Do-It-Yourself Privy Kit plans updated

We conducted another composting toilet workshop, so we updated our free online plans for making your own very simple composting toilet with a Privy Kit. Go to the Privy Kit page or download Privy Kit Baja Box Directions.

We call it the Baja Box, because it was designed for one of Ecowaters’ first workshops in Baja California Sur, Mexico.

The workshop was hosted by Pat Keaney (of Green Grease Monkeys), who installed a Baja Box toilet in his basement after our talk at his permaculture workshop in his home last year. Pat and his eco-toilet are shown above.

Why the basement? Many renters tell us they want a composting toilet but are unable to change their bathrooms. The basement is often a place with extra space and it has an easy way to vent the toilet: through the small windows near the ceiling.

Villa chosen “Top 10 Green Building Products”

The Separett Villa was chosen as one of Sustainable Industries Magazine’s “Top 10 Green Building Products” for 2009! Read about it here.

We are honored that one of our favorite magazines chose the Villa. Editor Charles Redell told us: “The Villa is certainly a less conventional product compared to the products we chose, but we felt it was something the building industry needs to know about.”

More to come!

Ecovita customer report in The Los Angeles Times!

 
Ecovita customer Susan Carpenter is a reporter at The Los Angeles Times. Recently, to respond to California’s drought, she purchased a Privy Kit from Ecovita. Taking a cue from our photos of customer installations, she purchased a ready-made wooden box from Orchard Home Supply and inserted the Privy Kit, with a container inside (Susan didn’t have a photo for us…). She writes about her experience here:

THE REALIST IDEALIST: Taking the Plunge with a Composting Toilet

Pee On Earth Day is June 21!

 Pee on Earth Day is June 21 (and Dec. 21 in the eastern hemisphere). 

(Ecovita’s Carol Steinfeld was interviewed by Dublin’s News Talk radio show!)

Wherever you are, this is a day to put your urine back into the earth to recycle water and nutrients. 
Nourish plants with your urine’s nitrogen and phosphorus. 
Skip using drinking water for flushing!
PEECYCLE either directly or by depositing your contribution in a container you take outside and apply to:
— Fluffy soil, bark mulch or forest floor (not pavement) 
— Your composter or compost pile (makes brown leaves and woodchips compost faster)
— Or, diluted it with 9 parts water to 1 part urine, around plant roots

Dilute and distribute: Lots of urine deposited in one spot on your lawn can result in nitrogen burn,

(And, yes, we’ll have the bumper sticker available soon!)

More mentions in the media

Ecovita recently was noted in several publications and affiliated blogs, including: 

The Lowell Sun, Popular Mechanics, The Christian Science Monitor, and World Changing

New Ecovita office powered by sun and wind

After two years on historic Fish Island in New Bedford (Mass.), and four years in historic Concord (Mass.) before that, we moved Ecovita again. This time we’re in the solar- and wind-powered building that also houses Cotuit Solar at 3800 Route 28, Cotuit, Massachusetts on Cape Cod.

Moving to Cotuit Solar required moving some boats to make way for our stock of toilets and urinals for 2009. We’re still getting settled, but come visit to see the best selection of urine-diverting eco-toilets in North America. It’s best to call first, as we’re often on the road: 978-318-7033.  We’re right next to Pecks Boats.

Conrad Geyser of Cotuit Solar has long been an advocate of urine-diverting toilets. He even makes them out of wood and fiberglass. Conrad’s set-up, whereby he stores urine and combines it with water to irrigate and fertilize his verdant and very productive gardens, is featured in Liquid Gold: The Lore & Logic of Using Urine to Grow Plants.

Traveling along Route 28, you’ll know you’re near our building when you see a wind turbine, usually spinning, in the sky.

Cotuit Wind Turbine in motion

Cape Cod has long had problems with nitrogen pollution of its ponds and bays. Local state representative Matt Patrick has been calling on the state to recognize urine-diverting toilets as a viable way to divert and manage the most easily targeted source of that nitrogen: human urine.

We are setting up at least two demonstration systems at our new offices. More on that later.

Ecovita noted in The New York Times

“Yellow is the New Green” proclaims the headline of an opinion piece by Rose George for The New York Times. Read it here

Writing in recognition of World Water Week, she extolls the value of urine diversion and quotes Ecovita co-founder Carol Steinfeld. 

She is author of The Big Necessity, a compendium of vignettes about the often-hidden world of wastewater.