“I’ve attached pictures of our outhouse and the Envirolet composting toilet outside. As you can see from the looks on our farm crew’s faces, the toilet is a much appreciated addition to Gaining Ground.”
Emily W.
Massachusetts
Here is some more Buzz! A nice testimonial and comments were sent in by John in Nova Scotia of his Envirolet® DC12 waterless composting toilet system work shop installation.
“Buzz,
We have a unit in Nova Scotia and it is working great. Have had it for two summer seasons and it runs on our solar system in 12 volts. It is in our work shop and solar battery storage. We will be moving it to our home when it is built.
I recommend it to anyone who is environmentally friendly.”
John K.
Nova Scotia
PS Pictures will be sent in two emails.
Take a look at these awesome installation photos from Allison in Pennsylvania of her Envirolet® MS10 waterless all-in-one composting toilet system installed in her year-round home.
“Hi,
I live year-round in this beautiful, energy efficient house. My bathroom is too small to get a good picture of the Envirolet toilet, but I am so grateful for its services which prevent me from having to run to the outhouse (photo attached).
My house guests always learn something when they use my bathroom!”
Best,
Allison
Pennsylvania
Envirolet® Composting Toilets were recently seen on the Daily Lounge Green Edition hosted by Emmy-winner Steve Greenberg (author of Gadget Nation) that aired on various network tv affiliates across the United States.
Watch the video below:
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!
As we all know, less is better. Especially, when we are talking about adding toilet paper to a composting toilet system. Well, Current Configuration has this in mind with a fun post about how to save toilet paper! And, the solution is super easy! According to them all you have to do is position the paper over vs. under on your tp holder and you will save paper…
Read the full post for the “science” behind this.
Via Current Configuration via TreeHugger.
Envirolet® was included in TreeHugger Tips recently by writer and Envirolet® waterless toilet user Lloyd Alter. Lloyd is in Ontario, Canada.
Lloyd’s tip was to use a separate receptacle to collect toilet tissue to the avoid over-use of toilet paper. To be clear, toilet paper can normally be added to Envirolet® composting toilet systems. Toilet paper in a waterless system will break down but will breakdown slower if large amounts are used at one time (because water, which is not used of course, helps with a faster breakdown). But, this is OK.
Using a separate receptacle is something that some users choose to do if they are concerned about the amount of toilet paper being added (usually by kids or guests!) but is by no means required. (Some people do this with septic tank systems as well.)
Be sure to note Lloyd’s comment added to his TreeHugger post to clarify the liquid issue he encountered. He writes:
“UPDATE: Scott at Envirolet asked why I said it was flooded; he had not heard of that ever happening. Over the winter, the snow knocked over the top of the vent stack and the toilet filled with water through the roof and the vent stack. I did not find out until I went to empty the toilet as I do at the beginning of the season and it was quite a mess, but had nothing to do with the operation of the unit.”
We first wrote about IDS08 on Friday when we posted a quick video. As promised, here are some of the photos from the Envirolet® installation at the Sarah Richardson’s My Country design, part of designLIVE feature at IDS08.
An Envirolet® composting toilet system was the perfect choice to handle sanitation in a sustainable and environment-friendly manner, two goals of the overall designLIVE project. This particular model uses only 0.5L of water per flush.
Sarah Richardson’s My Country home design where the Envirolet® is installed.
The Envirolet® in the bathroom.
Lindsay, Tommy and Natalie from the Design Inc. team.
The Envirolet® in the bathroom. You can see the flush switch on the wall. This Envirolet® flushes with only 0.5L of water.
Envirolet® brochures in the bathroom make for some interesting reading material.
Envirolet® on the sponsors sign.
This way to see the Envirolet®.
More at designLIVE.
Did you see Envirolet® at designLIVE at IDS08? Tell us.
