Wheelie Bin Urinal Turns Public Urination into Free Fertilizer
Anyone who has ever lived in an urban metropolis like New York City knows about the pee stench. It’s everywhere – in the subway, at the ATM and even in lobbies of public buildings. First-floor tenants sometimes find that the smell creeps into their apartments. But what can be done to stop it? For many men, the conveniece of peeing outside trumps finding a public restroom – especially late at night.
Well, London designer Stephen Bischof decided to try out an experiment in which urinals disguised as trash cans offer a more sanitary, but no less convenient, option for a wee whee. He’s even using the collected urine as natural fertilizer (it’s great in compost!)
From Design Boom:
The wheelie bin urinal is a prototype experiment which explores how we could facilitate the legal act of urinating in public in designated areas. the wheelie bin’s existing unhygienic properties and public / domestic location presents itself as a tool in which to interact and investigate street behaviours.
Early prototypes of the bin were installed on busy roads in the lewisham borough of london, in which people’s frequent interactions with the bins were documented. from these observations, the bin’s design was modified. urine is channelled into a base,where a tray with dried garden grass or wood ash from a household furnace, absorb the liquid to create a bio-fertilizer – nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium(this was tested and proven by a research study in 2007) by the university of kuopio in finland.
Yes, there’s video.
the cycle of the wheelie bin urinal from DASIGN on Vimeo.
Fact: Men are not going to stop peeing outside. Additional fact: most people (read: women) don’t like it when strangers pull out their wangs in public. Using urine as fertilizer instead of allowing it to invade the nostrils of passersby is a great idea, but perhaps this thing should have some kind of privacy screen.
Link Design Boom via Treehugger
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This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Consciousness, Green Living, Health, Science, Spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
