Sam Kennedy doesn’t like using portable toilets at venues.
“Concert bathrooms are not fun,” the 18-year-old animal sciences freshman said.
But three UF alumni may have found a solution to her problems with the Dungaroo.
Liz Morris, a 2008 UF alumna, came up with the idea of creating a cheaper, cleaner, odorless and waterless portable toilet. She named it the Dungaroo.
Morris is the founder and CEO of Sanitation Creations, which employs the two other Gators.
“People don’t realize how big of an issue sanitation is here,” said Sanitation Creations marketing director Matt Chais, a 2010 alumnus.
Chais said the portable toilet collects waste in a bag. After a person “flushes” the toilet, the bag is closed, and a new bag appears for the next person to use.
Each bag will be lined with chemicals to kill bacteria, Chais said.
The company plans to find a way to have the waste burned and used for electricity.
Office of Sustainability at UF’s zero waste coordinator Joseph Floyd said the company’s ideas are good. However, he’s concerned chemicals in the bags that collect the waste will kill microbials, which are needed to produce energy from waste.
The company is still working out the details and the legal process of the project.
Chais said their portable toilets would cost about $215 to transport, install and empty, which is half of what other portable toilets cost to maintain.
Sanitation Creations expects to have the toilets ready by November 2013.
“By next football season we’re hoping for our toilets to be at football games and construction sites,” he said.
Chief financial officer Daniel Green, a 2008 alumnus, said the company plans to start using its project in the transportation and camping industry as a start-up.
The company is also interested in taking its idea internationally, especially to developing countries.
“Scarcity and abuse in water right here at home and abroad claims many lives and it’s a big issue,” Green said. “There’s a big push for social good and companies to be more green, and we’re accomplishing that.”
