Essential Composting Toilets

From wastestream to mainstream, a practical guide to composting toilet systems

COMPOSTING TOILETS are a key feature for local resilience, money saving, water conservation, resource recovery, septic system replacement, and an improved bathroom experience in rural and urban buildings.

Essential Composting Toilets is a streamlined manual that takes a practical, how-to approach to composting toilet system selection, design, installation, and operation, while meeting universal health and safety objectives. Drawing from existing regulations and research, this book dispels myths and provides tools to assess various systems. It includes:

• Easily understood drawings, plans, and photos
• Coverage of all main composting toilet systems
• Selection criteria including site considerations, urine separation pros/cons, renovations/new builds, ventilation, servicing, and composting details
• Design and installation details.

Offering a professional approach accessible to DIYers, homeowners, design- ers, building consultants, water conservation advocates, and regulators, Essential Composting Toilets provides key information for redesigning toilet systems anywhere in the world.

The Bairds are pioneers in the composting toilet movement, and bring their considerable experience to bear in this useful and informative overview of the technology and its importance to a sustainable future.
-- Jason McLennan, Ashoka Fellow, founder and creator of the Living Building Challenge, and author, The Philosophy of Sustainable Design

True to form, Ann and Gord Baird once again lead on the innovation front with their informative and timely guide.
-- Eric Bonham P.Eng, Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia

As a builder and manager of several humanure composting systems I can enthusiastically recommend this essential guide!
-- Darrell Frey, author, Bioshelter Market Garden and co-author, Food Forest Handbook

Their dedication to detail is astounding. All praise to the psychrophilic and mesophilic bacteria - and to the Bairds!
-- Guy Dauncey, author, Journey to the Future

A must-have for anyone wanting to create resilient closed-loop systems on their home acreage or farm.
-- Rob Avis, P.Eng, co-author, Essential Rainwater Harvesting and permaculture consultant, www.adaptivehabitat.ca

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, the first internationally recognized Living Building Challenge petal residential project. www.eco-sense.ca.

New Society's Sustainable Building Essentials Series aims to provide the highest quality information on sustainable building methods and materials. Editors Chris Magwood and Jen Feigin have scoured the world of sustainable building to bring you the techniques and systems that deliver measureable benefits in terms of greater energy efficiency and reduced environmental impact. Written by the world's leading sustainable builders, designers, and engineers, these succinct, user-friendly handbooks are indispensable tools for any project.