# Factsheet 13: Toilets That Make Compost (PDF 143 KB)

Factsheet 13: Toilets That Make Compost (PDF 143 KB)

Describes 3 toilets:

• simple pit / arborloo (why not just call it a treeloo?): which lasts for approx 12 months before the toilet has to be moved. After moving and filling the pit with soil a short time is waited before planting a tree in the hole.
• double pit: (fossa-alterna, meaning alternating pit or cavity - who named that??) where after 12 months the toilet is moved over a second pit which starts to be filled up. The first pit is covered with soil and left until the second pit has filled. Then the first pit is excavated and the contents, composted, are used as fertilizer. Then the toilet can be moved back and the process continues.
  
• urine diverting: means the addition of a special toilet pan to divert urine which is collected in a sealed container (to prevent nitrogen 'evaporating' as ammonia). Soil and/or some other carbon containing material (wood chips / cardboard) can be added to help the composting process where bacteria fix the nitrogen into a non-volatile form.
  This can be as a modification of the first two, where urine is piped to a buried container or as a raised pedestal toilet with bucket and urine container. In this case, the bucket can be regularly emptied onto a managed compost heap.
  

Additionally it describes adding screened ventilation and other improvements such as a handwashing facility.