British Columbia’s Sewage-Free Building

Did you ever think that a 30,000 square-foot building could run on composting toilets and waterless urinals?

Well, that’s exactly what the C.K. Choi Building is doing.

Part of the University of British Columbia, the C.K. Choi Building is proving that it can save 14 times as much water as a regular office building.

Flushing with no Water?

Using a system designed by Clivus Multrum, Inc., a company who manufactures composting toilets and greywater irrigation systems, the Choi Building basically uses wood chips and bark mulch in the toilets to absorb waste, and then converts the waste to fertilizer.

Here’s a picture of a composting toilet:

What about the Extra Water?

As for sink water, the excess water is filtered and pumped to outside planter beds.

Talk about recycling water!

For more information you can read a detailed case study about the C.K. Choi Building here.

This is an amazingly eco-friendly building, using only 500 gallons of water per day (as opposed to 7,000 gallons per day).

Let’s hope this design trickles town south of Canada into the U.S. so we can be part of this green revolution.