POOSH

POOSH is a bucket-mounted toilet solution for the developing world. It is a complete waste management system with a sanitary, low smell, easy-to-use toilet seat that works with a wide range of common bucket sizes.

POOSH is a waste management solution designed to reduce significant causes of death and disease in the developing world. It is a product and system designed particularly to reduce water and food contamination due to exposure to faeces, and related malnutrition, which kills more than 10,000 children each day in developing nations.

In this context, many people do not have access to adequate latrines. The systems in place are often simple pit toilets or areas near rivers where trash has collected. Users of such systems are exposed to maggots, bacteria, and parasites that can cause many diseases including cholera, typhoid fever, and polio. During the rainy season, pit toilets flood, further contaminating local water supplies and crops. Human waste in its raw form is not safe to be used as a fertiliser on crops, however, after a lengthy decomposition process it becomes a good fertiliser.

POOSH is a simple system involving a toilet seat and a specially designed biodegradable bag, which can be used with a wide variety of common bucket sizes. The seat automatically seals except while in use, minimising odour, and significantly reducing the number of flies and the possibility of human exposure to faeces.

The bag is made of a biodegradable bio-plastic and includes some chemicals the speed up the decomposition of the human waste. The result is that after about two weeks, one bag of waste will have transformed into a mound of rich fertiliser that can be used to add nutrients to crops. The bag fits over a lip on the bottom of the seat and automatically seals when the bag is full and the seat is removed.

POOSH has been designed to provide a viable, sustainable, infrastructure-free waste management system where, in many cases, there is no system at all. POOSH is constructed from post-consumer material (recycled water bottles), rubber, and bio-plastic. It has a simple, easy-to-clean design with no cavities that could collect waste and harvest germs.

The seat features a rubber resting surface so it will sit soundly and securely on a wide variety of buckets, including the common five-gallon bucket standard. The POOSH system is designed to be very easy to implement and use, and precautions have been made to avoid unsanitary misuse. The POOSH bag is made of a cheap single-layer bio-polymer, and is intended to be locally produced to reduce costs.

The implications of POOSH for the developing world are numerous. By reducing the contamination of water supplies near communities, disease from bad water will be minimised. Similarly, by diminishing the exposure to human waste and sealing it safely from flies and animals, many other diseases can be avoided.

By improving water quality and providing a constant, near-free, nutrient-rich supply of fertiliser, local agriculture can flourish and malnutrition – one of the largest causes of child mortality in the developing world – can also be substantially reduced. The result is less death and disease and greater possibilities for agriculture, education, and development.