Cameron Coleman felt frustrated because the neglected sewer lines around his house were backing up and flooding his home. He also felt guilty because he was aware of how much water was contaminated by the current toilet system but he didn’t have the knowledge or money to change it.

The solution we proposed for Mr. Coleman is a program called Gester that collects human and organic waste in a container at home using a water-saving vacuum toilet and transports it to an anaerobic digester to generate energy for that neighborhood.

Initially, we assumed that he wanted to directly use the natural gas for activities like cooking, but after conducting field research we learned using the natural gas generated to offset his energy bill was more manageable for people of all ages.

We created iteration after iteration on the container size, handle shape, and toilet placement, landing on a couple and a family-sized Gester transport container to ensure that no matter the size of Mr. Coleman’s family, everyone was supported.

Our first prototype (top left) was based purely stylistic but after testing with a 50L container accurately sized for the human waste wastewater produced (top right), we introduced a vacuum toilet into the process to use less water and ease transportation (bottom).

To implement this new waste management system, questions like “Will it change the connotations of waste, disease and ‘grossness’?” or “what individual indicators can be stolen and abused through waste” need to be addressed.