Hi Elisabeth

Just a quick reply this time: We use the Villa Model from Separett. If you saw a toilet where we remove the buckets from the side then this must have been an old model that we produced ourselves locally. And yes, we also removed the fan. It works just as well and with the sawdust that our customers use, we can still collect the feces in a quite dry state.
About our compost: We achieved chemical and pathogenic standards throughout the past months that were aligned with Chilean and Austrian compost standards- our engineer Celia Vasquez can elaborate on this in a separate post.

Unfortunately, it's too early for us to say anything specific yet about possible new alliances and the future of our treatment, but I'll be happy to post updates as soon as there will be any news!

Dear Jessica,
Thanks for your post. That looks like a really nice newspaper article - great photos!

The Separett UDDT model is different than the one I know. I see the bin is removed from the side and not from the top like in the Villa model.

You mentioned that:

we removed all electronic bits and parts that are prone to break in a rougher environment

Does that mean you have also taken out the electrical fan?

And are you only operating in Lima or also elsewhere?
And which local sewage companies and ministries are you talking to? Isn't it quite hard for a small NGO to get listened to by such government bodies? I am just wondering what alliances you have been able to form with other stakeholders.

And what do you do with the collected materials now? You told us earlier in the thread that you are doing composting. Do you have more results of that by now? And photos? What crops is the compost used on? Is the composting process a major operational expense for you, or is the most expensive part the collection from all the individual toilets?

Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear Elisabeth

Thank you for following up!
Separett and x-runner officially collaborate since last year and Separett Director Mikael Billsund has shown incredible dedication, patience, and generosity to enable us to purchase and import the toilets at very low costs. This partnership didn't come to happen overnight and both parties put a lot of time and consideration into it.
Regarding the toilet, it must be mentioned, that we removed all electronic bits and parts that are prone to break in a rougher environment. Still, the toilets work extremely well and our clients seem to be very happy with them so far.
Separett has also advised us on our sales methods and pricing.

We are planning to reach more than 3000 customers by 2018/2019 and we are in ongoing talks with local sewage companies and with ministries to see whether we can accelerate our growth with their support! With 3000 customers our business can achieve a complete breakeven - and yes, for now we heavily depend on grants, but also have monthly revenues. We don't consider ourselves a philantropic project and we also agree with your view that a business approach is needed to scale.

The government is for the first time this year showing serious interest in dry systems, but we'll have to be patient to see some concrete support from that side. After an article in a major newspaper - see file

Dear Jessica,

You mentioned that you now use the Separett toilets from Sweden. That's a great product (I have one at my house since 2008 - love it!) but isn't it a bit expensive for this purpose though? From memory, the price for one Separett toilet is 750 Eur, or maybe it has come down by now. Did you go for a more basic version and at what price do you get them? How many have you bought from them?

Also, I would like to know if you have plans for large-scale upscaling (and I mean in the order of 100,000s toilet) in years to come? If yes, how do you plan to do that and are you working with the local government or the water utilities in Peru? Without involvement of local government, I see little possibility for large-scale upscaling of sanitation projects.

See also my criticisms or musings here about NGO-led sanitation projects with container-based toilets (the Clean Team in Ghana has a similar solution to yours):
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/52-mob...it=12&start=12#12471

As I said in the other thread, small projects which are essentially philantropic projects also have their place, don't get me wrong. I assume your funding comes from philantrophic sources at present? But even better are of course those that have the potential to reach a great number of people without relying on donors in the longer term.

I am curious to hear your thoughts on this.

Kind regards,
Elisabeth

Hi Dennis! Thanks for asking. And thank you Elisabeth for reminding me to answer!

I would like to share with you our latest impact report: xrunners.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/201...xrunner-english2.pdf
Feel free to share it!

Please be aware that some of the numbers are already outdated. Regarding customer numbers. We are right now at 150 households. Our aim is to grow to 550 this year - we had to shift this goal from 2014 to 2015 since our production was stalled for months due to some unfortunate incidents with our Peruvian producers. We are now importing Separett toilets from Sweden.
Also, feel free to sign up to our Newsletter xrunner-venture.com/contact/4583965219

Hi Jessica

is there an update on your toilet rollouts on SuSana somewhere other than this thread?

Would be keen to see what numbers you reached (and are planning on reaching) and whether you found any better alternative to the fibreglass option?

I see a lot of pilots with 20, 30 or 50 toilets, but very few with numbers in the thousands - is that a function of funding or models (and scalability?)

Unilever and the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL) announced the seven finalists for the inaugural Unilever Sustainable Living Young Entrepreneurs Awards 2013.

The international awards programme is designed to inspire young people around the world to tackle environmental, social and health issues. The competition is for anyone aged 30 years or under, and the awards were looking for inspiring practical, tangible solutions to help make sustainable living commonplace.

Out of 510 entries from 90 countries, seven finalists were selected. We are happy to share with you that x-runner, one of the SuSanA partner organisations, is among the finalists! Isabel Medem from x-runner presented the project “Water-less toilets in slums; converted into saleable compost” and she will have the opportunity to take part in a four week development programme followed by an accelerator workshop in Cambridge, UK.

Congratulations to Isabel and the x-runner team for this wonderful accomplishment!
More information can be found here: www.unilever.com/mediacentre/pressreleas...Awardsannounced.aspx

(Posted by Laura)

De lo que haya disponible, BIS ha instalado baños en zonas rurales y algunos pocos en campamentos (no sé como le dicen en Perú, pero son terrenos a veces del estado, o a veces tomados donde la gente pobre construye sus casas y no hay urbanización, siendo la falta de saenamiento una constante).
De los aditivos preferidos se ha usado ceniza de hornos de barro en zonas rurales, compost, hojas, tierra seca y aserrín, siendo este último el más usado en campamentos. Hemos hecho algunas mediciones de patógenos directamente del tambor de tratamiento antes de la disposición final, con resultados satisfactorios. Acá el aserrín es principalmente de pino y eucalipto, siendo el aserrín el que menos funciona en la práctica. Como el público objetivo acá es altamente disperso, es inviable hacer una colecta centralizada como ustedes, que consiguen liberar al usuario de la responsabilidad sanitaria. Hasta la fecha se han construido 68 baños, pero ahora en BIS estamos en fase de desarrollo técnico del producto BIS, donde hemos hecho estudio exhaustivo de todo, desde genética parasitaria, epidemiología, ciencias del suelo y el agua, en donde la parte sanitaria y la interfaz producto-usuario son clave.
Esto desembocará finalmente en el diseño final y definitivo del baño, ya que hasta ahora se han probado diferentes diseños cada uno con sus ventajas y desventajas.
A mi juicio, el parámetro clave del tratamiento in-situ yo lo llamaría 'esponjosidad'. Por muy absurdo que suene, resume la humedad, la aireación y la razón C/N en un sólo parámetro fácil de controlar. Se logra con materia orgánica seca de baja densidad: fibra de coco, paja, pasto seco. La idea es dejar aire atrapado en la pila de fecas, bajarle la humedad, y aumentar el contenido de carbono, siendo todos parámetros clave para un compostaje apropiado. Poniendo esto en práctica, el material fecal recibido por ustedes en su centro de compostaje, estará mucho mejor condicionado para un proceso de compostaje de alta temperatura (aunque por lo que veo ya lo están logrando). Te invito a gustar nuestra página en facebook y te posteo un artículo que se hizo en el extranjero sobre BIS, tiene un poco de historia del origen y videos:

startupbuzz.la/en/the-reward-of-the-unsexy/

Como referencia, somos un equipo de ingenieros y algunos estudiantes de último año de ingeniería, principalmente de la Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María en Valparaíso. Yo ahora me encuentro en último semestre de ingeniería ambiental. Saludos!

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Translation by Google Translate added by moderator (EvM):

From what is available , BIS has installed toilets in rural areas and a few camps (do not know as they say in Peru , but are sometimes the state land , or sometimes taken where poor people build their houses and no complex , saenamiento be the lack of a constant) .

Preferred additives ash has been used clay ovens in rural areas, compost , leaves, sawdust , dry land , the latter being the most used in camps. We made some measurements of pathogens directly from treatment drum before final disposal , with satisfactory results. Here sawdust is mainly pine and eucalyptus sawdust being the least work in practice .

As the target audience here is highly dispersed , it is not feasible to collect money centrally like you, who get free you of the responsibility care. To date we have built 68 toilets, but now we are BIS under BIS Product technical development , where we have made thorough study of everything from parasite genetics , epidemiology , soil science and water , where the health and user interface are key producers .

This will ultimately lead to the final and definitive design of the bathroom, and so far have tried different designs each with its advantages and disadvantages.

In my view, the key parameter in- situ treatment I would call ' fluffiness ' . As absurd as it sounds, summarizes moisture , aeration, and the ratio C / N in one easy to control parameter . Organic matter is achieved with low-density dry : coconut fiber, straw, dry grass . The idea is to let air trapped in the pile of feces , lower the humidity , and carbon content increases , with all key parameters for proper composting . Putting this into practice , fecal material received by you in your compost center will be much better conditioned to a process of high temperature composting (although I see they are already achieving ) . I invite you to like our facebook page and posting an article I was abroad on BIS , has a little history of the origin and videos:

startupbuzz.la/en/the-reward-of-the-unsexy/

For reference, we are a team of engineers and some senior students of engineering , mainly from the Technical University Federico Santa Maria in Valparaiso. I am now in final semester environmental engineering . Greetings !

Hola Rodrigo ... cuéntanos un poco de tu proyecto BIS, de que trata, que es lo que utilizan como material secante, que tratamiento utilizan para las heces, como logran erradicar los patógenos, entre otros.

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Translation by Google Translate (EvM):
Hi Rodrigo ... tell us a little about your project BIS, that is, that is what they use as a desiccant, which treatment used for the faeces, as achieved eradicate pathogens, among others.

Muchas gracias, por el dato lo tomaremos en cuenta desde ya... te comento que utilizamos como referencia la norma Austriaca (O-NORM) S 2023 y las de la OMS.

Saludos


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Translation by Google Translate added by moderator (EvM):

Thank you very much, for the data we will take into account from now ... I commented that we use as reference the Austrian standard (O-NORM) S 2023 and WHO.

regards

Les puede servir de referencia la norma chilena 2880 del año 2004 del compost, tiene requisitos de maduración, metales pesados (en fecas son practicamente despreciables), niveles de E.coli, Salmonellas y ovas helminticas.

También les podría servir el reglamento de manejo de lodos en Chile: Decreto n°4 del año 2010. De ahí destaco las dosis recomendadas de lodos para aplicar por metro cuadrado, criterio de maduración de sólidos volátiles (que las fecas tienen bastante).

Definitivamente guiarse por los parámetro s de la OMS es lo más apropiado, pero estas normas pueden ser un referente técnico muy útil como fue para nosotros en BIS Chile. Saludos y mucho éxito!


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Translation by Google Translate added by moderator (EvM):

They can serve as reference standard 2880 2004 Chilean compost has matured requirements, heavy metals (in feces are practically negligible) levels of E.coli, Salmonella and helminth eggs.

They also could serve sludge management regulations in Chile: Decree No. 4 of 2010. Hence feature recommended doses of sludge to be applied per square meter maturation criterion volatile solids (feces that have enough).

Definitely parameter s guided by the WHO is the most appropriate, but these rules can be a useful technical reference as it was for us in BIS Chile. Greetings and good luck!

Actualmente no tenemos ninguna norma peruana con respecto al compost, pero si queremos llegar a los estándares que presenta la OMS.


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Translation by Google Translate added by moderator (EvM):

We currently have no standard regarding compost Peru, but if we want to reach the WHO standards presented.