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VANCOUVER — A “beautiful experience” isn’t a term often used for a trip to an outhouse, but researchers at the University of British Columbia say the description fits for their mushroom-powered waterless toilet.
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It’s described as the world’s first such toilet, turning human waste into compost using mycelia, the root network of mushrooms. The MycoToilet, inside the small cedar-sided building, has been dropped in among the trees at the university’s Botanical Garden for a six-week test run.
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The toilet separates liquids from solids, with the solid waste going into a mycelium-lined compartment, where lab tests have shown 90 per cent of the odour-causing compounds are absorbed.
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Steven Hallam, a professor in the department of microbiology and immunology at the university, said they’ve known for a long time that tree roots have certain fungi that help trees absorb nutrients and protect them from pathogens.
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“We have learned that the breathable mycelium liner can reduce odour, while removing residual moisture, limiting the onset of anaerobic conditions and creating more favourable conditions for aerobic decomposition,” said Hallam.
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The modular toilet requires just four maintenance visits a year. Once operational, it’s expected to produce around 600 litres of soil and 2,000 litres of liquid fertilizer a year.
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Joseph Dahmen, the project’s lead and an associate professor at UBC’s school of architecture, said composting toilets “stand out in people’s minds because of the smell associated with them.”
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He said they explored materials for their toilet that could not only create a sustainable way to “green the campus” but reduce the odour.
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“We really wanted to use the design to recontextualize an activity that we often take for granted and do without thinking, to kind of put it in a new light and suggest that a waste-separating toilet doesn’t have to be a kind of sacrifice to use,” said Dahmen.
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“But it can be a really beautiful experience that connects us to natural ecologies.”
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Dahmen said one user even compared the toilet to a Scandinavian sauna experience.
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Prefabricated timber panels form the structure, there’s a skylight above and the green roof supports local plants. A low-power fan keeps air circulating and a ramp leads to the entrance.
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Hallam said the installation is a “living laboratory” as researchers will be evaluating the performance of the liner over time to understand how the use of different mushrooms might affect circulation.
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He said they’ll be evaluating the performance of the mushroom liner over the six weeks it’s at the garden, using a combination of analytical and DNA bar coding methods to better understand certain issues, including pathogen loading.
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“So, everyone who’s using that toilet is also engaged in citizen science effectively,” said Hallam.