Pikkuvihreä
Waterless urinals from Finland to the world! Pikkuvihreä, founded in 1993, is a family-company specializing in ecological dry toilets, wastewater treatment, and composting. Pikkuvihreä offers different kinds of waterless toilet and wastewater solutions for holiday homes, villas and public sites with already 30 years of experience.
The sales of Pikkuvihreä are not limited just to domestic market. In fact, Pikkuvihreä’s dry toilets exist already in every continent all the way from the Andes in Peru to the New Caledonia Island.
During the past few years growing Pikkuvihreä has collaborated with Okartek especially in designing and making their injection-molded Urinal.
Pikkuvihreä Urinal is a waterless urinal for men. The Urinal is made of recycled plastic and it is really easy to be installed anywhere at home, summer cottage or in the garden for instance.
When designing the Urinal, it was very important for Pikkuvihreä to make an ecological product which would not only be made of recycled material but would also minimize the carbon footprint related to international shipping. That is why the Urinals were designed to be stackable inside one another to save space in shipping.
“There is a growing demand for waterless sanitation, not just in Finland but abroad as well. The Urinal designed with Okartek has proven to be invaluable to many consumers at home, summer cottage and garden.”
Eemeli Palo, Pikkuvihreä
Okartek was chosen as the manufacturer of the Urinal not only because of their nearby location, but due to their expertise in product designing and injection molding. The project started from a prototype which we used to make a 3D model of the final design for production.
“The initial idea for this product was fairly simple. Before the Pikkuvihreä Urinal, from time to time we had some customers asking for a waterless urinal that would be easy to install by anyone, anywhere. Unfortunately, there just were not many such urinals available. No wonder some guys made their own DIY urinals from all kinds of buckets and plastic canisters.”
Eemeli Palo, Pikkuvihreä
In Finland, probably the most common use case for the Urinal in the outhouse alongside a dry toilet. One of the good things about the Urinal is that it cuts off the liquid load from the dry toilet and hence prevents undesired odor in the toilet. The Urinal is also widely used in many public parks and places where it is not okay to urinate into the bushes.
When designing a new product, mutual cooperation with the customer is really essential, because then you can take into account the customer needs as well as the limits of plastic molding. Modern modelling and simulation techniques guarantee a successful outcome, also from the production perspective.
COLLECT YOUR URINE!
Diluted sterile urine is safe, odorless and free fertilizer that can easily be used with for plants and compost. Urine contains 0,2%-0,9% of nitrogen, but also potassium and phosphorous suitable for plants directly. Urine separation is also a good way to reduce the water bill and save the energy at your local wastewater treatment plant.
Along its history, Pikkuvihreä has participated in several World Toilet Summit events including Singapore 2001, Beijing 2004 and Philadelphia 2010. Pikkuvihreä has won the Agenda21 environment prize in years 1998 and 2005.
”We are very active in the Finnish Dry Toilet Association and constantly follow the global development of dry toilets. In 2018, we were in the Global Dry Toilet Conference as one of the exhibitors. Nowadays we have ongoing projects for example in Mongolia, Australia, Island and in Uganda. There is a big demand for Finnish dry toilet solutions across the globe and we want to be contributing UN sustainable development goal 6 for clean water and sanitation.”