Throughout history, people have bathed in public rather than in private. Should we bring back the public bathhouse for the sake of sustainability?
Around the 17th century, the Dutch started reinforcing their dykes and harbours with sturdy mats the size of football pitches – hand-woven from thousands of twigs grown on nearby coppice plantations. These “fascine mattresses” were weighted with rocks and sunk into canals, estuaries, and rivers.
In the mid 20th century, whole cities’ sewage systems safely and successfully used fish to treat and purify their water. Waste-fed fish ponds are a low-tech, cheap, and sustainable alternative to deal with our own shit – and to obtain high protein food in the process.
The water and energy use of the mist shower is so low that the bathroom could be taken off-grid and off-pipe even in an urban context.
For centuries, the Netherlands were mainly dredged by hand, supplemented by animal power, wind power and tidal power. Could it be done again?
Before the British arrived, people on the subcontinent used traditional low-cost, low-tech engineering to collect rainwater for thousands of years.
Flushing the water closet wreaks ecological havoc, deprives agricultural soils of essential nutrients and makes food production dependent on fossil fuels.
Artificial floating islands can be used to clean urban bodies of water. Any polluted canal, river, estuary, lake in a city park, or storm water retention pond would benefit from a floating island.
Drinking bottled water is a more ecological choice than consuming soft drinks, coffee, fruit juice or beer.