Eco Toilet Systems

MASSTC is working on various projects related to ecological sanitation and eco-toilet systems. We even have a number of these types of toilets being installed in our new Clean Water Center!

Let’s begin with some basic info and defining some important terms.

(All information below is not an endorsement or recommendation but is provided as examples of eco toilet systems.)

What is ecological sanitation?

Ecological sanitation or “eco san” is an age-old sanitation strategy that aims to manage human waste products in ways that sustainably maximize resource value and the health of people and ecosystems. Some example eco san practices include utilizing eco-toilet systems, harvesting rainwater, irrigating with greywater and composting food scraps. All of these practices are based on the foundation of appreciating and valuing resources (like water, nutrients, clean air, healthy soil, etc.) that are essential to the existence of life on earth. Eco san has become a fringe concept in most modern societies around the globe because of the wholesale loss of human connection with nature and the natural cycles of the ecosystems within which we all live and depend upon.

This quote by the famous architect and thinker R. Buckminster Fuller captures the philosophy well: “Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we’ve been ignorant of their value.”

This could not be more true for Cape Cod. The human society that has developed on the Cape imports most of its food from distant sources and then subsequently discards the resulting “waste” nutrients into the environment (via wastewater) which has resulted in the devastation of every water body, above and below ground, fresh and salt.

The nutrients that pollute our waters are the same nutrients that are used to fertilize and grow our food! These fertilizers are energy intensive, synthetically produced or mined and then, following excretion into water flushed toilets, are energy-intensively disposed of back into the environment via wastewater treatment practices including central sewage treatment in municipal plants or on-site treatment in septic systems. Once disposed in this way, the nutrients are either no longer available or need to be re-extracted using the same energy intensive processes that were used to get them in the first place. It’s a non-sensical and broken cycle!

By utilizing eco san practices we can eliminate pollution at the source, reduce energy consumption, and recycle valuable water and nutrients.