34 Sanitation and Cleanliness for a Healthy Environment
Compost toilets and urine-diverting dry toilets
There are 2 main types of ecological toilets: ‘compost toilets’ and ‘urine-diverting’ or
‘dry’ toilets. Both kinds can create safe fertilizer. Many people call both kinds ‘compost
toilets.’ But there are some important differences.
In compost toilets:
In dry toilets:
• Feces and urine go into a container
that will not leak into the
groundwater, like a shallow pit or a
large concrete box.
• The user adds a mix of dry matter
such as straw, leaves, sawdust, and
soil after each use. This reduces
smells and helps the waste to break
down.
• Excrement is stored until it heats up
and breaks down. The mix will heat
up and kill most germs, including
roundworm eggs (the hardest to kill).
To heat up well, it must be slightly
damp.
• After the mix has had a long time
to kill germs (usually 1 year), it is
removed for use as fertilizer.
• To be safe, it is best to mix it into
a compost pile, where it will break
down more. Then it can be mixed into
the soil for planting.
• Urine is kept separate from feces.
It is collected, processed, and used
as fertilizer.
• Feces goes into a container, like a
large concrete box or a hard plastic
movable container that will not
leak into groundwater.
• The user adds soil mixed with dry
plant matter and ash to the feces
after each use. This reduces smells
and helps the waste to dry out.
• The feces never get mixed with
water. A dry mix will kill most
germs, including roundworm eggs.
• The feces is stored for up to 1 year,
until it has the texture of dry soil.
• Then it can be mixed into a
compost pile, emptied into a
shallow pit for planting a tree, or
added directly into the soil for
planting.
Ecological toilets use local materials and labor in Central Mexico
In several towns in Morelos, Mexico, many people use ecological dry toilets. One
neighborhood called La Cienega, or The Swamp, has a special need for dry toilets.
Because the neighborhood is in a wet, lowland area, pit toilets do not work. To solve
the problem, members of the community bought a special kind of toilet bowl that
separates urine from feces. These toilet bowls are built locally in small workshops that
support several workers. The workers train community groups how to use these new
toilet bowls.
Many people in La Cienega make a living
by growing and selling fruit trees and other
plants. The first people in the neighborhood
to use dry toilets discovered that they
could use the urine and compost from their
toilets as fertilizer for the trees. When their
neighbors saw the trees grow big and healthy,
they too wanted to try these new toilets that
give free fertilizer.
Now almost every family in La Cienega
uses these toilets. The local workshop is
busy making them, and the community has
grown both healthier and wealthier.