Envirolet Buzz | Composting Toilet Blog

Envirolet in Greenburg Project

An Envirolet® Composting Toilet System is part of the Greensburg, KS re-building project. The project is to help re-build Greensburg, KS after a May 2007 tornado destroyed almost the entire community.

Architectural Review explains more about what happened and the re-building project:

“This Sunday, May 4, [2008] marks the one-year anniversary of the EF-5 tornado that destroyed most of Greensburg, Kansas. As part of a town-wide green initiative, students from the state’s two architecture schools are lending a hand in helping residents rebuild using sustainable design principles and techniques.

University of Kansas architecture professor Dan Rockhill’s well-known Studio 804 is working with the nonprofit Greensburg Art Center to develop Sustainable Prototype, a versatile prefabricated building that deploys multiple passive and active sustainable design techniques. Meanwhile, a group from Kansas State University is dotting the small city with 10-foot pods – a project called Greensburg Cubed – that promise to educate locals about the ecologically responsible design to which municipal leaders have committed in a variety of high-profile announcements.”

The project is being document on Planet Green’s television show, Greensburg. The show is executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. Of note, this is the second involvement by Envirolet® with Planet Green. Envirolet® filmed an episode of the new Bill Nye show, Stuff Happens.

An Envirolet® was supplied by Sancor Industries Ltd. (at no cost) to help with the project. The advanced composting system is being placed in the “watering can” cube (or pod).

Some features of the “watering can” other than the Envirolet® Composting Toilet System include:

• exterior cladding - reused aluminum newspaper press plates
• hot water - evacuated tube hot water heating system
• shower - Evolve shower head
• interior cladding - reused chalk boards from KSU campus
• doors - salvaged french doors from remodel project in the area
• decking - Tendura, wood fiber and recycled plastic composite decking, purchased used from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Kansas City
• window - the window above the sink is created from glass bottles mortared together like glass block
• roof / skylight - Polygal, a corrugated, slightly insulating polycarbonate
• tile and countertop - Enviroglas recycled glass
• structure - Structurally insulated panels

More photos and info to come soon!