as a chamber pot.
The peepoo bag is a toilet which is not fixed to a particular place. It is simple to carry since it is small and weighs less than 10 grams.
Peepoo bags are odour free for at least 24 hours after use and can thus be stored in the immediate environment.
Peepoo bag is one of few sanitation solutions which require no water. The only water required is to wash the hands after use. This means that the traditional link between water and sanitation has been cut.a used peepoobag is clean to handle. It has become a waste that neither smell nor is dirty to take care of and collect. -designboom
Visit the PeePoo website to learn more.
This is an interesting item. I don’t think it has much use in the world of tiny houses though. This seems like a good idea for a camping trip, but there are certainly better alternatives for a permanent toilet system in a tiny house. I wonder if they would even be available to general consumers, or only as part of aid packages to impoverished areas, or areas affected by natural disasters. Here’s an interesting article about it:
http://www.physorg.com/news186935544.html
It makes it sound like this is being offered as an alternative to the use of regular plastic shopping bag-type bags for waste disposal, as is currently the practice in some areas.
This might be well for disaster areas or refugee areas in initial stages. There are numerous methods for dealing with human waste that have been used for centuries.
Perhaps a larger bag that would work for a family porta potty made w/ a 5 gallon pail.
I can guarantee you the hundred thousand people in New Orleans would not have minded these considering sanitation was one of the major city battles. There are people all over our country who could use these for emergencies along with camping. If the electricity goes out, people with septics and/or wells have no water. At one point my husband and I lived on the water. When we flooded so did our septic, so it was no use. These would have been great, especially since they are good for 24 hours. They could have just gone out the next day on the way to work.
I know a parent or two who might pack one for a little one since they do not smell for 24 hours. I believe they could be of use here in the USA.
I know we would use them camping, and when we go family tent camping there are over 20 of us. This would be eco friendly by far.
I tell you as woman stuck in a vehicle, one could come in handy. I was stuck in traffic once on highway in the BOONIES, no toilet around for miles. Finally got free, & pulled over, had to go in the woods… I came out, & a police man had pulled over, was LOOKING for me to help! LUCKLY I had taken my dog & said “I took him out to go!”
Looks like it would take “practice” to use. 🙂
They have the bio degradable bags at our Dogpark now.
This product would, I think, be more appropriate for when you’re stuck in the car or somewhere similar and can’t get to a bathroom. I first ran across them for use by private pilots of small aircraft. If you think it’s hard to find a place to pull your car over when you need to pee, imagine a cross-country flight in a small plane!
http://www.traveljohn.com/
I’ve use them before and they work pretty well. The bag is filled with some type of substance that solidifies when it comes in contact with liquid. It’s not rock solid, but it gels to the point that it won’t/can’t spill out, even if the bag is punctured. I think they’re $20-$25 for a box of 18, so they’re not cheap like these bags would be (if they were even available for consumer purchase), but they’re much better suited to an “emergency,” or inconvenient, bathroom situation than these bags would be.
Why does a black person alway get used to advertise products of this nature? I’m starting to get really annoyed by this… I’m blue eyed, and red headed, and I want to start seeing blue eyed blondes advertising these products!
It would seem that most of the places that are populated predominantly by those with blond hair and blue eyes have a better understanding of basic sanitation and waste disposal, and have mastered the use of the toilet and other such technology for safely disposing of human excrement.
Mastered the art of the toilet? LOL. Yeah it takes a blonde to flush a toilet.
Don’t worry, another year of Obamanomics and you will see blue-eyed, and fair haired be the norm as an example of poverty.
Honestly, “mastering” in the ability to use litres of clean drinkable water to get “rid” of a small amount of waste is certainly nothing to be proud of, Char and Josh have clearly missed this point. I feel these waste disposable bags may be excellent in a disaster situation (yes disaster zones and refugee camps are mostly used by people who happen to have dark/black skin, you will be comforted to know the people who made/sold the weapons to displace the people who now need to shit in a bag probably have white skin)a more sustainable approach would be to translate Joseph Jenkins Humanure handbook into 100s of languages and dialect, and distribute it with waste “missionaries” showing people how to make the system work.
My point, if you missed it from my points (and it seems you have), was that these bags are a good idea for disaster areas and poverty stricken areas where it’s better than the alternative they’re using now. As I said earlier though, these don’t appear to be an alternative to dealing with waste in a “tiny house” application.
These would definitely have a place in disaster or refugee situations, especially while still on the move escaping an area, also for camping or for some homeless people who have few sanitation options (Yes, I know it’s wrong that they’re in that situation and this is not a long-term solution but definitely could make a difference for now.) Humanure Handbook totin’ waste “missionaries” is a great image!
these bags would be useful for homeless people in the United States…they have a difficult time finding a place “to go”…
the reason for showing a third world setting is, this is where there are no public utilities and the countryside is littered with human waste. The problem is cost where this is more than some make in a year so unless these are handed out, free, it is not going to work.
As someone who designs water and waste treatment systems, this is a great glove box alternative but again, single use plastics are a growing problem. This just moves the problem to another part of the chain….
I do a great deal of cruising on a tiny sailboat (too small for a porta-potti). These things are a perfect solution for me.
Don’t know if I could hold a bag under me while trying to poo…seems it could get a bit messy to say the least. I’ll take a 5 gallon bucket with kitty litter in it any day.
Good luck sitting on the container at the website. You might be in for a trip to the ER for an extraction! One which fits over the ubiquitous 5 gal. plastic bucket would be more practical in the US and the rest of the world as well.