Saving trees from full bladders everywhere.

It’s an unfortunate fact of outdoor concerts: The number of toilets is always in inverse proportion to the number of drunk asses who need to pee. So people — and by people, we mean shameless dudes — make a urinal out of the local flora.

Here to rescue Mother Nature from full bladders everywhere isAANDEBOOM, a Dutch design studio that has invented either the world’s cleverest or the world’s grossest makeshift restroom. P-Tree is a rotation molded recycled plastic receptacle that straps onto a tree trunk, transforming your resident oak into the backdrop for a public (very public) urinal.

Once you get past the ick factor — and really, is it any grosser than a porta potty? — it’s actually pretty smart. Guys pee on trees. P-Tree acknowledges the inevitable and adds a layer of protection so that said trees don’t take a direct hit. (Or a slightly less direct hit. Because let’s be honest: Aim has never been the drunk man’s strong suit). The best part: P-Tree hooks up to a central sewerage system or a tank, which means it actually flushes. P-Tree 1, porta potty, 0. The only downside we can see — and the reason this one’s an “Almost Genius” — is that there’s no shielding on either side of the urinal. Hence the significant number of members visible in the other images we received of the design. (At first we thought these were the fingers of guys unzipping. We were wrong.)

The Roskilde festival in Denmark, a sort of Coachella of the North Sea, installed 50 neon orange P-Trees this year. The festival’s “problem with public peeing was significantly reduced,” designers Rogier Martens and Sam van Veluw say. Which makes us wonder if P-Tree could actually catch on and become as much a staple of outdoor concerts as ganja balls and Wavy Gravy. We reckon so, at least in Europe, where using a urinal strapped to a tree does not, apparently, constitute “public peeing.” But in Puritanical America? Concert producers would never allow it. Sorry, guys. Find a bush.

As the infographic shows, the over/under debate seems to be on a lot of people’s minds. But when you break it down, in our opinion, having the toilet paper fall over the roll is the only way that makes sense. Otherwise, the lack of any friction just means the toilet paper unspools and puddles onto the ground, creating a mess. And this debate has created a Wikipedia entry that’s twice as long as that of the Iraq War’s:

You’re welcome!

In 2010, Active Water Sciences (AWS) of Palestine, Texas won the Wall Street Journal Innovation Award for their portable, self-contained wastewater-treatment system, the Water Phoenix. The ability to convert municipal wastewater into effluent that meets U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards in less than 24 hours with a result of little to no sludge is a big deal, not only to the wastewater treatment industry, but to the Green Movement, as well.

Currently, and according to AWS’ website, “Portable systems either store the waste for later disposal or dump waste with exceedingly high contaminants into the environment. With the increasing global concern for environmental care and tightening regulatory restrictions on wastewater removal, there is a large demand for a system that processes waste on-site to a point where it can be immediately disposed.” AWS is seeking to change and improve all that.

AWS offers several portable systems, but they all yield the same result. They all seek to assist in improving the environment, and a self-contained wastewater-treatment system is a huge innovation in the wastewater treatment industry. It is one that could not only greatly reduce a customer’s carbon footprint, but one that is extremely cost reducing, as well. Talbot Presley, Vice President of Sales for AWS, says, “This system costs half of what a typical treatment plant costs.”

There is no risk of contamination to surrounding bodies of water, which means there is no downstream effect, either. In fact, the treated water is clean enough that it is even often used for irrigation.

The self-contained treatment system technology was in development for a decade prior to being launched as a physical product. The process began as an academic venture at Sam Houston University in conjunction with the Air Force Institute. The goal in mind was to develop a treatment system that could remove biological or chemical agents from a water supply. The result was a system that was small yet highly efficient. Product Concept Development, a technology innovation firm, adapted the original design, and from there, in 2009, Active Water Sciences emerged as the sole manufacturer of treatment systems using a biological treatment process.

AWS offers systems that process up to 50,000 gallons per day, but are willing to customize configurations to accommodate unique flow rates. Their treatment system is made up of three units—a treatment unit, a control unit and an optional buffer unit. The treatment unit is where the bacterial processing of the wastewater takes place, as well as provides sediment removal and processes effluent. The control unit houses the control, power and bacterial resupply systems, and the optional buffer unit provides surge protection and pre-processing of waste.

The main technology AWS uses is based around the use of a proprietary set of naturally occurring bacteria, according to Talbot Presley, Vice President of Sales for AWS. Unlike traditional “activated sludge” systems, the AWS technology is highly aggressive in removing virtually all organic material from a wastewater stream in a very short time. The use of AWS’s proprietary set of bacteria, or “bacteria consortium,” allows for this high treatment efficiency and resulting lack of sludge production, which in turn translates to operating costs 40-60% less than traditional systems. And because their systems are portable, they can be, and have been, involved in disaster relief.

All of AWS’ manufacturing takes place in Texas, and Presley says, “We focus on what we’re good at and outsource what we’re not. We know the science.”
Headquarters is also in Texas, and AWS is a small company that is growing as rapidly as the Green Movement. This is one bandwagon people in the industry should be clamoring to hop onto.

For more information visit www.activewatersciences.com or call 903.331.0891.

Story by Jade Acadia