Peristaltic Toilet FIxture

The Problem

Open defecation damages the environment, pollutes wetlands and waterways while spreading disease. The “last mile problem” in sanitation is actually the “first 100-foot’ problem”. Sanitation success able to capture and relocate waste to a common treatment site fails without a water and sewer network connecting each source. Failure of collection in the “first 100-foot” results in significant contamination of local wetlands and waterways.

Our Proposal

We have designed a culturally accepted means to bridge the “bottom to peristaltic tube” gap and propose prototyping it. This is acceptable as an alternative toilet and is cheap enough to be used by the billion poor. We have already developed a biomimetic functional peristaltic tube able to transport human waste without water. It works like our intestines but instead of muscles uses a sequential inflation of air bladders within the tube. The bladders move sludge waste with only 5psi that is generated by a foot pump. As a result, no infrastructure for water or sewer is required to efficiently collect waste.

We Assume that...

1. The peristaltic tube is able to relocate sludge waste like our intestine. (Gates funded a proof of concept through Global Good)

2. There is a downstream collection site for the multiple source collection sites to feed. (Even a large container or properly manufactured latrine, even if located higher than the collection point.)

3. This can be culturally adopted. (Those in the most need would most likely prefer this as a safe alternative to open defecation.)

4. Manufacturing process and materials for the peristaltic tube, air delivery and "bottom to tube" interface is locally attainable.

Constraints to Overcome

This zero-water peristaltic tube connected to a collection device designed for lowest cost and simplest manufacturing process can then be adopted by the poorest in the population. This specific design is for a seated version that is easily adapted to a squat fixture. We chose the 5-gallon bucket since it is widely available. We have tried different capture devices with various complicated inflation and mechanical parts in our process. This final design distills what we believe is the simplest way to make a scalable functional peristaltic toilet.

Current Work

1. Prototype construction of the device such that collection and reliable insertion of sludge into peristaltic tube. 2. Reliability testing of the flexible and moving parts - in particular the squeegee and flexible funnel. 3. Acceptability test - does it work good enough, control odors and be perceived as an improvment.

Current Needs

An intern type project lead able to contribute to the prototype manufacturing and testing.