I live in New Zealand, and have a Sun Mar composter loo, as pictured at the top of the page. On the plus side, it works pretty well, and the concept of course is excellent – and sooo obvious. Really if you’re sitting there, looking at the screen wondering if it’s all just a bunch of aging hippies going yeh-yeh, save the planet and pass me another scent stick, then forget it. Set up properly composting loos are very easy to live with.

On the down side, the model I chose is poorly made and I was pretty disappointed when it arrived. Subsequently the barrel winding handle has snapped! The unit was due to be turned over after I’d taken some new compost out to the garden, but it wasn’t overloaded. the thing just came away in my hands – it’s only a little over a year old. so choose carefully. I believe in composting but I wouldn’t buy a Sun Mar again.

“Places to try before you buy
Manufacturers should be able to give you a list of facilities you can visit. In addition, there are a number of public facilities in Massachusetts that use composting toilets:
 Halibut Point State Park, Rockport, MA
 Johnny Appleseed Tourist Information Center, Route 2, Lancaster, MA
 Mass. Audubon, Visitor’s Center, Wellfleet, MA
 Nickerson State Park, Brewster, MA
 Salisbury Beach, Salisbury, MA
 Walden Pond State Reservation, Concord, MA
 Wallum Lake, Douglas, MA
 Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Waquoit, MA.” (from http://www.mass.gov/dep/water/wastewater/comptoi.doc)

I work for Sun-Mar Corp. We are a manufacturer of Composting Toilet Systems. In fact the picture at the top and the demo video in this blog are our units! Composting our waste just makes sense. Composting is a great way to eliminate the needless wasting of fresh drinking water. I’m very happy to see more and more people catching on to this.

The Naib, we would be happy to upload our corporate video as well?

We are trying to cater to those who have no interest in making their own and want an in-the-bathroom model that is completely sealed for odour and liquid.

We also cater to those who want to follow local regulations by using tested & certified systems.

We’re really trying to make compost toilets more mainstream. But again, if you are the type to do-it-yourself –more power to you.

Step 1: 5 gallon bucket with a layer of sawdust on the bottom.
Step 2: Poop in bucket.
Step 3: Cover everything with sawdust.
Step 4: Throw it in a pile out back.

It doesn’t smell if you do it right. I swear to god. And you can build cute little wooden houses for your bucket. No need for a big fancy plastic jobbie like this, except maybe to make mom think you’re not insane for crapping in a bucket when she comes to visit.