A special public toilet has recently been installed on the Uniwiesen: it requires no water or chemicals and is both accessible and unisex.
It was developed by KISDalumna Anastasia Bondar, who has been working on sustainable sanitation solutions for several years. Sustainable sanitation was also the subject of her final design thesis, for which she won the Cologne Design Prize in 2022. Back in 2023, she tested an initial prototype in the Volksgarten in collaboration with the City of Cologne, and this has now been followed by a further developed version.
The principle: the toilet separates solid and liquid waste directly during use. This allows the contents to be processed separately later – with the aim of producing compostable material.
The facility is cleaned daily. The waste management companies AWB Cologne and StEB Bergisch Gladbach are working together on its operation and further processing.
In the future, the material is to be composted at the Metabolon site in Lindlar; currently, this is still taking place as part of research.
The idea behind this is part of a broader approach: using human waste as a resource rather than treating it as rubbish. This is already being practised in other countries – in Germany, wider implementation is still in its infancy.
How the concept fares in everyday life will now become apparent on the university grounds.
Photos 1 + 2 © Anastasia Bondar