Certifications
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.
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.

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)
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
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
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!