This is a bit of a gray area. If you are building a new home, the building inspector may insist on an “approved” composting toilet system. What exactly this means can vary from place to place. In some areas, composting toilets are welcome if properly installed and used. In other areas, authorities don’t seem to be thrilled with the idea. In my region, the inspector has told me “I understand what you are doing, and I like it. But there is nothing in the code book about it, so don’t ask and I won’t say no”.
If you need a permit for your composting toilet, it’s best to talk to your local government. You might have to speak with a department manager, engineer, or someone in charge, as a special permit may be required. The building inspector is more likely to be helpful than the person behind the counter. If you have forward thinking people at your local government offices, you should be able to show them your waste management plan. If it is a sound plan, you may well get approval.
In urban areas especially, where new houses are concerned, authorities may require the basic infrastructure for a flush toilet to be built into the house ( drain pipe, vent stack and water supply). This is so future owners of the home will not be locked in to using a composting toilet.
In a way I can understand the concern. The municipality or county is handing over the very serious responsibility of dealing with human waste over to the home owner. They are concerned that a careless person might not deal with the output of their composting toilet appropriately, and someone could get sick, or water could be contaminated. When used properly, composting toilets produce harmless fertilizer only, but it does require care and attention.
Certifications for Composting Toilets
Some toilets have certifications from independent testing agencies. Typically this is an ETL certification (urine diverting toilets) or an NSF 41 certification (non-urine diverting toilets). In addition, there are many other certifying laboratories.
There are places in North America where some kind of certification is required before they issue a permit for a composting toilet. However, these certifications are problematic. First, they do not address what happens to the solid material once it is removed from the toilet. Any composting toilet could quite possibly have fecal pathogens in the solid waste that you remove. It is critical that this waste is handled according to instructions, and that fecal contamination does not occur. The certifications provide no assurance of that.
The second problem is that some certifications are incredibly expensive to obtain. I’ve heard of fees in the range of $60,000 being charged, with annual ongoing fees of $7000-$9000 dollars per product or model. With no assurance that any government body will even accept the certification. For this reason, most manufacturers are deciding not to obtain certification. They see it as a money grab, or a scam. Complicating matters is the fact that some older toilets which do not work all that well have obtained certification, while some newer models that work much better do not have certification. So we have a crazy situation where toilets that don’t work very well are certified, and toilets that work very well are not certified.
The third problem is there is no universal agreement among government agencies on what certification to require. In my experience, a certification means little to most authorities, and is no guarantee your toilet will be approved.
New Guidelines on Composting Toilets
Thankfully, very detailed new guidelines on composting toilets have recently been published. This was a very carefully thought out process, written by an engineer and peer reviewed. These are probably the best, most comprehensive guidelines on composting toilets in North America today. Although published in Canada by the British Columbia Ministry of Health, I am hopeful they will be read and adopted widely by governments across North America. It might be an idea to obtain a copy, and take it to your local authorities when you try to convince them that your installation will be properly done, with no risk of problems. You can read the complete guidelines here: BC government guidelines on composting-toilets.
Faced with the prospect of replacing a 50 year old septic system at our home we are considering installing Composting toilets as an alternative. Have you any experience with local authorities in Eastern Ontario ( Kingston ) ? In todays world one is loathe to approach municipalities on these issues due to the nasty experiences folks are having in some. Money grab appears to be the order of the day !
To replace our system may incur costs of $15,000 – $20,000. Two composting toilets are an obvious bargain in comparison. We are considering your Separat Models, either AC or DC . If I understand the little I have read one of these models can be alternatively hooked to either an AC or DC source of power as needed. Will continue doing my homework and educating myself and would appreciate a reply when you have a moment.
Lastly, if you have customers in Kingston can you recommend a reputable installer in this area ?
I have no experience with authorities in Kingston. I do know that many people have been successful getting permits in Ontario. I’d say 99% of composting toilets go in without permits. The regulations where they exist are usually 20 years out of date, and the people who have the authority to give you a permit often have no real knowledge around composting toilets. If they wanted to ensure health and safety, they should be concerned with the entire system, especially what comes out of the toilet. The older all in one toilets sometimes produced incomplete compost. That is a health risk. The waste out of those toilets should still be stored outside until it is fully composted. Much better to have a urine diverting waterless toilet and a container based sanitation system on your property, (two rotating compost bins), where composting occurs much more easily and reliably than inside a toilet. There are test kits available and you can have 100% certainty that the compost is safe for non edible plants.
Sorry, we don’t have installers. It’s not hard though.
Hi,
Is it allowed to travel on a sailboat in the USA (Great lakes) using a composting toilet ?
Thank you.
Pierre
The Nature’s Head is legal on the US side of the Great Lakes. It’s USCG approved.
However, on the Canadian side, you need a modification. The urine will have to be drained to a holding tank. They think that the urine bottle is too small, and boaters will be dumping urine frequently into the lake. Urine is not toxic, but it does contain a lot of nitrogen. So it’s basically like dumping fertilizer into the water. With a vast quantity of fertilizer already entering the lake through agricultural run off, I’m not sure why they’d be concerned with a relatively tiny amount from boaters, but that is how it is. On the water, common sense prevails, and to the best of our knowledge no one has ever been fined or even warned about using the Nature’s Head on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes. If you install a small holding tank (even an empty gas can), and run the urine into it, you are 100% legal on the Canadian side.
Thank you.