Global Ecovillage Network/Solution Library/Low cost public composting toilets

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Water reduction, non-polluting, sanitary composting of human excreta, and recycling of processed waste in agriculture.

The world is divided into two categories of people: those who shit in drinking water and those who don't.

— Joseph Jenkins, The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure

The four Center for Creative Ecology at Kibbutz Lotan composting toilets have provided a no-water sanitary solution for human excreta to tens of thousands of visitors since 2008. Excreta, poo, urine, and toilet paper drop into off-the-shelf and augmented municipal 120-liter waste bins. Users add a cup of dry organic material (chopped straw, leaves). The toilet seat is a 40 cm-diameter plastic culvert pipe that extends below the floor. The bottom of the pipe connects to a flexible plastic shaft, which in turn connects to a galvanized steel cover that seals the top of the waste bin.

From the cover, a flexible ventilation pipe connects to a solar-powered inline exhaust fan. The bottom of the bin has a raised, perforated floor. A plastic tap allows leachate extraction. Composting deactivates pathogens and continues for months in a closed bin until volume decreases 60%. Compost is used on trees. Leachate is processed in adjacent constructed wetland and irrigates fruit trees.

• Green Building.
• Seeds, Food & Soil.
• Water Cycles.

• http://www.kibbutzlotan.com/#!compost-toilets/c1rpy