• Solutions

Low cost public composting toilets

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About the Solutions

Overview

The four Center for Creative Ecology at Kibbutz Lotan composting toilets has provided a no-water sanitary solution for human excreta for upwards of 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 which extends below the floor. The bottom of the pipe connects to a flexible plastic shaft which connects to a galvanized steel cover sealing the top of the waste bin. From the cover a flexible ventilation pipe connects to an 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.

The challenge

Water reduction, non polluting, sanitary composting of human excreta, 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

Related resources

Description

The four Center for Creative Ecology at Kibbutz Lotan composting toilets has provided a no-water sanitary solution for human excreta for upwards of 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 which extends below the floor. The bottom of the pipe connects to a flexible plastic shaft which connects to a galvanized steel cover sealing the top of the waste bin. From the cover a flexible ventilation pipe connects to an 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.

The challenge

Water reduction, non polluting, sanitary composting of human excreta, 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

Related resources

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