124 Building Toilets
Ecological Toilets
Ecological toilets turn feces and urine into soil conditioner and fertilizer.
This improves people’s health and the environment by preventing the spread of
germs and turning harmful waste into a valuable resource.
Ecological toilets also protect and conserve water because no water is
needed for their use, except for washing. They are safer for groundwater than
other toilets because they sit above ground or use shallow pits.
Ecological toilets can be built and used in cities, towns, or villages.
They need more maintenance than pit toilets (but not as much as pour-flush
toilets), so it is important for people to understand how they work.
Turning waste into fertilizer
Rich, healthy soil needs organic matter (what is left when plants and other
living things die and decompose). This natural process of organic matter
breaking down into soil is called composting (see page 287).
The soil grows crops
Fertilizer
feeds the soil
Crops
become food
Human waste can be
turned into fertilizer
Food becomes
human waste
Ecological sanitation turns waste into a resource.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012