Tomorrow is World Toilet Day – 40 percent of the world’s population is living without access to a proper toilet! A social enterprise in Sweden has invented a biodegradable plastic bag that can be used instead of toilet. Once user have done their business, the bag breakdowns the waste into usable fertiliser.
There are over seven billion people on this planet and yet almost half (2.6 billion to be exact) lack access to a toilet, which leaves many people with no other option than to openly defecate. Open defecation is directly linked to causing diarrhoea and water contamination result in deaths of millions of children every year due to spread of the deadly disease.
Peepoos, developed by Peepoople, a social enterprise from Sweden, are small, single-use hygienic bags that are being used as toilet substitutes in areas of Kenya, Syria, Haiti and other places where toilets are lacking. These bags are biodegradable and with the help of a lining made of urea crystals, the system turns the waste into valuable fertiliser. After use, the bags can either be buried or returned to the manufacturer for a small refund (in Kenya: one third of the original price, three Kenyan shillings) as part of a buy-back incentive to help maintain hygiene and sanitation in the neighbourhood and surrounding environment. The waste is converted into a nutrient rich fertiliser in very small span of time.
Currently about 6,000 Peepoo bags are being produced and distributed in slums in Nairobi, Kenya every day. To learn more about this, head to their website. For more information on World Toilet Day, head to the UN’s website.
