As a green builder and renovator I am not only looking for ways to be more sustainable, but also to see how I can find ways to save money that are green as well. I was at a trade show today and ran into a seller of composting toilets. I have used composting toilets in the past as part of a structure so I am familiar with the technology. There is one on display at the Southface Energy Institute and one of my friends is selling a house that has one in it as well.
Today I was presented a new way of using composting toilets that makes the job site more eco-friendly. Instead of using a job site toilets such as a portalet, they have a product that can be used in place of that. I had never heard of using a composting toilet for a temp toilet that can be taken away. It is not only a good idea to make the job site more eco-friendly, it also does not need the same sort of maintenance that a regular toilet needs. Most temp toilets needs to be cleaned out once or twice a week depending on the number of users. A composting toilet basically maintains itself with the waste. All you have to do is throw some sawdust in there to aid in the compost every now and then. The compost at the end of the job can be used in a garden as well. All of those burritos and fast food meals can be turned into plant food! I am sure that my homeowner’s will love the free gift that we leave them at the end of the job once we start using these.
According to the manufacturers website here are some other benefits of using a composting toilet:
- You are protecting your lake and ground water from being polluted by pathogens and nutrients
- You are saving huge amounts of water
- You are recycling the nutrients directly back to the plants they came from.
For more info on composting toilets visit: sun-mar
If you are in the Atlanta area this weekend you can find them at a Home Show that is currently in town. Also some see our associates at the Velux booth and talk to them about going Solar!
Find out more about us here, check out our videos, and become a fan of us on Facebook!
This is real interesting to me. My dad has a hanger at an airfield in north georgia, and they have no water service or sewer. Something like this would work well for him. Also, when I was in the Peace Corps, a large part of our project involved building dry composting latrines, and keeping the solids separate from the liquids was continually a problem, especially with children using the latrines. I would like to see a DIY design that more effectively adresses this problem.