One of the authors, David Del Porto, has sold and and serviced thousands of composting toilets since 1972.  He has also help write industry performance and regulation standards, and designed composting toilets and graywater systems for Greenpeace facilities and for different developing countries.  He is one of the leading experts in his field and really knows the topic well.

In The Composting System B0ok you will find descriptions of over forty different composting toilet systems, including both manufactured and site-built composting toilets.  They discuss everything from what are the best toilet stools to go with your self-contained composting toilet to how to best install a micro-flush composting toilet in your home.  The book has extensive tips on how to choose, plan, and install your entire composting toilet system, including some information that the toilet manufacturers themselves will never tell you about how to maintain and install their composting toilets.  You will also find out how you can help reduce pollution and help protect yourself and your community against rising water and sewage costs in the future by choosing a composting toilet for your home.

The book also explains the manner in which new composting technology has improved so that composting toilets are now compatible with the most upscale bathrooms, while also providing extensive technical information about these systems (although it is about eight years old at this point and even more developments have been made in recent years).  In addition, The Composting Toilet System Book provides important information about United States permitting requirements for different states, as well as how these composting toilet systems can be best integrated with graywater systems.  If you are about to embark on the process of trying to get a permit for your composting toilet, you should definitely take a look at the information provided in this book.

You should be aware that the Composting Toilet System Book is not cheap, running around fifty dollars a copy.  But it is easily the best printed resource available for people installing and maintaining composting toilets in their homes, and is well worth the price.   The Composting Toilet System Book is available from many online retailers, and you can purchase it from Amazon.com here: The Composting Systems Book.

For more information about composting toilet systems, including additional reviews of composting toilet books, please return to Toilet Composting.

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What are composting toilets and how do they work?

Composting toilets are an important alternative to flush toilet systems.  Unlike the sewage or septic-based flush toilet system, composting toilets rely on little or no water in dealing with human waste.  Instead, composting toilets turn human waste into a valuable soil additive that can be used as a soil amendment.  Users will generally add organic brown matter to the toilet (such as sawdust or peat moss) instead of water.  Basic toilet composting systems rely on either a series of containers or a large centralized composting chamber.  For a full description, read What are Composting Toilets?

How are composting toilets good for the environment?

Toilet composting systems benefit the environment in multiple ways.  They can play a major role in preserving one of the world’s most important and rapidly diminishing resources: water.  They also produce a valuable end-product (compost) that can improve the environment and less reliance on chemical fertilizing products.   Composting toilets can also lessen the threat of groundwater contamination (from septic systems), environmental pollution (from broken sewage pipes), and help recycle all sorts of organic household waste.  For more information, read “What are the Environmental Benefits of Composting Toilets?”

How safe are composting toilets?

The short answer is completely safe, when used properly.  When not installed and used according to specifications, however, they may pose health risks – just as septic and sewage systems also pose considerable health risks when used or maintained improperly.  For a full discussion, read the entire article “Are Composting Toilets Safe?”

Where can I put in a composting toilet system?

Some people confuse composting toilets with outhouses or pit latrines, assuming they must be installed outdoors.  This simply is not true.  Most current toilet composting systems are built for indoor use (the exception being certain portable composting toilet models).  Most are meant for household use, but there are many other locations that composting toilets can be installed.  Increasingly government facilities, national parks and colleges are installing them both because of their benefit for the environment and society, but also to serve as demonstration projects for the public.  For more ideas about where toilet composting systems can be used, check out the article “Where Can Composting Toilets Be Used?”

What do toilet composting systems cost?

If you are actively searching for a toilet composting system, this is probably a major question you have when comparing it to other waste disposal systems.  Although composting toilets may initially seem much more expensive than a flush toilet system, there are many hidden costs in the latter, and some research will show that composting toilets are usually the best choice financially.  Not only do they costs considerably less than installing a septic system or paying sewage fees over time, but you will also save on water and be producing a valuable end product as well.  For complete information, read “How Much do Composting Toilets Cost?”

What can I put in a composting toilet?

Besides the obvious (human waste and toilet paper), you will find that your composting toilet is a wonderful way to recycle a wide variety of organic waste that your household produces.  Everything from kitchen scraps, shredded paper, coffee grounds and even yard waste can be put into your toilet composting system.  For a full discussion and many more examples of what can go into your composting toilet, read “What Can You Put In a Composting Toilet?”

How do I dispose of the end-product of the toilet composting process?

The end product of toilet composting is humus, or compost, and it is a valuable soil additive.   Some refer to this end-product also as “humanure” and you can use it to fertilize trees, bushes, flowers and more.  For a full discussion, read “What is Humanure and What Can I do With It?”

For more articles and information, you can return to the Toilet Composting homepage and search through the archives of dozens of useful articles about different aspects of building, purchasing, maintaining and using composting toilets.

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In order to help encourage the use of composting toilets by these consumers, there have been several “micro-flush” and “vacuum flush” composting toilets designed by manufacturers during the past decade. These models closely resemble a conventional  flush toilet.  In fact, some users may not even be aware that they are using a composting toilet at all!

Although micro-flush composting toilets are not waterless, the amount of water they use is still much less than with even low flush conventional toilets.  Micro-flush composting toilets are still able to save thousands of gallons of water each year from being flushed away.

Micro-flush toilet composting models generally use less than half a liter to flush waste into a centralized reactor (composting chamber) located beneath the composting toilet.  Some micro-flush composting toilets also rely on vacuum flush technology to ensure the waste travels quickly and completely to the composting chamber, and also helps eliminate some of the problems with finding a suitable location for the composting chamber.  The vacuum flush system also helps ensures that these models are completely odor free as well (although odor is not usually a problem with any electric composting toilet model that is properly maintained).

An example of this technology can be found with the Envirolet VF composting toilet which can flush waste up to seventy feet away and upwards up to twelve feet using vacuum flush technology.  These models are not as cheap as regular composting toilet models (the Envirolet VF model starts around $3200), but for those interested in a composting toilet that closely resembles a regular flush toilet it is an excellent choice.

Because composting toilets rely an aerobic decomposition, excess water will need to be drained from most micro flush composting toilet models.  This is because with excess water in the system, proper composting will not occur and the system may revert to anaerobic decomposition instead (for an explanation of these terms, read “How Toilet Composting Works“).

Some may argue that instead of creating new composting models that resemble conventional flush toilets, consumers should simply adjust to the most appropriate and environmentally friendly technology.  This may be the ideal, but micro flush composting toilets can encourage many consumers to take the step towards switching to a composting toilet system when they may not otherwise do so.  Given the environmental benefits of micro flush composting toilets when compared to conventional flush toilets, this is definitely a step in the right direction.

For more information and useful articles about composting toilets, including reviews of other types of composting toilet systems and models, please return to the Toilet Composting homepage.

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Clivus Multrum Composting Toilet System.

“Clivus Multrum” refers to both a certain type of toilet composting system and the manufacturer of that system.  Clivus mean “incline” in Latin, while “Multrum” is a Swedish word meaning compost room, so Clivus Multrum literally means “inclining compost room.”

The first Clivus Multrum composting toilet system was built in 1939 in Sweden by Rikard Lindström, and this prototype was eventually patented in the 1960s.  The Clivus Multrum composting toilet system involves a large remote tank connected by a slope to a toilet.  The system requires a large accesible lower space beneath the toilet.

In the 1970s Abby Rockefeller founded Clivus Multrum Inc. in the United States under a license from Lindström.  With the current models using this system, a ventilation system will continously pull air down creating a completely odorless composting toilet system.   Their also now is an automatic moistening system that will help keep the compost at the right moisture level for composting, and an automatic process to remove excess liquid from the composter as well.

Currently Clivus Multrum is marketing their composting systems towards more industrial and governmental purposes than towards home consumers.   They have a special “Trailhead” design aimed for use by national and state park services and portable models for use at golf courses and remote recreation areas.  For more information, you can visit the Clivus Multrum website.

Phoenix Composting Toilet System

The Phoenix composting toilet system is manufactured by Advanced Composting Systems, LLC, based in Whitefish, Montana.  The company has been manufacturing composting toilets for over 27 years, and also creates prefabricated buildings.

The Phoenix composting toilet system was developed in the 1980s by Glenn Nelson, who prior to founding this company was a licensed manufacturer of Clivus Multrum toilets.  Nelson used his experience with the Clivus Multrum composting system to build the Phoenix models, although they are unique in design.

Nelson sought to improve a few problems he saw with the Clivus Multrum system in the Phoenix design.  One such issue was the slope of the composting tank found in the Clivus Multrum system, which caused concern about “fresher” composting materials possibly mixing with older materials awaiting harvest.  Another issue Nelson pointed to with the Clivus Multrum original designs was how liquid pooled at the bottom of the sloped tank, turning the process from aerobic decomposition into anerobic decomposition (for a discussion of the differences between these two forms, see “How Toilet Composting Works“).

Nelson created a toilet composting system which addressed both of these problems  (Clivus Multrum representatives argue they have now also addressed both these problems with their own redesigns of their system).  The Phoenix composting toilet is manufactured out of rotationally molded polyethylene, and unfortunately does not rely much on recycled plastic in its design.  There are residential models available, although they are quite expensive when compared to other composting toilets on the market (the cheapest and smallest residential model starts around $3500).  For more information visit the Phoenix Composting Toilet website.

For additional reviews of composting toilets, including the Sun-Mar, BioLet, Envirolet and EcoTech models, visit the Toilet Composting information website.

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1) Composting toilets help conserve valuable water resources. Flush toilet systems waste enormous amounts of clean drinking water each year.  It is estimated that every day, Americans flush over 4.8 billion gallons of water down their toilets.

In order to keep the water flowing to these flush toilets, dams must be built, water piped hundreds of miles and then chemically treated, and then after all this expense and effort, 40% of the water will simply be flushed away.  The situation in developing nations, where clean water supplies are often quite limited, is even more dire.  For more information, read “What is Wrong with Flush Toilets.”

2)  Composting toilets are safer for the environment. If you have any question about the damage sewage systems do to our environment, just type the words “sewage spills” into Google and read some of the results. Septic systems are not much better, as contamination of ground water due to seepage from septic tank is a growing problem in many regions.

Composting toilets have little risk of causing any comparable type of environmental damage (in fact, the end product of the toilet composting process is actually good for the environment).  For more information, read “What are the Environmental Benefits of Composting Toilets?”

3) They are a good choice economically. When initially comparing a flush toilet to a compost toilet, the latter may seem much more expensive.  But you should be mindful of the many hidden costs associated with flush toilet systems.

For example, installing a composting toilet costs less than half of what it would cost to install a septic system on your property.  If you are connected to a sewage system, you will save on connection costs over the year.  With a composting toilet, you will also save enormously on annual water costs.  For more information, read “How Much do Composting Toilets Cost?”

4) They produce a valuable end product that is good for the environment. Whereas flush toilets produce a waste product that must be treated and disposed of, composting toilet produce a nutrient rich end-product that is a valuable soil additive.

Rather than posing an environment risk, the humus from composting toilets helps create an even greener environment around us.  For more information on how to use humus in your garden and yard, read “What is Humanure and What Can I Do With It?”

5) Most composting toilet models are easy to install and have less environmental impact than flush toilets. With a composting toilets you will not need heavy machinery to excavate a septic system or connections to a sewage system.  Self-contained models are especially easy to install, but even remote systems are quite easy to install with some professional help.  See “Types of Composting Systems” for more information.

For more information, including a discussion of some of the “Advantage and Disadvantages of Composting Toilets,” please visit the Toilet Composting Home Page where you will find dozens of useful articles on toilet composting systems.

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Envirolet is a Canadian based company manufacturering composting toilets since 1977 (they have distributors in the United States and Europe as well).  Sancor Industries manufacturers the Envirolet Composting toilets, and you are able to purchase these directly from the manufacturer.

There are currently four types of envirolet composting models available.  Their Waterless Self-Contained non-electric model is the most affordable, costing around $1750 USD.  This model contains a small wind turbine on the vent stack which assists with ventilation (instead of an electric fan).  Their centralized systems include both waterless and low flush models.  Their electric waterless remote system is sized for eight individuals, and costs about $2300 USD (not including installation costs).  Their newest model, the “FlushSmart” composting toilet, looks and operates in a manner that is remarkably similar to a flush toilet, and starts around $3300 USD.  You will need to install a drain system to work with the low flush systems.

Envirolet seems to be a good choice particularly for consumers interested in flush toilet composting systems.  These models still use considerable less amount of water than regular flush toilets, but some may find them distasteful in how they mimic a very wasteful and environmentally harmful technology (see “What is Wrong with a Flush Toilet?”).

EcoTech is a manufacturer of probably the most popular carousel composting toilet system on the market (for a discussion of different composting systems read “Types of Toilet Composting Systems“).  The EcoTech carousel is based on a Norwegian composting toilet design popular with residents of housing developments in Scandanavia. There are currently over 35,000 EcoTech carousel composting toilets currently installed in Norway.

The carousel features four rotating composting chambers that are meant to be emptied anywhere between twice a year and once every four years depending on model and use.  There are two main models available, the medium and large EcoTech Carousel.

The medium EcoTech carousel model is built for daily use by up to four individuals, and starts around $2700 USD.  The large model can accomodate up to six individuals with daily use, and starts around $4400.  (Listed prices do not include importanat accessories such as heaters, exhaust fans, pipes and fittings, nor do they include any installation or shipping costs).

A huge advantage of the EcoTech carousel system is that the system design ensures that no “fresh” material can mix with the older composting materials (which can be an issue with certain self-contained and remote composting toilet systems).  You will need a basement or similar space underneath the toilet in order to use this system as there are, unfortunately, no self-contained models.  The EcoTech carousel is well suited for four to six individuals using the system daily, and will thus suit most family needs.

If you are interested in reading reviews of other composting systems, including a comparison of the Sun-Mar and BioLet composting toilets, please return to the Toilet Composting Home Page.

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For a long time, it was argued that the first commercially designed composting toilets were developed in Sweden in the 1930s or 1940s.  Apparently what prompted this development in Sweden was the extremely rocky soil conditions in the Swedish countryside that prevented the installation of sewage pipes or septic systems, and composting toilets emerged as a solution to this problem.

However, recent research at Envirolet has shown that there were much earlier models of composting toilets available.  For example, in 1881 there was an advertisement in “the Ironmongers’ Catalogue” for a “Self-Acting Earth Closet” which according to the advertisement is “A substitute for the Water Closet, securing healthy homes, inoffensive drains, and garden fertility.”  And an even earlier example is found in 1860 for the “Earth Commode” by the English vicar Reverend Henry Moule.  Moule developed this composting toilet in an effort to combat the ravages of cholera in London at the time which threatened the life of many of his parishioners.  Although some schools and military installations adopted these toilets, and they were also used in India as well, they never received the wide-spread adoption he had hoped for.  There is, however,  no doubt that in the mid-19th century there was experimentation with several different composting toilet models.

However, regardless of these early commercial composting toilet examples, it wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s that composting toilets began to gain in popularity and use worldwide.  The design of modern composting toilet systems originated in Scandinavia during the 1960s.  During the 1970s, these designs started to be transported to Canada, Australia and the United States, which is when many modern composting toilet manufacturers got their start.

Some of the models developed during the 1960s and 1970s had issues with odor and ease of maintenance, and during the last decade or two there has been quite a few advances in the composting toilet industry.  Composting toilets manufactured today are practically odorless, easy to use and several models are are now certified as completely safe and sanitary for home usage by health sanitation agencies.  (Although just because a model has not received a formal certification does not mean that it is unsafe or unsanitary either).

There have been many changes in composting toilet designs over the past 150 years or so.  Modern composting toilets are clean, easy to use and appear to be here to stay.  If you are interested in learning more about the advantages and disadvantages of composting toilets, how composting toilets benefit the environment or answers to commonly asked questions about toilet composting systems, please visit the Toilet Composting Home Page.

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However, one huge advantage of having a composting toilet in your home is that it it will not only deal with human waste, but also a wide variety of different types of organic waste your household likely produces.  If you live in an apartment or other dwelling that does not have access to an outdoor compost bin, you will find that your composting toilet will serve this purpose well.  Composting toilets are able to recycle all sorts of kitchen scraps, be it vegetable peelings, burnt rice or leftover oatmeal.  You can also throw in your left over egg shells, tea bags and coffee grounds.

But that is not all: composting toilets can also handle “brown” organic matter as well, including paper, disposable cotton diapers, organic tampons (with no plastic tags) and cardboard.  In fact, by using it to dispose of paper and other dry composting materials, you will help keep the compost mixture in balance. (For more information on how toilet composting systems work, read “How Toilet Composting Works“).

You can even place yard waste in your composting toilet!  Grass clippings, leaves, and almost every kind of waste plant matter that you might throw into an ordinary composting bin is also suitable for a composting toilet.

You can also compost old clothing made from organic fibers, cotton rugs, blankets and more.  Just be sure that when you add cloth to your composting toilet that it does not contain any synthetic matter.

In fact, you may find so many uses for your composting toilet in your home that you will regret not purchasing a larger model so you can compost even more of your home waste.  (For more information about how to select the right size composting toilet for your family, read the “Guide to Purchasing a Composting Toilet“).

Composting toilets help benefit the environment in multiple ways: by composting organic materials instead of sending them to landfills or sewage treatment plants, by saving on water, by saving on social expenditures, and more.  You will find that by installing a composting toilet in your home you will be able to dramatically reduce the amount of waste your family sends to the landfill and instead be able to turn that waste into a valuable natural resource (compost).

For more information about composting toilets, including plans on how to build a compost toilet, please visit the Composting Toilet Home Page.

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If you are flexible and handy with tools, you can build a compost toilet yourself for under $50.  The popular “Five Gallon Bucket” compost toilet can be put together in a matter of hours and be ready to use the same day you build it (to see instructions and plans, read “How to Build a Compost Toilet“).  However, do not expect these models to pass building code requirements, and also be aware that they require quite a bit more labor and maintenance than their manufactured cousins.  These models may not be well suited to many households, especially those with regular use by multiple persons.

The next step up in composting toilets are the portable composting toilet models that are popular with boaters, RV’s and even campers.  Some models are suitable for home use as well, while others are meant for outdoor applications.  The self-contained “mobile” models produced by the popular composting toilet manufacturer Sun-Mar starts at about $1300 USD.

The most affordable self-contained composting toilet models tend to be just a bit more.  These models are built for home use, although the cheaper models tend to be sized for only a couple of users and occasional use. (For more help in sizing your composting toilet to your needs, please read the “Guide to Purchasing a Composting Toilet“).  For example, the BioLet 10 (the smallest model produced by BioLet) starts at about $1700, and Sun-Mar has a “Compact” self-contained model that runs about $1400 USD.

For an average family of four, however, these smaller models would not suffice.  Most likely they would need a “remote” composting system (see “Types of Composting Systems” for a complete explanation of the differences between these systems).  These models run quite a bit more.  Sun-Mar’s Centrex 2000 AF which is built for regular use by four to six individuals costs about $1800 USD.  This does not include installation costs, however, which may be considerable depending on where you are choosing to locate the reactor chamber.  If you are not interested in a remote system, you should consider the BioLet 60XL, a large self-contained model meant for constant use by four individuals and costing around $2200.

None of these prices include shipping or installation costs, so that will need to be included in the budgeting for a composting toilet.

Although when you are initially shopping for a composting toilet the price may seem high compared to a flush toilet, once you factor in the costs of sewage or septic system construction, fees and maintenance, water costs, and also consider the environmental and social costs of using a flush toilet (For more on these costs, read “What is Wrong with a Flush Toilet” and “What are the Environmental Benefits of Composting Toilets“) you will see that a composting toilet is actually a very sound investment for your family.

For more information about composting toilets, please visit the Toilet Composting Home Page.

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There are several reasons why flush toilet systems are actually quite harmful to both the environment and society, and why switching to an alternative system based on composting toilet matter should be pursued.  Below are three important reasons why flush toilet systems are the wrong choice:

1)  Flush toilets waste enormous amounts of water each year. Clean, potable water is a rapidly diminishing global resource that flush toilet systems are quite literally flushing away.  Besides the enormous waste of water flush toilet systems promote, there is also a massive financial burden as well associated with providing the water needed by these systems.

In order to keep the water flowing to flush toilets, expensive dams must be built, water must often be piped hundreds of miles, treated, and then after all of this expense and effort, over 40% of the water will be flushed away, and often sent to a sewage treatment plant which has its own expenses associated with building and upkeep. Particularly for struggling “developing” countries, flush toilets involve an enormous financial burden alongside the waste of a very valuable and important natural resources.

2) The effluent from flush toilet systems is causing enormous problems globally for human, animal and marine life. Sewage systems often fail due to broken pipes and or over burdened facilities.  In many cases, this results in untreated effluent running into streams, rivers, lakes and oceans.  This effluent is a leading cause of dangerous algae blooms, and it can also harm marine life and humans using these waterways.

3) Flush toilets prevent the recycling of human waste into a valuable soil additive. When human waste is instead dealt with using a toilet composting system, the end-product is valuable and nutrient rich compost that is suitable to use as a soil amendment around tree crops and other plants.  Human waste is actually a valuable resource when recycled properly, but flush toilet systems instead treat it and dispose of it in an unproductive manner.  Instead farmer turn to synthetic fertilizers which are often dangerous in their own right.

The present tendency to rely on flush toilet systems is a  wasteful and expensive choice.  Although at first glance flush toilets may appear to be a necessary and convenient “modern” technology.  But in reality they create an enormous burden on both our communities and the environment.

If you are interested in reading more about the environmental benefits and the social advantages of switching from a flush toilet system to a composting toilet system, visit the Toilet Composting Home Page, where you will find numerous informative articles about compost toilets and reviews of different composting toilet systems.

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However, improperly composted materials can pose a health risk, just as untreated waste from a flush toilet will threaten human health if let into the environment before being fully treated.   In many ways, however, composting toilets are safer for the environment than septic and sewage systems.  Septic systems pose considerable risks for groundwater contamination in many areas, and sewage systems often fail, the end result being that raw, untreated human waste is allowed to seep into our environment.  Composting toilets run none of these risks.

The process of turning human waste into an environmentally safe and usable product (compost) will take between three months to a few years depending on the system, the climate in which it is located and the temperature of the composting materials.  Some countries, Sweden for example, will allow the urine from certain composting toilet models to be used in agricultural applications in as early as six months.  Human feces pose a much greater risk to human health if not composted properly, and for this reason many countries (the United States included) ban the use of human compost on agricultural crops, although it is generally approved for for non-edible plant uses by most government agencies.

Many government agencies require that composted feces be allowed to break down for a minimum of one year before being used as a mulch around non-edible plants, trees and bushes.  However, many “humanure” advocates say that human feces are completely safe for all agricultural purposes once fully composted.  For example, Joseph Jenkins, author of The Humanure Handbook, is a strong advocate of using composted humanure for agriculture.  It has been argued by these advocates that the reluctance to use this compost agriculturally in the United States and elsewhere arises more from finding the idea aesthetically unpleasing than from real, scientifically-based concerns.

However, regardless of the agricultural argument surrounding humanure application to crops, as long as basic instructions are followed and adequate time is allowed for the composting process, the end-product produced by composting toilet systems should be safe to handle and use.  Composting toilet systems do require that owners assume the responsibility to monitor the composting process and ensure that the materials are fully composted prior to application.

Education about composting toilets is an important part of encouraging their use in the so-called “developed” world.  Many health agencies in the United States and elsewhere have little knowledge of these systems and treat them with considerable suspicion.  Misinformation and suspicion about composting toilets often makes it difficult to get a permit approving their use.  In order to combat this suspicion, it is important that owners and users of composting toilets be open to discussing the systems with others and promoting their use.

For more information and articles about composting toilets, please return to the Toilet Composting Home Page.

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If you are looking for a way to lessen your ecological footprint and participate positively in solutions to improve the environment, then you should seriously consider switching from a flush toilet to a composting toilet system.  Flush toilets waste enormous amounts of water each year, but composting toilets operate with little or no water and their end product (compost) is a valuable soil amendment as well.

However, one downside of switching to composting toilets is that the manufactured brands can be quite expensive – generally starting around $1500 for a basic, no-frills model.  However, it is possible to build a composting toilet on your own for well under $50 in materials.

Owner built (also called site built) composting toilets are generally passive in design – meaning they rely on natural instead of mechanical forces.  Since they do not have a built in electrical unit, they will need to be monitored more closely than manufactured composting toilets and involve more labor in terms of their care and maintenance (more on this below, in the section “How to Use Your New Composting Toilet”).  However, some would say that with this responsibility comes rewards including an intimate knowledge of how your body is literally recycling waste positively into the environment.

This project will only take a few hours once all items needed to build it are assembled.  The finished composting toilet will be 18” wide and 21” long.

Materials You Will Need to Build a Composting Toilet

• Four to five identical 5 gallon buckets with lids
• A standard sized toilet seat
• A hinged plywood top for the seat to rest on made of 3/4” plywood.  The main portion of the top should measure 18” by 18”, attached with hinges to a 3”x18” board
• A box for the plywood top (and seat) to rest on, measuring 18 by 21 inches in width, and 10” deep.  This can be built from two 10”x18”x1” boards and two 10”x21”x1” boards screwed together.
• Four legs to be attached to the box (3/4” x 3” x 12”) using screws (or a nail and hammer).

You will need to cut a top in the plywood where the seat hole is (draw a circle to cut out using the seat as a template on the top of the composting toilet).  The hole should be set about 1 ½ inches back from the front edge of the plywood.   When screwing or nailing the legs to the inside of the box, be sure that the top edge of the box is about 1/2” below the top edge of the five gallon bucket, so that the rim will sit tight against the underside of the toilet seat.

How to Use Your New Composting Bucket

Now that you have finished your composting toilet, it’s ready to use.  Well, yes, technically, but there are some additional materials you will need to keep the composting process in order:

1) A Compost Bin. Unlike most manufactured, active designs where the composting process takes place inside a chamber attached to the toilet, when you build a composting toilet based on the above passive design, you will have to transport it to a composting bin outdoors for it to undergo the composting process.  You may want to locate this composting bin in your garden next to your normal garden composting pile, and you may need more than one bin if there are many people in your household.  For more information about purchasing or building your own composting bin, visit The Composting Bin Website.

2) Organic “Brown Matter.” This will be used to cover your “deposits” when using the toilet in order to create a balanced compost formula. This can be sawdust, peat moss, leaves, hay straw, rice hulls or any other relatively dry and brown organic matter.

You want to ensure that your composting toilet creates a nutrient-rich compost that is clean and odor-free (this finished compost is often referred to as “humanure”).  To create this, you will need to ensure that whenever anyone uses the toilet, they sprinkle the organic brown matter on top.  The material in the bucket should be moist, but not wet.

Once a bucket is fully, you will need to transport it outside to your composting bin, while placing an empty five gallon bucket in the toilet to replace the full one.  In my experience, people often wait until they have three or four full containers (depending how many they have in reserve) to do all the emptying and cleaning at once.  This is not a terribly pleasant task, although it is also not as unpleasant as you might imagine it to be as well.  Be sure to cover the emptied waste with additional brown material, and to clean the buckets well so that no odors will linger.  You should not need to turn this material, and it should compost on its own to create a rich humus material in six months to a year.

For additional information and articles about composting toilets, please return to the Toilet Composting Home Page.  I hope you have found this information about how to build a composting toilet to be useful.

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Related posts:

1. History of Composting Toilets
2. What Can Be Put In a Composting Toilet?