Sludge Watch ==> Composting Toilets : On the Throne..Off the Grid

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

People ask : So what's the solution to the problem of sludge?

First answer: We should take steps to stop making sludge.
Perfecting and using composting toilets makes sense in many new construction 
developments:

- country homes and cottages
- properties on the ocean
- trailer parks
- fairgrounds (like the Markham fairground in Ontario)
- new green subdivisions
- wilderness parks

We need to start to make alternatives to the 'one big pipe' that mixes 
industrial wastes with toilet waste.  We source separate our garbage...we 
need to source separate our liquid waste as well.
.................................................................




COMPOSTING TOILETS
The Toronto Star

On the throne ... off the grid
On the throne ... off the grid

Low-tech latrines could be a relief to both environmentalists and fiscal 
conservatives

Sep 22, 2007 04:30 AM
Kathy Flaxman
Special to the Star

Unlike billions of people in arid regions and developing countries, 
Ontarians have long taken water for granted. But there's talk of change, 
even if action is a long way off.

In July, Trent University economist Harry Kitchen said it's time to triple 
our water rates to reflect true costs and promote conservation, while 
Toronto Mayor David Miller told a conference of Great Lakes mayors we should 
ban conventional toilets and switch to low-flow models.

Shane Jolley, provincial Green Party candidate in Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound, 
goes further. He says it's time for technology that might allow builders to 
take toilets in new subdivisions off the grid altogether – no-flow 
composting models instead of the low-flow ones Mayor Miller suggests.

"People have an aversion to dealing with our own waste," Jolley says, "but 
this type of toilet uses far less water and makes far fewer demands on our 
resources. There's work to be done educating people about how compost 
toilets work and the benefits, but there should be financial incentives and 
effort made to implement this concept."

For generations, we've spent vaults of money to purify and pump water to our 
homes. Then we foul it and pump the results to sewage plants, to spend more 
making it clean enough – we hope – to dump into our lakes and rivers.

It's a flush-and-forget cycle that's costly to our municipalities and 
environment – and some environmentalists think we can break it, with 
composting toilets. The technology, which has been around since the 1930s, 
can also provide nutrients to help resuscitate spent farm fields.

The composting toilet's mechanics are simple: the waste, via gravity, goes 
into a tank where, mixed with wood chips, it composts. The result is 
fertilizer, though the process requires time and a ventilation system – 
basically a fan – for odours.

In parts of the planet where drinking water is in short supply, the main 
selling point of composting toilets will likely be the huge amount of H2O 
that can be saved. But will builders in Canada find it worthwhile to take 
the human waste-disposal process off-grid?

"We pay up to $8,000 per house in levies for sewage," says Craig Marshall of 
Marshall Homes. "If we could save half of this money and save water too, the 
public might be prepared to go along with it.

"There's a way to go in terms of public acceptance. Now, the first thing 
people want when they have, say, a cottage, is a flush toilet. A toilet that 
doesn't flush and use water isn't an easy sell."

Other builders don't sound so receptive. Mason Homes was named the 2007 
Building Industry and Land Development Association's low-rise green builder 
of the year in the GTA, but it won't offer off-grid toilets as an option any 
time soon.

"There has not been a need for us to introduce this because we can work with 
the sanitary sewage systems," company vice-president Sean Mason says. "I 
think we would face customer reluctance."

Andrew Pride, a vice-president at Minto Energy Management (a division of 
Minto Developments Inc.) says his company does not have an interest in 
compost toilets right now, partly because many of its projects are 
highrises.

"The idea of consumers taking the compost down 30 floors doesn't seem 
realistic," he says. "We are looking at ways that rainwater could be used 
for toilets, rather than compost-oriented solutions."

Richard Griffith's eight-year-old custom home in Grey County boasts 
environmentally friendly designs, from straw-bale construction to solar 
panels and a compost toilet.

"I've heard it said that the flush toilet is the worst thing ever devised by 
modern man," he says. "We install expensive piping to transport water into 
porcelain receptacles and then we instantly turn the water into a vile 
liquid capable of giving us diseases like cholera.

"The compost toilet, through the miracles of chemistry, eventually 
transforms the matter into useful fertilizer," says Griffith, who calls 
himself a permaculturist, someone who practises self-sustaining agriculture. 
"Wood chips provide carbon to hasten the decomposition process. I'd love to 
see this system used in subdivisions."

While that may not happen soon in Southern Ontario, the compost toilet is 
part of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority's newest building – 
the Restoration Services Centre in Vaughan.

"This building demonstrates our commitment to sustainability," says Dave 
Rogalsky, manager of resource management projects.

"The compost toilets are part of that commitment. The building has washroom 
facilities for 45 people, with all seats connected by drop shoots to a 
mechanical unit in the basement with two composters.

"Using technology such as the compost toilet is a matter of changing 
people's perceptions. The idea of it can give people the creeps."

Santiago Kunzle of Montgomery Sisam Architects, who designed the building, 
says that with a client committed to sustainability and a site 400 metres 
from city services, compost toilets were an easy sell.

"There was no resistance to the idea," he says. "This technology allows us 
to dramatically reduce water usage – by six times the norm. Here in Ontario, 
we are blessed with water we can see in all directions, so it is easy to get 
the idea that water is unlimited."

Greg Allen, engineer and consultant with Sustainable Edge Designs, says his 
firm recently installed a compost toilet system at the Markham fairgrounds, 
where 100,000 people visit a weekend event.

"There are many species of composting toilets that can be used anywhere," he 
says. "Only highrises pose a technical challenge."

Optimistic words? The compost toilet has been used in various applications, 
often where nature and ecology are top priorities. In Vancouver, there's the 
C.K. Choi Building, part of the University of British Columbia's Institute 
for Asian Research. In Sweden, there's the Dano project, a series of 
campsites. The Trans Canada Trail in Moncton, N.B., has a series of compost 
toilets.

But what about homes?

"Most compost toilets are used by people who know about the technology and 
make it their business to look for them," says Don Mills of Clivus Multrum, 
a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of compost toilets.

"Builders might have trouble selling the concept to the average person off 
the street, but the sewer system is a toxic waste repository. The compost 
toilet captures the nutrients that we know how to capture and stabilizes 
everything.

"Compare this to the sewage treatment system, where we disrupt our 
ecosystems."

"In the past few years, thinking has changed around food," Allen notes. 
"People realized the importance of eating food produced locally, for 
example. I think as food shortages develop because of the poor conditions of 
fields – fields that are actually dead – we may see acceptance of concepts 
like the compost toilet, which has the potential to be part of the 
solution."

Builder Marshall is investigating the idea. "I'm going to ask my people to 
look into putting one in at one of our sites," he says. "That should give us 
an idea if the public is open to using them."

Mason sees a possible future for the compost toilet ... some day. "Green 
initiatives are increasingly important," he says. "Someone will use this 
technology, eventually."

http://www.thestar.com/article/258441