Michael Janzen

This is not the first time I’ve seen someone turn human waste, yes poop, into methane but this is the first commercially viable solution. I don’t think any composting toilets on the market do what this composting toilet does.

The Gardiner CH4 and EXCREXTRA

I learned of this through the small house society Yahoo group. It looks like a reasonably priced composting toilet. It’s not for everyone though. It has a liquid separation tank for pee and I can see a lot of people being a little grossed out having to deal with a jug of pee. Guys would need to sit to pee too. See Natures Head for more information.

Every time we flush the toilet we turn 3 to 5 gallons of fresh drinking water into sewage. Yeah yuck… it’s not sustainable and requires enormous water and water treatment systems to maintain. The best solution I’ve run across is the sawdust toilet… a bucket + composting pile. You can read all about building and maintaining sawdust toilets at Joseph Jenkin’s website.

I also recently ran across a non-proit organization operating in Haiti that is turning a huge human waste problem into safe fetiliizer. The organization is called SOIL, Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods. Also see them in this New York Times Video.