Ecological sanitation

Ecological sanitation, commonly abbreviated to ecosan (also spelled eco-san or EcoSan), is an approach which is characterized by a desire to safely "close the loop" (mainly for the nutrients and organic matter) between sanitation and agriculture. Ecosan systems safely recycle excreta resources (plant nutrients and organic matter) to crop production in such a way that the use of non-renewable resources is minimised. When properly designed and operated, ecosan systems can strive to provide a hygienically safe, economical, and closed-loop system to convert human excreta into nutrients to be returned to the soil, and water to be returned to the land.

The definitions of ecosan have varied in the past. Nowadays, the most widely accepted definition of ecosan, formulated by experts in Sweden, is: "Ecological sanitation systems are systems which allow for the safe recycling of nutrients to crop production in such a way that the use of non-renewable resources is minimized. These systems have a strong potential to be sustainable sanitation systems if technical, institutional, social and economic aspects are managed appropriately."

Traditionally, ecosan has often been associated with urine diversion and in particular with urine-diverting dry toilets (UDDTs), a type of dry toilet. For this reason, the term "ecosan toilet" is widely used when people mean a UDDT. However, the ecosan concept should not be limited to one particular type of toilet. Also, UDDTs can be used without having any reuse activities in which case they are not in line with the ecosan concept (an example being the 80,000 UDDTs implemented by eThekwini Municipality near Durban, South Africa).

The term "ecosan" was first used in about the 1990s (or perhaps even late 1980s) by an NGO in Ethiopia called Sudea. They used it for UDDTs coupled with reuse activities.

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Wikipedia