Eventeen years back, Clint Elston was in Colorado building dome Homes, which gained popularity during the energy crisis of the early '70s. However, Elston could not help but notice the irony of outfitting those same houses with what he considered wasteful five-gallon flush toilets.

Since then, he has worked to perfect another alternative. The ending End result is that the AlasCan composting toiletand gray-water treatment system marketed by Elston's firm, Individual Endeavors. The high-tech, self-contained systemwas created to manage both individual and other organic wastes, has earned attention from federal agencies, environmental groups and consumers in rural areas.(Flushing toilet Reviews And Best flusht toilets in the market 2018)

A great deal of the attention is Due to the machine's ability To fix water-supply problems. In remote areas, where honey buckets are widely used to handle sewage, Elston's system also can help combat hepatitis, a chronic problem perpetuated by polluted drinking resources.

The AlasCan functions to automatically dispose, decompose and Recycle waste because it accumulates. Waste is sent to an insulated tank, where it divides into fertile humus.

While getting his ideas off the ground and into the public eye Was slow moving at first, Elston eventually prevailed. His first major success came in October 1988, when he won an "Award for Energy Innovation" in the Department of Energy because of his "Human Endeavors Geodesic Dome Live-In Research and Testing Project." The Healy dome, in which he and his wife, Cathy Peterson, create their house, is outfitted with energy-saving devices that have solar panels plus a ground-source heating pump, in addition to the composting and gray-water system.

While the few fully intends to perfect and promote each of three Thoughts, AlasCan alone commands their attention today. A year ago, Elston was awarded a $99,500 Alaska Science and Technology Foundation grant. In September, the U.S. Department of Energy granted Elston an additional $90,000 through its Energy Inventions Program. The money will cover to perfect the item, automate production and foster the system's use.

The AlasCan system is an enlarged and improved version of this Old Clivus Multrum composting toilet, in common use globally for more than 50 decades. With older tanks, upkeep was a tedious, often unpleasant task: It required putting wood shavings to the composting tank and then mixing the pile manually to redistribute the liquids that had settled in the floor. Elston's answer was to automate the composting operation by integrating motor-driven plastic agitators.

He also married the technology into a modern foam-flushing toilet - Source, the Nepon Pearl out of Japan. Resembling a regular flush toilet, the foam-flush bathroom's up-to-date look and designer colors Make AlasCan an acceptable addition to even the most sophisticated interior layout, Elston states.

Human Endeavors' flushing toilets take Less than a cup of water. Employing a small air conditioner to produce a sterile foam layer inside the bowl, the machine includes odor and reduces splashing. Foam-flush urinals are another choice.

The AlasCan system also manages kitchen wastes by linking the Garbage disposal into the composting tank. A normal disposal sink, outfitted with a sprayer, is used to process garbage that's channeled into the composting tank, where it joins toilet waste.

Warm air is drawn in using a fan and circulated to encourage decomposition. Automatic churners maintain wastes mixed with wood shavings (or leaves) and redworms, which further accelerate the procedure. Sprinklers redistribute accumulating liquids as vital. A twist conveyer moves decayed materials to the finished compost chamber.

Maintenance starts the fourth year and is Limited to eliminating One to two cubic feet of fertile humus annually from the mulch room. The only other by-products are water vapor and carbon dioxide, which can be released through vents. The machine is odorless, because aerobic decomposition does not produce methane gas.

Another gray-water treatment tank, an optional element to The system, takes in dishwashing, laundry, sink and tub water. The waste water is aerated, and gathered sludge is moved to the composting tank. The rest of the liquid meets federal discharge criteria by the time it's discharged into the ground.

Elston already boasts over 75 satisfied AlasCan clients, Such as the Army National Guard, which utilizes his systems during its remote village armories, a few over the Arctic Circle. Some others are the Admiralty Inn near Juneau plus a scattering of houses and businesses statewide.

Last August, Elston installed his first system in Canada, in a College in Whitehorse where students had built an "environmentally conscious" demonstration construction. A flood of inquiries from across the border followed, he says. In November, Elston shipped another protest program to Austin, Tex..

He believes the system is also ideal for use by offshore petroleum Rigs and the marine sector; their wastes otherwise have to be discharged at sea or hauled back to shore. Elston also sees abundant opportunities for sales to a wide range of institutional and individual clients. "This town and each community, village and city in this state has a solid-waste refuge problem," he states.

Energy Inventions Program cash is earmarked for design and Production study, to streamline the manufacture of the composting and grey water tanks. Presently, each tank must be built using Fiberglas at a time-consuming, two-step process. Elston is experimenting with new plastics technologies which would speed up things considerably. Though a single tank now takes between five and four days to build, Elston predicts he could be turning out as many as 20 per day. For the consumer, that could mean the difference between $12,000 - the present price tag on his system - and something closer to $7,500.

Together with his program for the DOE grant, the National Bureau of Standards conducted a technical analysis of the AlasCan system, validating its efficacy and deeming it worthy of both marketing and financial support. "They view it as the sole plausible economic and sanitary solution for isolated and rural regions," Elston says.

Elston has attracted on the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation Money to set up a workshop in Fairbanks, complete with a demo unit that provides prospective customers a firsthand look in a functioning system. An alternate to continuously doing business long-distance from Healy, the store includes a small kitchen and bath upstairs.

Elston also is spending the base grant to develop a Business plan for his company and also to set a gray-water testing program. The two Northern Testing Laboratories and the University of Alaska Fairbanks Environmental Technology Laboratory are accumulating information to verify the effluent quality of the grey water released by the AlasCan system. Studies are under way at three test sites: two in Fairbanks and one in Skwentna.

Final results, expected sometime this year, will determine Whether along with release standards the system meets, it may be proven to satisfy federal Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Environmental Conservation secondary stream discharge criteria - meaning that the grey water is clean enough to be discharged without threatening drinking water supplies.

Assuming everything goes according to schedule, Elston expects Business to pick up this summer. He expects his four-person operation shortly will double in size. By setting AlasCan dealerships, Elston imagines installing one complete system per day.

It isn't Hard to convince prospective clients that AlasCan is very good for the environment, Elston states. With contemporary tanks and fixtures which can can be hidden under the house or in the basement, it's also not hard to sell folks on AlasCan's appearance.

What's tough, based on Elston, would be to convince them it's Value the initial cost. The basic household unit comprising a single flushing toilet - Visit website, a gray-water treatment tank and the composting tank - now runs the average homeowner $12,000, including setup. The ability to reduce this cost is going to be a significant element in AlasCan's growth, Elston believes.

The price to the average family to operate the entire system has Been estimated at maybe $100 a year, a fraction of the price usually associated with heating a sewer line or having waste hauled away by automobile. Additionally, the average home would save over 40,000 gallons of water annually, by simply removing the standard five-gallon flush bathroom.

Because one composting tank could accommodate up to 15 individuals, the System is acceptable for both single and multifamily dwellings, Elston explains.

While the location, cost and cold associated with product Development in Healy would appear to be inhibiting factors for many fledgling businesses, they haven't hampered Elston's attempts, he says. If anything, being able to show that AlasCan functions in such a harsh environment has only served to bolster his product's standing.

But the big advantage to doing business in Alaska, based on Elston, has been people's attitudes. "We didn't have somebody telling us it Couldn't be done," he explains. Outside, on the other hand, he was Constantly frustrated by bureaucracy and endless boundaries on his creativity. Since coming to Alaska, Elston says he has been "recognized, valued And aided."