ReDiscovery Centre in Ballymun
A system treating only a portion of the urine was installed in the ReDiscovery Centre in Ballymun County Dublin. This is an Eco Building incorporating solar panels, rain water harvesting, hempcrete walls, and a reed bed to treat waste water. The system also incorporated the Aquatron toilet composting system that is dealing with 4 out of 6 toilets in the building. It has the HANAPAK urine pollution prevention system fed by just one urinal.
The building has a number of sustainable features that include but are not limited to:
– Passive design: optimising orientation for solar gain
– Heating and electricity from alternative, renewable and sustainable sources
– Rain water harvesting and grey water recycling
– Composting toilets
– The incorporation of green roofs and a green living wall
– Onsite reed bed system
– Building construction and landscaping to encourage biodiversity
– Materials selection having regard to their reuse, recycled, natural and sustainable properties
– Urinal waste water collection and use for plant nutrition within the internal comfrey wall
Read more here about Herr Ollans projekt
The HANAPAK human urine treatment system is a new nature based method to treat a large part of the waste water nutrients in new Eco Houses. The separation of human urine and toilet solids from domestic waste water will prevent most of the nitrates and almost half of the phosphates from polluting ground water. The protection of ground water from nutrient pollution is now a stated goal under the European Union Directive 2006/118/EC
The purpose of the European Union Directive is to protect ground water pollution from substances such as those that contribute to eutrophication and algal growth in local lakes and surface water.
A Septic Tank is no longer regarded as a suitable waste water treatment system to prevent Nitrogen and Phosphorus pollution in ground water
It has now been established that septic tank sludge from single houses can remove less than 20% of the nitrogen and approximately only 6 to 25% of the phosphorus. Even with an additional aerobic sewage treatment system, nitrates and phosphates that can cause algal blooms in lakes in summer will not be adequately treated or removed.