Unnecessary Pollution

Conventional waste treatment systems inevitably create pollution. For instance, the septic system leachfield puts nutrients from human waste into soil at a level too deep for plants to use. Eventually, these nutrients reach groundwater, rivers, lakes, etc., where they have damaging effects on aquatic environments and on drinking water.

The sewage treatment plant also creates pollution. Toxic substances from industry, from homes, and from city streets (where storm drains and sewers are combined) regularly enter the system along with human waste. This mixture of nutrients from human waste and toxic substances is not ‘treatable.’ The liquid effluent (i.e., the water that carries matter to the sewage treatment plant) discharged into rivers, bays, and oceans contains plant nutrients and those soluble toxic substances not removed at the treatment plant. The second product of the sewage treatment plants—sludge—contains the remainder of the toxic substances that entered the system. These may include heavy metals, PCBs, dioxin, and more. In spite of its toxicity, sludge is widely used as fertilizer!

The Natural Solution

The Clivus composting toilet system is a healthier alternative to conventional flush toilet systems. The composting toilet captures the nutrients in human excreta and makes them ready for use again as fertilizers—instead of mixing them with water or toxic substances. The composting toilet makes it unnecessary to pollute water and soil, or to use water to flush toilets. The combination of the compost toilet and greywater irrigation system provides a fully sustainable, on-site recycling system.