Essential Composting Toilets: A Guide to Options, Design, Installation, and Use

Transform Waste into a Resource with Safe, Efficient Composting Toilets
Part of the Sustainable Building Essentials series, Essential Composting Toilets is the practical guide to designing, installing, and operating water-saving, environmentally friendly toilet systems. Learn how to turn human waste into compost while improving hygiene, reducing water use, and increasing resilience in homes or small buildings.

What You'll Learn

• Water Conservation and Cost Savings: Minimize water use and reduce reliance on septic systems or municipal sewage.
• Resource Recovery: Safely compost waste into usable soil amendments while maintaining health and safety standards.
• System Selection Made Simple: Compare composting toilet types, ventilation strategies, urine separation, and new build versus retrofit applications.
• Design, Installation, and Operation: Step-by-step guidance, drawings, and photos make planning and building your system clear and achievable.
• Professional Yet Accessible: Ideal for DIYers, homeowners, designers, consultants, and water conservation advocates.

Written by Gord and Ann Baird, award-winning permaculture designers and sustainable building experts, this guide blends research, regulation compliance, and hands-on experience to make composting toilets a viable option for any home, whether urban or rural.

Explore the full Sustainable Building Essentials series for illustrated, step-by-step guidance on natural and sustainable building systems, high-performance homes, and environmentally responsible construction.

Gord Baird, BA, is co-creator, designer, and builder of the award winning Eco-Sense home, the first internationally recognized Living Building Challenge petal residential project. Gord is the Water Commissioner for the Victoria Capital Regional District's regional Water Supply Commission and Juan de Fuca Water Distribution Commission, and was a technical editor for the BC Ministry of Health's Manual of Composting Toilets and Greywater Standard Practices (2016).

Ann Baird, BSc is co-creator, designer, and builder of the award winning Eco-Sense home, the first internationally recognized Living Building Challenge petal residential project. Ann works on regional climate action initiatives involving water, food, and energy resiliency in climate adaptation and risk management.