During my walks, I have seen a variety of different things sitting on curbs, waiting to be picked up. They range from the typical, such as tree limbs, to a bit unusual, such as discarded items with Free Stuff sign, to bizarre, such as these three toilets. These are typical American toilets, but I have traveled in Asian countries where the toilets are little more than a hole in the floor. Methods of eliminating human waste varies worldwide.
According to Wikipedia, toilets can be with or without flushing water — flush toilet or dry toilet. They can be set up for a sitting posture or for a squatting posture — squat toilet. Flush toilets are usually connected to a sewer system in urban areas and to septic tanks in isolated areas. Dry toilets are connected to a pit, removable container, composting chamber or other storage and treatment device. Toilets are commonly made of ceramic (porcelain), concrete, plastic or wood.
The number of different types of toilets used on a worldwide level is large. Toilet types can be grouped by:
- Having a water seal or not — which usually relates to flushing or not, i.e. flush toilet versus dry toilet.
- Being used in a sitting or squatting position — sitting toilet versus squat toilet.
- Being located at a household level or in public — toilet room versus public toilet.
People use different toilet types based on the country that they are in. In developing countries, access to toilets is also related to people's socioeconomic status. Poor people in low-income countries often have no toilets at all and resort to open defecation instead. This is part of the sanitation crisis which international initiatives such as November 19 World Toilet Day draw attention to.
Many poor households in developing countries use very basic — and often unhygienic — toilets, for example simple pit latrines and bucket toilets which are usually placed in outhouses. Globally, nearly one billion people have no access to a toilet at all, and are forced to do open defecation —particularly in India. Diseases transmitted via the fecal-oral route or via water, such as cholera and diarrhea, can be spread by open defecation. They can also be spread by unsafe toilets which cause pollution of surface water or groundwater. Historically, sanitation has been a concern from the earliest stages of human settlements. United Nations General Assembly Sustainable Development Goal No. 6 calls for "adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, and end open defecation by 2030." A prototype of a toilet utilizing viscoelasticity has been developed which is practically frictionless.
Flush toilet
The amount of water used by conventional flush toilets usually makes up a significant portion of personal daily water usage. However, modern low flush toilet designs allow the use of much less water per flush. Dual flush toilets allow the user to select between a flush for urine or feces, saving a significant amount of water over conventional units. The flush handle on these toilets is pushed up for one kind of flush and down for the other. Another design is to have two buttons, one for urination and the other for defecation. In some places, users are encouraged not to flush after urination. Flushing toilets can be plumbed to use greywater (previously used for washing dishes, laundry and bathing) rather than potable water (drinking water). Some modern toilets pressurize the water in the tank, which initiates flushing action with less water usage.
Another variant is the pour-flush toilet. This type of flush toilet has no cistern but is flushed manually with a few liters of a small bucket. The flushing can use as little as 0.53–0.79 gallons. This type of toilet is common in many Asian countries. The toilet can be connected to one or two pits, in which case it is called a "pour flush pit latrine" or a "twin pit pour flush to pit latrine." It can also be connected to a septic tank.
Flush toilets on ships are typically flushed with seawater.
Vacuum toilets
Vacuum toilets are flush toilets that are connected to a vacuum sewer system and remove waste by suction. They may use very little water — less than a quarter of a liter per flush — or none, as in waterless urinals. Some flush with colored disinfectant solution rather than with water. They may be used to separate blackwater and greywater and process them separately, for instance, the fairly dry blackwater can be used for biogas production or in a composting toilet.
Passenger train toilets, aircraft lavatories, bus toilets and ships with plumbing often use vacuum toilets. The lower water usage saves weight and avoids water slopping out of the toilet bowl in motion. Aboard vehicles, a portable collection chamber is used; if it is filled by positive pressure from an intermediate vacuum chamber, it need not be kept under vacuum.
Pit latrine
A simple pit latrine uses no water seal and collects human excreta in a pit or trench. The excreta drop directly into the pit via a drop hole. This type of toilet can range from a simple slit trench to more elaborate systems with seating or squatting pans and ventilation systems. In developed countries, they are associated with camping and wilderness areas. They are common in rural or peri-urban areas in many developing countries. They are also still in use in rural areas of wealthy countries like the photo to the right shows in Norway. Pit latrines are also used in emergency sanitation situations.
The pit or trench can be dug large enough so that the pit can be used for many years before it fills up. When the pit becomes full, it may be emptied or the hole covered with earth and the pit latrine relocated. Pit latrines have to be located away from drinking water sources — wells, streams, etc. — to minimize the possibility of disease spread via groundwater pollution.
A ventilation improved pit latrine adds certain design features to the simple pit latrine which reduces flies from exiting the latrine, thereby reducing the spread of diseases.
Vault toilet
According to Emma’s article “What is a Vault Toilet?” in Sunrise, the U.S Forest Service invented this odorless and cost-effective toilet that is different from the American standard toilet. The U.S Forest Service would later call vault toilets “sweet-smelling toilet” because of their ability to maintain a stench-free facility.
Vault toilets are waterless, non-flush toilets that store excreta in a large airtight underground container or vault. This type of toilet is different from the standard flushing toilets and installed in areas where water is not readily accessible, like parks and recreational spots, campgrounds and other public spots.
Sometimes, vault toilets are called camping toilets because they are often used on campgrounds. Pit toilets, composting toilets and bag toilets also fall in the class of waterless toilets.
The most significant advantages of these toilets are the reductions in water expenses and environmental pollution. These toilets consume the barest energy, and they make great compact toilets for small spaces.
Urine-diverting dry toilet
According to Wikipedia, a urine-diverting dry toilet or UDDT is a type of dry toilet with urine diversion that can be used to provide safe, affordable sanitation in a variety of contexts worldwide. The separate collection of feces and urine without any flush water has many advantages, such as odor-free operation and pathogen reduction by drying. While dried feces and urine harvested from UDDTs can be — and routinely are — used in agriculture as a soil amendment and nutrient-rich fertilizer, many UDDT installations do not apply any sort of recovery scheme. The UDDT is an example of a technology that can be used to achieve a sustainable sanitation system. This dry sanitation management system is an alternative to pit latrines and flush toilets, especially where water is scarce, a connection to a sewer system and centralized wastewater treatment plant is not feasible or desired, fertilizer and soil conditioner are needed for agriculture or groundwater polution should be minimized. The photo to the right shows a double-vault UDDT, waterless urinal and shower integrated into a household's bathroom in a non-sewered area of Lima, Peru.
Some type of dry cover material is usually added to the feces vault directly after each defecation event. The dry cover material may be ash, sawdust, soil, sand, dried leaves, mineral lime, compost or dried and decomposed feces collected in a UDDT after prudent storage and treatment. The cover material serves to improve aesthetics, control flies, reduce odor and speed up the drying process.
Portable toilet
The portable toilet is used on construction sites, film locations and large outdoor gatherings where there are no other facilities. They are typically self-contained units that are made to be easily moved. Most portable toilets are unisex single units with privacy ensured by a simple lock on the door. The units are usually lightweight and easily transported by a flatbed truck and loaded and unloaded by a small forklift. Many portable toilets are small molded plastic or fiberglass portable rooms with a lockable door and a receptacle to catch waste in a chemically treated container. If used for an extended period of time, they have to be cleaned out and new chemicals put in the waste receptacle. For servicing multiple portable toilets, tanker trucks are equipped with large vacuums to evacuate the waste and replace the chemicals. Portable toilets can also be urine-diverting dry toilets.
Chemical toilet
Chemical toilets are a type of portable toilet and are also known by various tradenames, such as Port-a-John and Porta-Potty (American English), Portaloo (British English) or honey bucket. The first two are the names of companies and "Portaloo" is a British and European Community registered trademark.
Portable chemical toilets typically use a mixture of several different chemicals in the holding tank. A blue dye is added to conceal the contents of the tank from the user, as well as to provide a visual indicator of capacity. When enough urine and/or feces are deposited, the overall mixture takes on a green color which indicates that the tank is full and should be emptied.
Fragrances and associated surfactants are usually included. Biocides are added to control odor by suppressing microbial growth, particularly of gram-positive bacteria. Milder forms include ethanol and quaternary ammonium compounds in low concentration. In modern toilets, microbial and enzymatic agents are increasingly common. These effectively reduce odor by accelerating digestion and breakdown of the waste, without relying on toxic additives or concealment with fragrances alone. Some can also break down toilet paper as well.
Squat toilet
A squat toilet — also called "squatting toilet," "natural position toilet" or by many national names — is a toilet of any technology type which is used in a squatting position rather than sitting. This means that the defecation posture used is to place one foot on each side of the toilet drain or hole and to squat over it.
Squatting toilets are the norm in many Asian and African countries and are common in most Muslim countries. They are also occasionally found in some European and South American countries.
In 1976, squatting toilets were said to be used by the majority of the world's population. However, there is a general trend in many countries to move from squatting toilets to sitting toilets — particularly in urban areas — as the latter are often regarded as more modern.
Islamic toilet etiquette
Islamic toilet etiquette is a set of personal hygiene rules in Islam followed when going to the toilet. This code of Muslim hygienical jurisprudence is known as Qadaa’ al-Haajah.
A Muslim must first find an acceptable place away from standing water, people's pathways or shade. They are advised that it is better to enter the area with the left foot, facing away from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca. It is reported in the hadith of Persian Islamic scholar Bukhari that whenever Muhammad went to the toilet, he said, “In the name of Allah, O Allah! I seek refuge/protection with/in You from all offensive and wicked things. Following this prophetic ideal, Muslims are advised to say this supplication before entering into the toilet.
While on the toilet, one must remain silent. Talking, answering greetings or greeting others is strongly discouraged. When defecating together, two men cannot converse, nor look at each other's genitals. Eating any food while on the toilet is strictly forbidden.
The anus must be washed with water using the left hand with an odd number of smooth stones/pebbles called jamrah or hijaarah, after defecating. It is now more common to wipe with tissues and also use water. Similarly, the penis or vulva must be washed with water with the left hand after urinating. This washing is known as istinja and is commonly done using a vessel sometimes known as a bodna.
When leaving the toilet, one is advised to leave with the right foot and say a prayer – "Praise be to Allah who relieved me of the filth and gave me relief."
Public health
To this day, 1 billion people in developing countries have no toilets in their homes and are resorting to open defecation instead. The Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation by the World Health Organization and UNICEF is the official United Nations mechanism tasked with monitoring progress towards the United Nations Millennium Development Goal relating to drinking-water and sanitation. One target of this goal is to: "Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking-water and basic sanitation" and publishes figures on access to sanitation worldwide on a regular basis. Another organization which focuses on toilet and sanitation is the World Toilet Organization which has November 19 as its founding date, used for the UN's International World Toilet Day.
Toilets are one important element of a sanitation system, although other elements are also needed: transport, treatment, disposal or reuse. Diseases, including cholera, which still affects some 3 million people each year, can be largely prevented when effective sanitation and water treatment prevents fecal matter from contaminating waterways, groundwater and drinking water supplies.
There have been five main cholera outbreaks and pandemics since 1825. In London alone, the second killed 14,137 people in 1849, and the third took 10,738 lives in 1853–54. In 1849 the English physician John Snow published a paper “On the Mode of Communication of Cholera,” in which he suggested that cholera might be waterborne. During the 1854 epidemic, he collected and analyzed data establishing that people who drank water from contaminated sources such as the Broad Street pump died of cholera at much higher rates than those who got water elsewhere.
History
The 4th millennium BCE would witness the invention of clay pipes, sewers and toilets in Mesopotamia, with the city of Uruk today exhibiting the earliest known internal pit toilet, from c.3200 BCE. The Neolithic village of Skara Brae contains examples, c.3000 BCE, of internal small rooms over a communal drain, rather than pit. The Indus Valley Civilization in northwestern India and Pakistan was home to the world's first known urban sanitation systems. In Mohenjo-Daro (c. 2800 BC), toilets were built into the outer walls of homes. These toilets had vertical chutes, via which waste was disposed of into cesspits or street drains. Another typical example is the Indus city of Lothal (c. 2350 BCE). In Lothal all houses had their own private toilet which was connected to a covered sewer network constructed of brickwork held together with a gypsum-based mortar that emptied either into the surrounding water bodies or alternatively into cesspits, the latter of which were regularly emptied and cleaned.
The Indus Valley Civilization also had water-cleaning toilets that used flowing water in each house that were linked with drains covered with burnt clay bricks. The flowing water removed the human waste. The Indus Valley civilization had a network of sewers built under grid pattern streets.
Other very early toilets that used flowing water to remove the waste are found at Skara Brae in Orkney, Scotland, which was occupied from about 3100 BC until 2500 BC. Some of the houses there have a drain running directly beneath them, and some of these had a cubicle over the drain. Around the 18th century B.C., toilets started to appear in Minoan Crete, Pharaonic Egypt and ancient Persia.
In 2012, archaeologists found what is believed to be Southeast Asia's earliest latrine during the excavation of a neolithic village in the Rach Núi archaeological site, southern Vietnam. The toilet, dating back 1500 B.C., yielded important clues about early Southeast Asian society. More than 30 coprolites or fossilized feces, containing fish and shattered animal bones, provided information on the diet of humans and dogs, and on the types of parasites each had to contend with.
In Roman civilization, latrines using flowing water were sometimes part of public bath houses. Roman latrines, like the ones pictured here, are commonly thought to have been used in the sitting position. The Roman toilets were probably elevated to raise them above open sewers which were periodically "flushed" with flowing water, rather than elevated for sitting. Romans and Greeks also used chamber pots, which they brought to meals and drinking sessions. Johan J. Mattelaer said, "Plinius has described how there were large receptacles in the streets of cities such as Rome and Pompeii into which chamber pots of urine were emptied. The urine was then collected by fullers." (Fulling was a vital step in textile manufacture.)
In Roman civilization, latrines using flowing water were sometimes part of public bath houses. Roman latrines, like the ones pictured here, are commonly thought to have been used in the sitting position. The Roman toilets were probably elevated to raise them above open sewers which were periodically "flushed" with flowing water, rather than elevated for sitting. Romans and Greeks also used chamber pots, which they brought to meals and drinking sessions. Johan J. Mattelaer said, "Plinius has described how there were large receptacles in the streets of cities such as Rome and Pompeii into which chamber pots of urine were emptied. The urine was then collected by fullers." (Fulling was a vital step in textile manufacture.)
According to “A Brief History of the Flush Toilet” from The British Association of Urological Surgeons, by 315 A.D., Rome had 144 public toilets. The Romans treated going to the toilet as a social event. They met friends, exchanged views, caught up on the news and wiped themselves with a piece of sponge fixed to a short wooden handle. This was then rinsed in a water channel which ran in front of the toilet and reused. It has been suggested that this practice spawned the phrase "getting hold of the wrong end of the stick."
The Han dynasty in China two thousand years ago used pig toilets.
Garderobes were toilets used in the post-classical history, most commonly found in upper-class dwellings. Essentially, they were flat pieces of wood or stone spanning from one wall to the other, with one or more holes to sit on. These were above chutes or pipes that discharged outside the castle or manor house. Garderobes would be placed in areas away from bedrooms to shun the smell and also near kitchens or fireplaces to keep the enclosure warm.
The other main way of handling toilet needs was the chamber pot, a receptacle, usually of ceramic or metal, into which one would excrete waste. This method was used for hundreds of years; shapes, sizes and decorative variations changed throughout the centuries. Chamber pots were in common use in Europe from ancient times, even being taken to the Middle East by medieval pilgrims.
By the Early Modern era, chamber pots were frequently made of china or copper and could include elaborate decoration. They were emptied into the gutter of the street nearest to the home.
In pre-modern Denmark, people generally defecated on farmland or other places where the human waste could be collected as fertilizer. The Old Norse language had several terms for referring to outhouses, including yard house, house of rest and the other house. In general, toilets were functionally non-existent in rural Denmark until the 18th century.
By the 16th century, cesspits and cesspools were increasingly dug into the ground near houses in Europe as a means of collecting waste, as urban populations grew and street gutters became blocked with the larger volume of human waste. Rain was no longer sufficient to wash away waste from the gutters. A pipe connected the latrine to the cesspool, and sometimes a small amount of water washed waste through. Cesspools were cleaned out by tradesmen, known in English as gong farmers, who pumped out liquid waste, then shoveled out the solid waste and collected it during the night. This solid waste, euphemistically known as nightsoil, was sold as fertilizer for agricultural production.
The garderobe was replaced by the privy midden and pail closet in early industrial Europe. A pail closet or pail privy was a room used for the disposal of human excreta, under the "pail system" or Rochdale system of waste removal. The "closet" — a word which had long had one meaning as "toilet" — was a small outhouse which contained a seat, underneath which a portable receptacle was placed. This bucket or pail, into which the user would defecate, was removed and emptied by the local authority on a regular basis. The contents would either be incinerated or composted into fertilizer.
Although the more advanced water closet or flush toilet was popular in wealthy homes, the lack of an adequate water supply and poor sewerage meant that in 19th-century England, in working-class neighborhoods, towns and cities often chose dry conservancy methods of waste disposal. The pail closet was an evolution of the midden closet (privy midden), an impractical and unsanitary amenity considered a nuisance to public health. The pail system was popular in France and England, particularly in the historic Lancashire town of Rochdale, from which the system commonly took its name. The pail closet was not without its own problems; if the pail was not emptied on a regular basis, it overflowed and became unhygienic. Some manufacturers lined the pail with absorbent materials, and other designs used mixtures of dry earth or ash to disguise the smell.
The photo is of a Rochdale Corporation pail closet. The seated area is on the right. The chamber on the left was for the disposal of common household waste.
According to “A Brief History of the Flush Toilet” from The British Association of Urological Surgeons, garderobes and public toilets were eventually replaced by the "commode," a box with a seat and a lid covering a porcelain or copper pot to catch the waste. France's Louis XI hid his commode behind curtains while Elizabeth I covered hers in crimson velvet and lace, using sprigs of herbs to disguise the odors.
Invention of the flush toilet
According to Wikipedia, Sir John Harington became prominent at Queen Elizabeth I's court, and was known as her "saucy godson," but his poetry and other writings caused him to fall in and out of favor with the Queen.
He devised England's first flushing toilet – called the Ajax i.e., a "jakes," then a slang word for toilet. It was installed at his manor in Kelston. This forerunner to the modern flush toilet had a flush valve to let water out of the tank and a wash-down design to empty the bowl. It has been suggested that "john" as a modern term used particularly in the U.S. refers to its inventor, but this is disputed.
In 1596, Harington wrote a popular book called “A New Discourse upon a Stale Subject: The Metamorhosis of Ajax” about his invention. He published it under the pseudonym of Misacmos. It was a political allegory and a coded attack on the monarchy.
According to “A Brief History of the Flush Toilet” from The British Association of Urological Surgeons, Harrington invented a water closet with a raised cistern and a small downpipe through which water ran to flush the waste in 1592. He built one for himself and one for his godmother; sadly, his invention was ignored for almost 200 years: it was was not until 1775 that Alexander Cummings, a watchmaker, developed the S-shaped pipe under the toilet basin to keep out the foul odors.
As the population of Britain increased during the 19th century, the number of toilets did not match this expansion. In overcrowded cities, such as London and Manchester, up to 100 people might share a single toilet. Sewage, therefore, spilled into the streets and the rivers.
The sewage found its way back into the drinking water supply — which was brown when it came out of the pipes — and was further polluted by chemicals, horse manure and dead animals; as a result, tens of thousands died of waterborne disease, especially during the cholera outbreaks of the 1830s and 1850s.
In 1848, the government decreed that every new house should have a water-closet or ash-pit privy. "Night soil men" were engaged to empty the ash pits. However, after a particularly hot summer in 1858, when rotting sewage resulted in "The Great Stink," the government commissioned the building of a system of sewers in London; construction was completed in 1865. At last, deaths from cholera, typhoid and other waterborne diseases dropped spectacularly.
In 1861, Thomas Crapper was hired by Prince Edward — later King Edward VII — to construct lavatories in several royal palaces. He patented a number of toilet-related inventions but did not actually invent the modern toilet, although he was the first to display his wares in a showroom. He and his contemporaries, George Jennings, Thomas Twyford, Edward Johns & Henry Doulton, began producing toilets much as we know them today.
Commentaires