Are Composting Toilets Legal?

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This is a complex question, unfortunately. If you are building a new home, the building inspector might want you to install an “approved” composting toilet system. What this means varies widely from place to place. In some areas, composting toilets are welcome, if properly installed and operated. In other areas, authorities don’t seem to be interested in approving them. In my region, the inspector has told me “I understand what you are doing, and I like it. But there is nothing in the code book about it, so don’t ask and I won’t say no”.

If you need a permit, it’s best to talk to your local authorities. You might have to speak with someone in sanitation, engineering, a department manager, or someone else in charge, as a special permit may be required. The building inspector is more likely to be helpful than the person behind the counter. If you have forward thinking people at your local government offices, you should be able to show them your waste management plan. If it is a sound plan, you may well get approval.In urban areas especially, where new houses are concerned, they might require that basic plumbing infrastructure be built into the house ( drain pipe, vent stack and water supply). This is so future owners of the home will be able to choose the type of toilet they use, and not be locked in to using a composting toilet.In a way I can understand the concern. The municipality or county is handing over the very serious responsibility of dealing with human waste over to the home owner. They are concerned that a careless person might not deal with the output of their composting toilet appropriately, and someone could get sick, or water could be contaminated. When used properly, composting toilets produce harmless fertilizer only, but it does require care and attention.

Certifications

Some toilets have certifications from independent testing agencies. This might be an ETL certification (for urine diverting toilets) or an NSF 41 certification (non-urine diverting toilets). Complicating matters is that local inspectors have no knowledge of the important distinction between urine diverting and non-urine diverting toilets, and may request the incorrect certification. In some areas “certification” is required. In many places, it is not. In addition, there are many other certifying agencies. Muddy waters indeed.

Certifications are problematic. First, they do not address what happens to the solid material once it’s removed from the toilet – and that is the most important thing! Any composting toilet could possibly have fecal pathogens in the solid waste that you remove. It is critical that this waste be carefully handled according to instructions, and that fecal contamination does not occur. The certifications provide absolutely no assurance of that.
Secondly, some certifications are very expensive to obtain. They can cost over $50,000, with annual ongoing fees of $7,000 thousand dollars per product or model. Some think it’s a bit of a scam. For this reason, numerous toilet manufacturers are deciding not to pursue certification. Complicating matters is the fact that some older toilets which do not work all that well have obtained certification, while some newer models that work much better do not have certification. So we have a crazy situation where some toilets that don’t work very well are certified, and toilets that work very well are not certified.

Thirdly, there is no universal agreement among government agencies on certification, what it means, what should be tested, or what should be required. In my personal experience, composting toilet certification is confusing to everyone, and being certified is in no way a guarantee that a toilet will be approved.

New Guidelines on Composting Toilets

Very detailed,comprehensive guidelines on composting toilets have recently been published. This was an extremely well thought out process, written by an engineer and peer reviewed. These are probably the best, most thorough guidelines on composting toilets available. Although published in Canada, I am hopeful they will be read and adopted widely by governments across North America. You can get a copy at the link below, print it, and take it to your local authorities when you apply for a permit. Show them you are adhering to these guidelines, and that your installation will be properly done, with no health risk possible. BC government guidelines on composting-toilets.

Separett 9215

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4 thoughts on “Are Composting Toilets Legal?”

  • Reply ↓
    Gary Christopher

    So – why is it ok to use steer manure (or horse, cow, sheep, pig, etc) for fertilizing gardens (including edible plants), but not recommended for human waste? We are mammals, so are they. Poop is poop. Animals get diseases that humans can’t, and vice-versa, as well as sharing some. What’s the big deal? Are we so afraid of what we don’t understand that we automatically turn our noses up at it? (pun intended)

    • Reply ↓
      richardbrunt Post author

      A great question, and I initially wondered this myself. It turns out poop is not poop. Human waste contains harmful pathogenic organisms and disease causing agents that do not occur in livestock waste. You can’t easily get very sick from livestock waste, but contact with human waste could actually kill you (and it does, in the developing world). It’s not that we don’t understand it. We understand it very well. The World Health Organization, EPA, and many others have researched this extensively. We must be extremely careful in handling the waste from our composting toilets. All guidelines and recommendations must be followed. And never – ever – can compost from human waste be used to fertilize edible plants.
      Differences Between Human Waste & Livestock Manure

  • Reply ↓
    Bernie Denning

    Hello Richard, i am considering collecting my #2 waste just in a ceramic pot and covering with sawdust and compost starter to make compost (to reduce water use and to use the resulting compost on my garden). My wife of course things i am nuts as it presents a dangerous fecal organism in a not treated properly compost. I think of composting as a high temperature process (160-170F)AND HELD THERE FOR DAYS TO KILL Bab BACTERIA AND VIRUSES. Is there not a GRAS high temperature /time period that compost can be heated and held to kill/denature bad bacteria and viruses ? Please send a reference if you can . Thanks Bernie Denning, Indianapolis

    • Reply ↓
      richardbrunt Post author

      Excellent question. Thank you.
      Forget the ceramic pot with sawdust and compost starter. You need a fairly large, preferably off the ground, preferably rotating compost drum that cannot leak. Please read my page on the subject.
      Yes, all pathogens would be dead very quickly at a high temperature. But unfortunately there is no standard for composting human waste, that I am aware of (ie x degrees for y days). There are too many variables. Fortunately, there is an easier way. Solvita has a test kit for this purpose that tells you when the compost is mature and safe. They have assured me this is an ideal method for testing compost from human waste. I plan to offer it in the future. However, I make no guarantees, as I have not used it yet myself.
      You’d need the basic compost test kit from them, which is $190, and can do 6 tests. That should last a typical user a long time. See it here: Solvita test kit
      Refills are $490 for 25. I’d use about 1 or 2 a year, so I’d never need 25. Something needs to be worked out here. https://solvita.com/product/solvita-compost-maturity-refill/

      You can see a video on using the Solvita kit here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=27&v=nD8O_TRN6bY

      SOIL in Haiti composts a lot of human waste. They heat it up I think to 160 degrees F for 36-50 weeks. It’s probably drastic overkill. But you don’t want to fool around with human waste. People could get sick. Compost it for much longer than you think is necessary. https://www.oursoil.org/publication-on-soils-composting-method-by-the-cdc-and-emory-university/
      There is an interesting study on treating humanure compost with heat at: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0125336

      And finally, most experts recommend using compost from human waste on non-edible plants only. Not the spinach!