Shanghai has built the city’s first coin-operated toilet which makes use of solar energy. With an investment of 400,000 yuan (US$48,193), the unique bathroom was added to the boulevard by the Shanghai Public Sanitation Bureau recently.
“You know I first thought it was a book kiosk. It’s very clean despite the absence of water,” said Jin Yuyang, a 40-year-old man.
Designed by Tsinghua University in Beijing, the inclining roof of the toilet consists of three solar-energy batteries. With just three days of sunshine falling on the batteries, they can supply power for a week, even during the rains, the university claimed.
The excrement falls into a plastic bag and is then bio-decomposed in the toilet itself to save water. And the disinfectant, which vaporizes in about 20 seconds, can be used to wash hands.
“During the International Labor Day holiday, many visitors complained about the lack of public toilets on Century Boulevard,” said Xu Zhiping, bureau spokesman.
While the French designers did plan a nice landscape for the boulevard, they left no space for toilets, Xu said. As a way out of the dilemma, the bureau chose the portable solar-energy toilets, which don't need paved wires and pipelines.
(www.eastday.com.cn 05/25/2001)
