Works where there are few options
CBS is a last-mile sanitation service well suited to a range of hard-to-reach contexts where installing sewers, septic tanks, and pit latrines can be challenging. As CBS does not require digging, unlike sewers, pits or septic tanks, it has found a niche in many hard-to-reach or underserved contexts: densely populated informal settlements, refugee or transitional settlements and areas with rocky ground, unstable soil conditions, high water tables, hills, limited water, or frequent floods.
Private and safe for vulnerable groups
CBS services provide a private, safe space for women and girls to use the toilet and manage menstruation and pregnancy. As in-home toilets, they can also improve accessibility for those with physical disabilities, the elderly and young children.
Supports Citywide Inclusive sanitation
A 2019 World Bank report concluded that CBS should be considered part of city-wide inclusive sanitation options, emphasizing affordability, safety and resilience to climate variations.
Affordable for users
CBS providers offer commercial and non-commercial models. In some cases, CBS is available as an affordable subscription, enabling residents to access safely managed sanitation faster with a lower initial investment compared to constructing a latrine or pour-flush toilet.
REDUCING THE FUNDING GAP
Cost-effective
CBS is a cost-effective form of safely managed sanitation, comparable to sanitation chains involving sewers or septic tanks. Thanks to diversified revenue streams, including affordable user fees, the sale of reuse products and other innovative endeavours, CBS can narrow the sanitation funding gap for public contracting. An EY study of urban low-income settlements in Haiti, Ghana, Kenya, Peru and Madagascar found typical CBS systems to be around 69% more cost-effective than sewered connections and around 13% more cost effective than pit latrines. comparable costs to sanitation chains involving sewers or septic tanks, with better potential for cost recovery from reuse products.
Harnessing the circular economy
UN-Habitat billed CBS as being at the forefront of harnessing the reuse potential of faecal sludge for the circular economy, with many providers making productive use of waste to produce regenerative, value-added products, including soil amendments such as compost and biochar, alternative fuel (including briquettes and biogas) and animal feed.
Stimulating the wider sanitation market
CBS can be a valuable transitional solution to support the journey to universal coverage through its ability to change behaviour and create demand for other sanitation options, demonstrating that investment in CBS can be an investment in the wider sanitation market.
CLIMATE-SMART AND RESILIENT
Low emissions
CBS systems significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from excreta. By separating and quickly treating waste, they reduce the anaerobic degradation that produces methane, the second largest GHG driver of global warming. Our work with the carbon finance consultancy South Pole found that CBS projects would eliminate 79% to 93% of baseline emissions, depending on the treatment methods used and the context. CBS also requires less energy than conventional wastewater treatment.
Robust in changing climates
Thanks to its removable and sealable container, CBS systems are climate resilient and can survive, function and quickly recover in the face of climate-related shocks, chronic stresses and seasonal variabilities, such as flooding and drought, to ensure that faecal matter is safely contained throughout the sanitation service chain.
Water-saving
CBS systems are waterless or water-saving, alleviating some of the strain climate change and water scarcity have on access to sanitation services.
SAFE AND CLEAN
Supports clean communities
CBS services are full-chain, safely managed sanitation services that make sure residents are safe, and household services are recognised by the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation as safely managed. CBS toilets will never fill up or leave faecal sludge untreated to contaminate the environment and risk causing disease, even during flooding when they can be sealed to ensure no waste is released.
A professional service, providing safe jobs
Thanks to the use of sealed containers, stringent health and safety operating procedures throughout the service chain and commitment to developing a professional workforce, CBS services protect the health and dignity of sanitation professionals in a sector that is still widely stigmatized and dangerous for workers, providing decent, green incomes for men and women.