Composting Toilets

By Yosef Solomon on December 1st, 2008

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One of the most innovative and environmentally friendly toilets available today is the composting Toilet. It was first developed in 1971 by Hardy Sundberg, who gets the credit for developing what the modern world now knows is the composting toilet. There were earlier historical toilets that had a composting base, but in the form that is now commonly associated with the composting toilet it falls to Dr. Sundberg for the credit for the modern invention of the self contained composting toilet.

The Composting Toilets concept got another boost in 1979 when Hard Sundberg incorporated the rotating drum and three chamber design that set apart the different processes of evaporation, composting and compost finishing. This set up the stage for the modern Composting Toilets concept, and the further development of the ongoing composting self contained modern toilet. Composting Toilets are slowly starting to become popular for a variety of uses in the North American Market, and they have now a variety of models and versions to choose from. With 22 different models and 6 types of Composting Toilets families to choose from, the modern Composting Toilet has come into its own.

One of the biggest manufacturers of Composting Toilets is Sun Mar Systems, and it is the company that has taken the designs of Dr. Sundberg and brought them to the modern market. Using a drum concept to rotate and deliver composted materials in a mixing and aeration method is well known as the best method of composting.

Composting is the method of taking materials and reducing them back into their simple forms, using decomposition and evaporation. It is what nature does to chemicals and wastes that are deposited in the great outdoors, and it is also the process that a Composting Toilet uses to reduce and process toilet waste. Toilet waste in nearly 90 percent water based in content, and this can be reduced and evaporated and carried back to the atmosphere through the Composting Toilets ventilation system.

The amount of material that remains can be recycled and used as a useful fertilization for soil. The composting concept can be used to help outhouses process its waste, and in the modern Composting Toilet concept, it is used to treat and reduce the waste to a very small, easily handled amount. No chemicals are used and fragile ecosystems are not dumped in, so it is very environmentally friendly, and can be used nearly anywhere.

Modern Composting Toilets also do not struggle with odor, because of the use of vacuum and fan air direction, the air is constantly drawn inward, and eventually up the vent chimney, not allowing any air or odor to escape. It helps evaporate liquids faster and does not allow odor to escape.

Composting Toilets are a good way to treat wastes in a remote location, and should be used more often to treat waste in isolated locations that would be well suited to composting toilets.