Did you know that in some parts of the world, the time a person spends taking care of their, ahem, "business", helps them earn money?

Maybe you were like me and assumed this time was lost time in the world where "time is money."  But it turns out that in some parts of the world, this time that you spend in the bathroom may actually make you money.  How so? 

I'll explain this story in 2 parts.  The first part focuses on why we need to get smart on sanitation.  The second part discusses how making progress on providing sanitation is both a good business opportunity and a significant public health benefit. 

Flushing Away Our Drinking Water

Right now we are flushing our drinking water literally down the drain.  Did you know that:  

• Over a quarter of all the clean, drinkable water you use in your home is used to flush the toilets.
• Older toilets can use 3 gallons of clean water with every flush, while new toilets use as little as 1 gallon.
• Many people in the world live on 3 gallons of water day or less. We can use that amount in just one flush of our toilet.
• Source: Water: Use Less-Save More by Jon Clift and Amanda Cuthbert:

But we have options and alternatives to this wasteful use of our water.  My colleague Allen Hershkowitz wrote about the need for waterless urinals in his blog with Laurie David last week.  NRDC's Guide to Greener Living can give you some more ideas on how to conserve water.  And now I want to expand on these options by sharing with you how the use of composting sanitation can be a water conservation technique, a public health benefit in countries without access to sanitation, and a real business opportunity.

Making Sanitation Your Business

Although our body naturally separates our solid waste from liquid waste, our current flush toilet system mixes them together.  We then send this waste to a treatment center just to be separated again.  Why not cut out the middle man and just keep it separated from the beginning.  That's where the waterless toilet comes into play. 

If you think about it, you might come to the same conclusion as me that it seems logical to keep our waste separate.  It also makes sense that with a limited supply of fresh water, we should promote its conservation.  But sometimes we need a little incentive and a better understanding to get us to the point where we can embrace something different, like a toilet that does not flush. 

So what I learned this week at the World Water Forum is that there is a real business case for composting toilets, which can also be called waterless toilets, urine-diverting toilets, and ecological sanitation.  They all share the common fact that they do not require water.  In fact, by switching from a flush toilet to a no-flush composting toilet, a person can save more than 8,000 liters (2,000 gallons) of water per year, assuming an average flush rate of four times daily.

So where's the business in doing your "business"?   

Well, did you realize that our waste can be turned into a fantastic fertilizer?  Of course not immediately, but with proper treatment and time, the bacteria will die off leaving behind an environmentally friendly fertilizer. 

And forgive me if I sound like an infomercial, "but wait, there's more."  Not only can you compost the solid waste, but the urea found in our urine is also a good fertilizer, helping to avoid harmful chemical alternatives that can contaminate our water and food.  In some composting toilet systems, there is even the possibility to capture and use the biogas released from the decomposing solid waste. This energy can be used for things such as cooking or lighting a home.  More beans please. 

But setting the jokes aside, I learned this week at the World Water Forum that many developing countries face stresses on their agricultural production's ability to feed their communities due to a variety of factors including drought and population growth.  As the need for improved agricultural output increases, the need for fertilizers does as well. 

However, I learned that some organizations operating in developing countries have seen a lack of interest and/or use of waterless sanitation.  This was due to a variety of different reasons including unfamiliarity with the benefits of good hygiene and sanitation practices or behavioral patterns.  This is where innovative thinking and business opportunity collide. 

Several organizations and communities are already working to promote waterless toilets by making a business case for its deployment and use.  By showing communities how their composting toilet can be used as fertilizer at a low-cost, the economic value in its use is beginning to lead to more use. 

Although this is a snapshot of several case studies that I heard this week from colleagues working in the developing countries, after doing some quick research on the internet on composting toilets and fertilizer, I learned that this idea is perhaps not novel.  I found places in the U.S. and elsewhere that have been using composting waste as part of their fertilizer.  For example, I found an article about how cities such as Austin, Dallas and Houston produce something called Dillo Dirt which is made from yard waste and landscape trimmings collected by the municipality combined with treated with dried sludge (made from sewage and human waste) to make a nutrient filled topsoil. 

This is not to say that composting toilets are a silver bullet to promoting sanitation and hygiene in developing countries.  They do require proper planning and management and the capacity to do so.  Nor will this technology be the right intervention to solve the sanitation crisis affecting the 2.5 billion without access to a toilet.  Instead, what I am saying is that in areas where promoting and delivering waterless sanitation technology is practical, appropriate and feasible, it should be considered.  And in these areas, especially where there hasn't been sustained access to sanitation and the public health value may not resonate, the possibility of making a business case for the use of composting toilets seems like an innovative approach.  Moreover, in areas where toilet use is common and water conservation is important, such as in the U.S., making a business out of keeping fresh water out of our toilets and producing fertilizer may be just what we need.