[Sustain] Composting Toilets For SF!

[Eric Brooks]

Hi again all,

Around our stand against the SFPUC giving away toxic sewage sludge as 
fertilizer, I was also recently quoted as a Green sustainability 
organizer in a couple of articles about the possibility of San Francisco 
beginning a shift to composting toilets. The first article is the best 
one. (The second article incorrectly states that the SFPUC 'pooh poohed' 
the concept - it in fact did not do so and is in the preliminary study 
phase of the idea.) You can see the very promising SFPUC report on 
composting toilets at http://ourcitysf.org/Composting_Toilets_SFPUC.pdf

Here are the articles and the URLs to them:

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/12/09/are-there-public-composting-toilets-in-san-franciscos-future

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/12/san-francisco-takes-sniff-composting-toilets

Are There Public Composting Toilets in San Francisco's Future?
By Tilde Herrera
Published December 09, 2011

Are There Public Composting Toilets in San Francisco's Future?

If a local activist gets his way, the City of San Francisco could become 
one of the first in the nation to pilot test a composting toilet system.

Eric Brooks, chair of the San Francisco Green Party's sustainability 
working group, has proposed that the city test several composting toilet 
models outdoors and in public buildings to determine if it is feasible 
to deploy the units citywide. He views a comprehensive composting toilet 
system as a way to address the city's aging sewers, save water, reduce 
the use of sterilization chemicals and potentially create hundreds of 
green jobs in the process.

Brooks has been advocating composting toilets to the San Francisco 
Public Utilities Commission for more than a year. An informational 
report commissioned by the agency on composting toilets was released in 
October, finding that while a composting toilet is more expensive that a 
conventional one, there may be a cost advantage in cases where 
significant sewer upgrades are necessary or if water and energy prices 
increase.

Diverting human bathroom waste toward organic composting, rather than 
separating the human waste from wastewater, would reduce treatment costs 
and free wastewater treatment plants to focus on removing chemicals and 
other biological input from the water system. At the same time, the 
potential for water savings in the city could be significant.

"If every toilet in the city was a composting toilet, that would save 
over 5 billion gallons per year because each (composting) toilet saves 
6,600 gallons per person per year," said Brooks, who is also campaign 
coordinator at the grassroots organization Our City.

Seattle, Austin and New York are among the U.S. cities that have 
explored public composting toilets, but perhaps not quite at the same 
scale as Brooks' proposal. The local business community, he believes, 
would be able to save both water and money, similar to their adoption of 
energy efficiency technologies.

"Businesses will want to switch to something that saves them more water, 
just as they wanted to switch to things that saved them electricity,"

Water stress and scarcity, Brooks noted, promise to become even more 
acute in the coming years because of climate change.

"If we get ahead of this in time over the next few decades, we will be 
solving a climate-induced water crisis before it happens."

~

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/12/san-francisco-takes-sniff-composting-toilets

San Francisco takes a sniff at composting toilets

By: Sarah Gantz | 12/07/11
Examiner Staff Writer

Recycling: The contents of composting toilets are collected in a basin, 
separating liquids from solids. After the waste hardens, it can be used 
as compost.

A porcelain throne that turns its contents into fertilizer instead of 
flushing could revolutionize the way The City does business, 
environmental activists say.

Composting toilets, which do not use water, could provide relief for San 
Francisco’s deteriorated sewer system and its public defecation problem, 
said Eric Brooks, who brought the idea to the Public Utilities Commission.

“They could make sense everywhere there is a toilet,” said Brooks, chair 
of the San Francisco Green Party’s sustainability working group.

“They’re not just for outhouses in the mountains anymore,” he said.

After Brooks suggested the idea at several meetings, commission Vice 
President Art Torres asked staff to compile a report on the product that 
confirms — in a section titled “Odor Issues” — that today’s composting 
toilets are not the rank holes in the ground of backwoods lore.

Composting toilets, according to the report, work this way: Instead of 
emptying into sewer pipes, the contents are collected in basins, 
separating liquid from solid. Once the waste hardens, it’s emptied and 
brought to farms.

Correctly installed and operating composting toilets have a ventilation 
system and constant suction through the toilet to prevent noxious odors.

But commission spokesman Tyrone Jue pointed out several problems The 
City could face, including where to bring the compost, the health and 
safety of removing the stuff and the cost of retrofitting buildings.

“I don’t want to say it’s not possible, but we also have to think about 
these other challenges,” Jue said.

Though the commission has pooh-poohed the idea of permanent composting 
toilets, Tenderloin community organizers think a portable prototype 
could play an integral role in addressing a shortage of public 
lavatories in that neighborhood.

Clean City and the North of Market/Tenderloin Community Benefit District 
are working with environmentally minded Hyphae Design Laboratory to 
create a portable composting toilet they say would be less expensive to 
install and maintain because it would not need electricity or plumbing.

“We’ve been working hard to clean up the Tenderloin and this is another 
step,” said Gia Grant, executive director of Clean City.

If the project stays on schedule, the Tenderloin could have a new toilet 
by this summer. But because it will need approval from several city 
agencies, it’s possible things will get backed up.

sgantz at sfexaminer.com