Different Types of Modern Toilets

While conventional toilet systems, without watersaving devices, can use up to 9 liters of water per flush, these newly developed and advanced toilet systems can reduce water consumption to approximately 0.2 - 1 liters of water per flush.

Compost Toilets

Composting toilets, or dry (waterless) toilets, contain and control the composting of excrement, toilet paper, carbon additive, and, optionally, food wastes.  They rely on unsaturated conditions where aerobic bacteria and fungi break down in wastes just as they do in a yard waste composter.  In addition to destroying organisms that cause human disease, compost toilets also transform the nutrients in a human excrement into fully oxidized plant forms that can be used as a soil conditioner for plants and trees.  The following diagrams portray the typical process of a composting toilet.

Vacuum toilets reduce and control water consumption by requiring a limited amount of water supply.  They conserve water by using only 2/3 gallon (or less) of water per flush.  The flexible design of vacuum toilets allows wastewater to be lifted vertically up to 20’ from point of collection. This essentially eliminates the need for under-floor piping within the building.  Overhead piping must still be installed, however, but they use small pipe diameters (about 1-1/4" to 4"), which minimize installation costs, maintenance costs, and future modification costs.

Vacuum toilets use a Vacuum Drainage System that offers several advantages.  Multiple collection tanks, or discharge pumps, separate different types of wastewater.  This minimizes treatment costs, and also optimizes the re-use of non-contaminated wastewater streams.  Wastewater is transported to these streams at 15-18’ per second, and with high solid-to-liquid ratios.  The possibility of bacterial growth, and therefore the spread of disease, is drastically reduced.

Techniques and concepts for wastewater discharge and treatment, which are in use in developed countries, are not applicable worldwide. New sanitation concepts, considering the reuse of treated water as well as the recycling of the nutrients, have to be further developed.  Separation toilets are part of a recent pilot project focusing on new concepts of sanitation in the wastewater treatment plant.  Gravity separation toilets are used in the office building and in the apartment house. Different methods are taken into consideration for the treatment of the urine and faeces, using both as fertilizers to benefit our environment, but improving the process by separating the two.
 
 Waterless urine collection can be divided into three stages.  When the separation toilet is idle, a movable plug is used to close the outlet for urine drainage.  When the toilet is in use, a lever mechanically opens the plug.  This allows excreted urine to flow to the front inlet of the toilet, without actually flushing the toilet, and without using water.  When the user is no longer sitting on the toilet, the plug will be positioned to again close the urine outlet.  Only at this time can the toilet be flushed.  While the plug for the urine outlet is closed, faeces and paper will be flushed out with minimal amounts of water through a rear outlet.


Incinerating Toilets
Incinerating toilets are self-contained units consisting of a traditional commode-type seat connected to a holding tank and a gas-fired or electric heating system to incinerate waste products deposited in the holding tank. Incinerating toilets are designed with a chamber that receives and stores human wastes until ready for incineration. The incinerating chamber is typically composed of stainless steel or a cast nickel alloy. The chamber is accessed through a toilet seat support - part of a housing made of non-corrodingn fiberglass reinforced plastic or similar material - having a sealable receiving opening for introduction of wastes into the chamber. Vapor and products of combustion are fed by blower fan to a ventingn system which may be as simple as an exhaust pipe, or which may also incorporate an afterburner or other odor control system. Not all units can be used during the incinerating cycle. Some units require initiation of an incinerating cycle after each use while others allow for multiple uses before an incineration cycle takes place.
The incineration products are primarily water and a fine, non-hazardous ash that can be disposed of easily and without infection hazard. Incinerating toilets are portable, water free, and sanitizing. These toilets can be installed in unheated shelters, even in freezing temperatures. The incineration cycle produces a fine, sterile ash that can be thrown in the trash. Furthermore, the incinerating toilet is relatively odorless in comparison to more commonly used storage-in-disinfectant portable toilets. However, there are always the cons. The incinerating process destroys nutrients in the waste, as well as that incinerating requires energy, resulting in higher average energy costs for users. The units are not entirely pollution-free, either, as both portable electric generation and propane fuel burning produce some air pollutants.

The modern toilet is widely credited to Thomas Crapper, who was only improving on the
original design developed by Sir John Harrington, who installed one for Queen Elizabeth I.

The oldest flushing toilet is said to be at Knossos in Greece. 

In 315 A.D. there were 144 public toilets in Rome.

Toilet paper was invented by American Joseph Cayetti in 1857.

In the 1820’s, the first flush toilet was invented by Albert Giblin,

acting as a forerunner to today’s modern loo.

The movie “Psycho” is said to be the first film to show a toilet being flushed.