Compost Toilet Trial Report - Ministry of Civil Defence and ...

Flexibility is a key benefit of the emergency compost toilet design, allowing the
units to adapt to the situation of each user. Flexibility also means that user can
incorporate into there own environment, e.g. paint it or use a toilet seat from their
existing toilet to make it aesthetically pleasing.
Users may need to trial different types of absorbent material to find one that suits
them.
4.3.5 Workplaces
Two workplaces participated in the trial and whilst the sample was not large enough to
draw significant conclusions there were a number of observations made.
The single person workplace quickly adapted to the emergency compost toilet,
although for privacy reasons they emptied their buckets at times when no other people
were in the building.
This participant recommended the promotion of a compost toilet for small business, as
it would aid their ability to restart work. Interestingly, their priorities for restoration of
services in the event of an emergency were identified as electricity and internet; water
(providing they had access to bottled water) and sewerage were a lower priority.
For the workplace with a number of participants, several staff members who had
initially indicated that they would participate in the trial did not take part. The nonparticipation
in the trial related to a privacy and ‘over-familiarity’ concern as people did
not want the next user to know, or see, what they had done. There were also
concerns expressed at the intimacy caused when a work colleague, rather than an
anonymous person, had to empty the buckets.
Those who did not participate in the trial did comment that the toilets were a good
idea. Many would implement them in their homes and in the case of a disaster or
emergency some of their concerns from the trial would be over written by need.
The emergency compost toilet may work for business, though users may find this
brings unwelcome intimacy to work relationships. Providing additional units and
allowing users some anonymity and may aid in the toilets acceptance in the
workplace.
4.4 Smell and odour
The potential for unpleasant odours was a fear of many participants (and the WREMO
researcher). The site visits revealed that aside from the first week the smell from the
toilets was only ever described as slight (Graph 4.2), while for the wheelie bins the
odour was only ever slight (Graph 4.3). This is due to the separation of urine from the
faeces, keeping toilets seats closed and the use of material to cover the faeces when
in the wheelie bin.
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