How Women and Men Pee: Assessing Gender-Specific Urination Practices for a Comfortable Toilet Experience

Abstract

NoMix toilets separate urine and feces at the source and are a promising resource recovery technology. However, design issues hamper the transformation from unattractive to aspirational products. Little effort has been done to design toilets that account for physiological differences, leading to adverse effects on user-friendliness and urine separation efficiency. We used infrared recordings to assess gender-specific urination practices. Based on field data, we developed the Urinator, a simple device that allows simulating male and female urine streams. This supports engineers in developing more user- and gender-friendly and reuse-oriented sanitation technologies.

Sensor-based evaluation of a Urine Trap toilet in a shared bathroom

“…The manuscript reports methods and results of the evaluation of a prototype Urine Trap flush squat plate in two bathroom facilities shared by women in India. The study was conducted with women users to eliminate the variable of gender-specific urination practices, namely urinating while standing ( Schelbert et al, 2021 ).…”