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Transform Waste into a Resource with Safe, Efficient Composting Toilets
Part of the Sustainable Building Essentials series, Essential Composting Toilets is the practical guide to designing, installing, and operating water-saving, environmentally friendly toilet systems. Learn how to turn human waste into compost while improving hygiene, reducing water use, and increasing resilience in homes or small buildings.
What You'll Learn
- Water Conservation and Cost Savings: Minimize water use and reduce reliance on septic systems or municipal sewage.
- Resource Recovery: Safely compost waste into usable soil amendments while maintaining health and safety standards.
- System Selection Made Simple: Compare composting toilet types, ventilation strategies, urine separation, and new build versus retrofit applications.
- Design, Installation, and Operation: Step-by-step guidance, drawings, and photos make planning and building your system clear and achievable.
- Professional Yet Accessible: Ideal for DIYers, homeowners, designers, consultants, and water conservation advocates.
Written by Gord and Ann Baird, award-winning permaculture designers and sustainable building experts, this guide blends research, regulation compliance, and hands-on experience to make composting toilets a viable option for any home, whether urban or rural.
Explore the full Sustainable Building Essentials series for illustrated, step-by-step guidance on natural and sustainable building systems, high-performance homes, and environmentally responsible construction.
Gord Baird, BA, ARCSA AP and Ann Baird, BSc are the co-creators, designers, and builders of the award winning Eco-Sense home in Victoria, BC, Canada, the first internationally recognized Living Building Challenge petal residential project. They implemented greywater systems, rainwater harvesting, and composting toilets into North America's first legal two-story seismically engineered load-bearing cob home. Gord is Water Commissioner for the Capital Regional District's regional Water Supply Commission and Juan de Fuca Water Distribution Commission, and was a technical editor for the BC Ministry of Health's Manual of Composting Toilets and Greywater Standard Practices (2016). Ann works on regional climate action initiatives involving water, food, and energy resiliency in climate adaptation and risk management. They currently give tours of their Eco-sense permaculture homestead in Victoria, BC. www.eco-sense.ca.
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Safe Composting
Chapter 3: System Components and Processes
Chapter 4: Design Considerations
Chapter 5: Commode Batch Systems
Chapter 6: Chambered/Moldering Batch Systems
Chapter 7: Continuous Systems
Chapter 8: Fluid Management
Chapter 9: Best Practices
Chapter 10: The Last Flush
Appendix A: Percolation Test Procedure
Appendix B: Manufacturers
Glossary
References
Index
About the Author
A Note About the Publisher