Pee Town: Paris Puts its Urine to Work

As the city of Paris evolved into modernity, the removal of human waste was key to that transition. Today, repurposing waste products plays a significant role in realizing a greener Paris.  And urine is key to it. 
Podcast by Roger Mummert
www.theparisproject.net

This podcast was created by Roger Mummert for www.theparisproject.net.

Transcript

Pee-Town: Paris Puts its Urine to Work 

I first encountered a pissoir as a student visiting Paris in 1976. There  stood a tall column encircled by a decorative metal fence and with a top like the Tin Man’s hat. A trickle of water flowed out and emptied into a street drain. As I stood and marveled at this curiosity, a man emerged from within and zipped up his fly.

I wasted no time in using it. I was giddy with relief and freedom at my first public urination on the boulevards of Paris. I felt in-spirit with Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller and of all the literary expats who had proudly peed before me. At the same time, I felt a tinge of guilt at the sexist inequity of this open-air pleasure being available only to men. 

Pissoirs are a thing of the past in Paris. They have been replaced by a far-better network of public toilettes. These oblong, gray-colored conveniences are found on sidewalks throughout the city. They appear on maps and are easily located by phone search—so you can stroll freely and plan a pit stop. The toilettes are clean and efficient. A push-button door opens for a single person (or a parent and child) to enter, and upon leaving the unit self-cleans. The toilettes are free, pan-gender and wheelchair friendly. And they are wonderful: merveilleuse! 

Some of the toilettes in Paris have a feature that takes me back to that first, glorious pipis liberté. They have a urinal sidecar. If the need is just to pee, one can—that is, a man can—swing open a chest-high door at the side of the main unit and access a separate urinal. No waiting! Mind you, during use a man’s head and shoulders are exposed above the barrier—en plain air! That may take some getting use to—but not for moi. As I peed, I felt that youthful giddiness rushing back, imparting for the moment that indelible first sensation of Paris: a distinct mélange of Gaulloise cigarettes, espresso, diesel exhaust…and urine. 

Fond memories aside, urine has played a significant role in the history of Paris. And it has a place in its future.

Urine and the Green Plan

The Muéee des Égouts de Paris, the Museum of the Sewers of Paris, reveals a wealth of insights into how the city of Paris developed into modernity, in particular, how the removal of human waste was key to that transition. 

Historically, human waste was collected and stored in cesspools beneath homes. These pits that were cleaned out every three or four years and the aged waste within them was used as fertilizer. But not always. At times, brimming chamber pots were emptied out a window and into the street—passers-by be damned. Sewers ran down the center of the city streets, fouling them, along with the shoes, skirts and pants of Parisians. 

From the Middle Ages on, Paris was, in fact, famous for its foulness. Voltaire said of Paris in the 18th century: “We blush with shame to see the public markets set up in narrow streets, displaying their filth, spreading infection.…” And Parisians mucked their way through those filthy streets. The first sidewalk appeared only in 1781.

The pissoir was introduced to Paris streets in 1830, but the first installations were short-lived: Revolutionaries found them handy material for constructing barricades in the July Revolution that year. Pissoirs (also known as vespasiennne) made a major impact in 1834, when 400 pissoirs were placed around the city. They were masonry columns known as colonnes Rambuteau after the Comte de Rambuteau, the Préfect of the Seine who oversaw their installation. Quite a legacy. Later, cast-iron replaced masonry as the preferred material for pissoirs.  

You may wonder: Where was all this pee going? Here, Paris was cutting-edge: The development of a comprehensive modern sewer system was begun in 1851 under the Second Empire renovation. At completion, it was state-of-the art, a marvel to the world. In fact, touring the sewers of Paris by boat was a hot ticket for foreign visitors to the Paris Exhibitions of the latter part of the 19th century. 

Pissiors continued to proliferate, and new designs emerged with enhanced capacity. Three-man pissoirs were common, and some models could accommodate as many as eight urinators at once. The number of pissoirs peaked at 1,230 in the 1930s (appropriately for the Henry Miller era of impoverished boulevardiering), and a steady decline followed. In the States, we wax poetic about the last remaining Howard Johnson’s, but in Paris much fol de rol was made to le denier pissoir on Boulevard Arago in Montparnasse. 

For a nostalgic glimpse of the grande époque de pissoir, take a look at the photos of Charles Marville, who documented the Second Empire renovation, as well as those of Eugène Atget who captured Paris in the Belle Époque. There is fabulous variety of designs, embellishments and even advertisements (One reads: “Cafe des Gourmets”).

Combatting public urination

Paris also is seeking to counter the ubiquitous urban problem of renegade street urinators or les pipis savages. The city has installed Uritrottoirs (compact sidewalk urinals) in areas of chronic street urination. These open air boxes are colored bright red and have flowers planted atop them. They are, in fact, sustainable collection systems. Urine flows into a box filled with wood chips and straw. Boxes hold up to 600 uses. When full, an electronic signal prompts a pickup and the contents go to a compost center. After a year of composting, the rendered urine is used to fertilize trees and shrubs in city parks—and also used in the very flower pots atop the uritrottoirs. So when peeing, you are, in a sense, “watering the plants.”

Again, I think of Henry Miller and how he would have loved the uritrottoirs. Miller wrote of pissoirs fondly: “One likes to piss in sunlight among human beings who stand and smile down at you….To relieve a full bladder is one of the great human joys.”

And now it can be a civic duty, as well.

The future promise of urine  

The story told at the Musée des Égouts includes a concluding chapter on a future, greener Paris where waste products play a significant role. And urine is key to it. 

Urine contains valuable nutrients, primarily nitrogen. Once processed, it can fertilize trees and shrubbery in the many green spaces of the city, spaces that are being expanded exponentially under a master greening plan. That plan will be tested in the 14th Arrondissement where 1,000 residents are slated to have urine-diverting toilets installed. These are capable of separating urine and drying it into a powder, making it easily transportable for reuse. Diverting urine also eliminates needless flushing and saves water. Composting it removes pathogens and makes it crop-ready. 

Throughout history, urine has been widely used to fertilize crops and also in tanning leather. Wherever its reuse value was recognized, urine was kept separate from solid waste. When flush toilets were developed in the 19th century, waste was mixed together then combined with sewer runoff. This “sanitary development,” in fact, brought harm to rivers and bays with high nitrogen runoff that caused algae bloom, killed fish and caused other problems. We need to rethink this “modern improvement.” Paris is starting do so—and act on it. 

You may cringe at the idea of eating foods fertilized with urine—but not the French. In a poll of 16 nations in 2021, people were asked if they would eat urine-fertilized foods. The French led the list: 80 percent said “Oui, bien sur!”