In times of drought and water saving, a question crosses the minds of many citizens: is it normal to waste so much water to supply the flush of our toilets? A Bordeaux association is trying to change mentalities, and offers dry toilets as an alternative.
Change the way to go to the toilet
La Fumainerie is a Bordeaux association that has worked for more than two years on the concept of dry toilets in the city, with 35 volunteers. The current context now seems conducive to opening up this practice to a wider audience, as a solution to fight against water waste. The association is responsible for installing dry toilets in the inhabitants’ homes: one for liquid excrement, another for solid waste, which allows them to be treated separately as compost afterwards. No additional bad smell is given off compared to conventional toilets, apart from that of sawdust covering the excrement.
For Mathilde Le Cadre, of Fumainerie, the only obstacles to its generalization are psychological. According to her, the concept should on the contrary gain in relevance as we try more and more to save water. Indeed, each time we flush the toilet, between 4 to 10 liters of drinking water end up in the sewers, then in the treatment plants. Most of the time, this poorly purified water ends up polluting nature with the remains of chemical components present in our excrement. Thus, the coordinator of the association encourages reflection: “Do we really need to put clean water in our toilets, all that not to see that we have peed and pooped, like everyone else?”
Dry toilets for more autonomy
In the example of a Breton family, which no longer pays any water bills, thanks to treated rainwater, the greatest water savings actually come from the installation of dry toilets, which allows them to save 50 liters of water per day.