Plastic Free Toilet Paper

Plastic free toilet paper and other sustainable alternatives!

This post contains affiliate links, meaning I get a small commission if you purchase products through one of my links. This money helps keep the site running. I am only an affiliate for brands and products I believe in. Sometimes I receive free products to review.

For a long time, finding a plastic free toilet paper option has been a struggle. I’m not sure why, but it’s a popular practice to wrap toilet paper in plastic. I’ve seen it wrapped in paper in commercial places, but had a hard time coming by it wrapped in paper at my usual shopping haunts.

Fortunately, after a lot of poking around, I’ve found several options. Just in time for Plastic Free July, too!

In addition to being plastic free, it’s important to consider the environmental impact of toilet paper production.

For information on how destructive the toilet paper industry is, I recommend reading the NRDC Report “The Issue with Tissue – How Americans are Flushing Forests Down the Toilet” and checking out their Shopper’s Guide. Not all toilet papers are created equal, and many of the major name brands use virgin wood, which is an incredibly destructive practice.

Being tree free as well as plastic free is an essential element of a sustainable bathroom and household.

Who Gives a Crap? (affiliate)

Who Gives a Crap? markets itself as an environmentally and socially conscious company dedicated to making the world a less crappy place. They “donate 50% of our profits to help build toilets and improve sanitation in the developing world.”

They offer two types of toilet paper, one made from recycled paper, and one made from bamboo.

Pricing*

Recycled Paper Toilet Paper: (affiliate)

24 roll box for $30 = $1.25/roll

48 roll box for $48 = $1/roll

Premium Bamboo Toilet Paper: (affiliate)

48 roll box for $52 = $1.09/roll

Plus for both styles, get a $10 discount if you set up a delivery subscription (delivery schedule of 8, 12, or 16 weeks), with the option to cancel at any time, reducing the prices to ~$0.83, $0.79, and $0.88 /roll respectively. (Unless my math is wrong, which is moderately likely). They offer free shipping on orders over $25.

My Experience

I ordered a box of 48 rolls of the recycled paper rolls. I would have preferred to order a smaller batch, but at the time, the 48-roll set was all they had available. As of this writing (June 2019), the smaller set seems to be available again.

Let me tell ya, 48 rolls is a LOT of toilet paper. My husband and I live in a two bedroom, two bathroom condo, and finding the storage for that much product at once is a bit of a challenge. We’re slowly churning through it, but for just the two of us it might be about a year’s supply.

This is not a super soft, “charmin style” toilet paper, but it’s not as rough as other recycled paper brands I’ve tried – I believe it was 7th Generation that was so uncomfortable. It’s definitely way better than single ply toilet paper. It holds together pretty well, and I don’t feel lke we’re burning through rolls at a particularly fast pace.

If we ever make it through the 48 rolls of this brand and the box I ordered from Reel, I might try the WGaC bamboo variety.

Reel

Reel is another business pitching itself as socially and environmentally responsible. Their schtick is, “For every roll you buy, we donate a single-use biodegradable toilet to someone in need.”

I tried to do a little more poking around to learn what exactly a “single-use biodegradable toilet” IS, and all I found was in their FAQ page: “Our biodegradable toilets are bags that can be used to go to the bathroom and then put into the ground where they decompose and can be used as fertilizer.”

To be honest, I’m not sure I’m really buying into the mission here. Fancy bags to poop in might be a good short term solution in emergency situations, but it hardly seems to tackle to long term issues surrounding the lack of safe, accessible toilets worldwide. That said, I’m more in it for being plastic free than I am for their mission, so I’m not too fussed about it.

Pricing*

Bamboo Toilet Paper:

24 rolls for $30 = $1.25/roll

The price includes free shipping, but it does require a subscription, with the option of 4, 8, or 12 weeks between deliveries. They say you can cancel any time.

My Experience

I will update this section once the TP arrives and I give it a try!

I should also disclose that when I purchased my first box to test it out, I had a coupon code for $20 off! $0.42/roll was too good a deal to resist, especially since it is for research purposes.

November 2019 Update: I guess I should have updated this a little earlier, because my box did arrive and I’ve tried it out. It’s very nice paper, gently but strong, doesn’t break apart. The rolls are a bit smaller than the WGaC rolls, but I haven’t done a good control trial to see if they last longer. My only complaint was that when you sign up, you have to sign up for a subscription. The second box of my subscription came and I either missed or didn’t get a reminder email before it shipped so that I could delay it. I have so much TP at my house already, I really didn’t need any more. So, I gave most of the box to parents to try out. They also really liked it!

Tushy

I came across this company when I was looking at bidet attachment options (see more on bidets below) and was pleasantly surprised to learn that they sell bamboo toilet paper as well.

Like the other two companies, they also seem to be hip and socially conscious: “Each TUSHY bidet purchase helps provide clean community toilets built by Samagra in India.”

Pricing*

Bamboo Toilet Paper:

Tushy offers a wide range of one time purchase and subscription options, with prices varying accordingly. Fortunately, they have a really great chart on their website that breaks it all down.

The priciest option is a one time purchase of a box of 8 rolls for $24, which equates to $3/roll. The least expensive option is a prepaid, year-long subscription of a box of 36 rolls for $39 per box, which equates to $1.09/roll, with delivery options of 1, 2, or 3 month intervals.

Prices vary for options in between. They offer free shipping for orders over $50.

My Experience

At this point, I think I’ve ordered all the toilet paper my limited storage can handle, so it’s going to be some time before I can try any other brands. I wish I’d come across Tushy before ordering Reel, though. Their website has made me snort out loud several times, which I guess is a great marketing tactic, because now I feel emotionally connected to the brand and look forward to trying them out in the future.

CleanItSupply.com

I haven’t ordered anything from this website, either. It seems to be geared more towards commercial purchasers, but I see no reason why it wouldn’t work just as well for in-home use.

They sell several varieties of paper-wrapped (rather than poly-wrapped) toilet paper, and most are sold in large, bulk quantities, which leads me to assume there would be no additional plastic lurking anywhere. I didn’t do a comprehensive search, but I did find three varieties claiming to use 100% recycled content! November 2019 Update: see notes below regarding lurking plastic.

There’s some pretty reasonable prices here, so if you have the space for a large carton, or have some friends willing to go splitzies with you, this might be the way to go!

Pricing*

CLEANIT 2 ply:

• 96 roll carton for $33.09 (+ ~$8 shipping) = $0.43/roll
• November 2019 Update: I’m taking this variety off the list because a reader shared with me that she bought this variety and all 96 rolls came individually wrapped in plastic! So disappointing! I haven’t had any feedback on the other two, so for now they will remain on the list.

Scott EcoLogo 2 ply:

• 80 roll carton for $75.08 (+ ~$10 shipping) = $1.06/roll
• 20 roll carton for $24.32 (+ ~$7 shipping) = $1.57/roll

Envision 2 ply:

• 80 roll carton for $55.19 (+ ~$9 shipping) = $0.80/roll

ToiletRolls.com

[Added 2/21/21]

For the UK readers, check out the eco-friendly toilet paper at ToiletRolls.com. They boast that, “Our toilet rolls are made using 100% recycled tissue. Therefore, there is no plastic in or outside our fully recycled product. As a matter of fact, our Kraft Paper tape that we seal the box with is an eco-friendly alternative.”

Make sure to buy the variety that is made from 100% recycled paper, NOT the variety made from virgin wood pulp, which is environmentally destructive. They offer both 2 ply and 3 ply in a range of roll and pack sizes.

Toilet Paper Alternatives

Cloth Wipes

Cloth wipes are the reusable equivalent of toilet paper, and for some reason it’s also commonly known as family cloth. I think family cloth is a terribly misleading name that makes it sound like the whole family is using the same piece of cloth over and over again without a cleaning in between, so I avoid calling it that.

It’s a pretty simple idea – use a soft fabric square, commonly flannel, instead of toilet paper to wipe your bum. Once done, put it in a hamper, and once you have a sizable collection, wash a load. Advocates say it’s no different or worse than using cloth diapers. And since poop only smells when it’s wet (more on this in the composting toilets section), the smell is minimal since the wipes dry out in the hamper.

If you want to learn more about family cloth, I recommend these two articles:

• Going Zero Waste: Zero Waste Toilet Paper
• The Pistachio Project: Why You Should Switch to Family Cloth and How to Start

Detractors make a couple of arguments against using cloth wipes, mostly that it’s just too much of a leap/it’s gross, but they also argue that the water and energy needed to clean the cloth wipes is more than the water and energy needed for other options, like recycled TP and/or a bidet (see more below).

Now, I can totally get behind crunching some numbers and figuring out what really has the least environmental impact. We want to actually be doing better by the environment, not just feeling like we’re doing better, right? And that means facts and figures. Unfortunately, as you’ll see below, a lot of the information floating around on the internet is unverifiable. Fortunately, after a lot of digging and looking around, I was able to find some numbers that I think are much more reliable.

So, how much water does it really take to make a roll of toilet paper?

The oft stated but never cited internet “fact” is that it takes 37 gallons of water to make one roll of toilet paper. Unfortunately, I cannot find any evidence of the accuracy of this number! It seems to go back to a 2009 article on treehugger.com, Stop Using Toilet Paper; Get The Blue Bidet, and as been cited several times since, including in an article from Scientific American, Wipe or Wash? Do Bidets Save Forest and Water Resources?. However, in the Tree Hugger article, the author gives no source whatsoever for this information, so I have a hard time accepting its accuracy.

{{Tangent: This unsubstantiated 37 gallon figure also appears in the Worldwatch Institute story “Flushing Forests,” published in the May/June 2010 issue of World Watch Magazine. This article is in turn cited by many other articles and stories on the web, even the New York Times. The author Noelle Robbins writes, “Bill Worrell, manager of the San Luis Obispo County Integrated Waste Management Authority in California, returned from a trip to Japan so impressed with the efficiency and superiority of the Washlet [a bidet] that he installed the system in the IWMA offices as a research model. Worrell discovered that consumption of paper products could be reduced by 50 to 90 percent. “This may not seem significant until we realize that Americans use more than 3.2 million tons of toilet paper annually, cutting down 54 million trees in the process,” he says. “The production of each roll requires an average of 37 gallons [140 liters] of water. The average American uses 57 sheets of toilet paper per day, about 3.7 gallons of water per day figured for just for the manufacturing process. This compares to about 0.03 gallons [0.01 liter] per use of the Washlet.””

Mr. Worrell did not cite the sources for his numbers either. Hoping to find some substantiation, I looked him up, only to discover that he had recently resigned (fall 2018) from his position at the IWMA amidst allegations of financial mismanagement, including the purchase of luxury items like the Washlet he mentioned in the Worldwatch Institute story. See: “SLO County waste manager placed on leave amid fraud investigation” (8/8/18); “Waste chief Bill Worrell, targeted in probe, splits IWMA” (8/30/18); “County waste authority hires firm for forensic audit” (11/22/18); “SLO County waste management spent thousands on luxury items” (12/17/18); and, “‘Cleaning up’ San Luis Obispo County agency’s missing money woes” (1/14/19). I found no substantiation for the 37 gallon claim, either, and my suspicion is that it also a repetition of the 2009 TreeHugger article “fact.” Which of course makes me question any article which has since accepted the information at face value. How many other figures in the article are uncited and unreliable?}}

The other figure that gets thrown around is that it takes about 13 gallons of water to make a roll of toilet paper. I think this originates from another TreeHugger.com article from 2008, this one written by Justin Thomas: Bidets: Eliminate Toilet Paper, Increase Your Hygiene. He writes, “We use 36.5 billions rolls of toilet paper in the U.S. each year, this represents at least 15 million trees pulped. This also involves 473,587,500,000 gallons of water to produce the paper and 253,000 tons of chlorine for bleaching purposes.” 473,587,500,000 gallons/36.5 billion rolls = 12.98 (or approximately 13) gallons /roll. These numbers are also repeated in the Scientific American article, but again, with no original citation for the figures, I cannot vouch for their accuracy.

The main detractor article on LifeHacker.com (linked to above) actually uses the unverified 13 gallons/roll statistic to argue against the use of cloth wipes, backlinking to the TreeHugger article. The author claims that washing the cloth wipes uses more water than it takes to make a roll of toilet paper.

Another statistic I’ve come across is that “Recycling just one ton of paper can save almost 7,000 gallons of water.” I found this number in an article on bidet.org, The True Costs of Using Toilet Paper, and on a Toilet Paper Encyclopedia article, “Toilet Paper and the Environment” (9/17/19 update – article appears to have been deleted). TPE claims the figure comes from a study from the EPA. I was not able to track down the study, but I did find an archived EPA page about the benefits of paper recycling with the same figure.

The EPA cites three sources for their figures, including Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: Facts and Figures and the US EPA Waste Reduction Model (WARM). In the Facts and Figures document, they write that all their savings “benefit calculations… are derived from EPA’s Waste Reduction Model (WARM).”

I did find another figure from a US government source. On their page Recycling and Energy, the US Energy Information Administration states that “Recycling paper saves trees and water. For every one ton of paper made from recycled paper, it saves up to 17 trees and uses 50% less water.” This seems to line up with the NRDC Issue with Tissue Report that claims that recycled paper pulp uses “1/2 the water of virgin pulp.” (p 15)

Buried deep in the citations of the NRDC Report, I found a report written by the Environmental Paper Network, and this where the fun starts! They have a tool called the Paper Calculator, the history of which is, “The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) released the original Paper Calculator in 2005 and managed the tool until 2011, at which time it was transferred to the ownership of the Environmental Paper Network (EPN).” This seems like a much more reputable source.

With the Paper Calculator, finally we can crunch some real numbers!**

I ran a comparison calculation for 1 US ton of bath tissue paper made with 0% recycled content vs. 100% recycled content. You can view a PDF of the report here:

The 0% recycled content ton used 40,700 gallons of water, while the 100% recycled ton used only 21,400 gallons of water (19,300 gallons less).

Now for the math. A quick survey of the shipping weights of several varieties of toilet paper shows that an average toilet paper roll weighs 1/3 of a pound. Since there are 2000 pounds in a ton, that means 1 ton of tissue paper is about 6,060 rolls of toilet paper.

If 40,700 gallons of water goes in to produce 6,060 toilet paper rolls, then it takes 6.72 gallons of water to produce 1 toilet paper roll with 0% recycled content.

To make 1 roll of toilet paper with 100% recycled content, it takes only 3.53 gallons of water.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume each roll is a little heavier, weighing a solid half pound per roll. That means each ton of toilet paper is only 4000 rolls. In this case it takes 10.18 gallons/roll of 0% recycled content, and 5.35 gallons/roll of 100% recycled content. This seems to be a bit more in line with above mentioned 13 gallons/roll statistic, but it is much, much less than the other 37 gallons a roll statistics.

Further reading on paper making and water impact calculations:

• Water Requirements of the Pulp and Paper Industry – US Department of the Interior (1955)
• Water Footprint Manual, State of the Art 2009 – Water Footprint Network (2009)
• The green and blue water footprint of paper products: Methodological considerations and quantification – UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education (2010)
• From forest to paper, the story of our water footprint – The Biofore Company (2011)
• Life Cycle Analysis of Tissue Paper Manufacturing from Virgin Pulp or Recycled Waste Paper – Management and Production Engineering Review (2015)
• The water footprint of wood for lumber, pulp, paper, fuel and firewood – Advances in Water Resources (2017)

Alright, you have your numbers, now tell us what’s more efficient already!

Let’s start with a couple assumptions about the toilet paper for comparison:

• 100% recycled content toilet paper
• each roll of toilet paper weighs 1/2 pound
• it takes 5.35 gallons of water to make one roll

According to EnergyStar, “a full-sized ENERGY STAR certified clothes washer uses 14 gallons of water per load, compared to the 20 gallons used by a standard machine.” Most full-sized washers have at least 3 cubit foot of capacity.

One 14 gallon, 3 cubic foot, load of laundry is equivalent to 2.6 rolls of toilet paper. The question therefore is, do 3 cubic feet’s worth of family cloth outperform 2.6 rolls of toilet paper? Given the small size of the wipes, I think the answer is a solid yes! Which means that the cloth wipes, even though they require washing, are more efficient than toilet paper, at least as far as water consumption is concerned.

And when you factor in the other costs of toilet paper, including the energy needed to make it, as well as shipping and transportation costs, cloth wipes, especially those made with second hand materials, are squarely in the realm of more environmentally friendly than toilet paper.

DIY Cloth Wipes

Maybe you’re convinced that cloth toilet wipes are the way to go, and you’re ready to start using them. I think it’s very tempting to start shopping right away. There are certainly tons of options on Etsy and other “eco-friendly” stores, some even made to snap together and look just like a roll of toilet paper.

If you can, I would keep away from all that. The point of going plastic free, zero waste, and minimalist isn’t to go out and buy new things to fit into your new lifestyle. You’d be much better off keeping it simple and trying to use what you already have. Remember, you’re going to be using these things to wipe excrement off your bum – they don’t have to be fancy!

For example, consider cutting up an old, worn out flannel shirt or flannel sheet, old t-shirts, or even old towels. If you don’t have any of your own to give a second life, consider checking out the options at your local thrift or second-hand store. Maybe there’s a creative reuse center near you with second hand fabric available for a very low price.

Bidets

There are different types of bidets, which seems to have led to some confusion about their sustainability, especially with regard to their water use. I’ve seen other articles touting how bidets are much better than toilets because they use less water, without seeming to understand that those bidets are something you use in addition to the toilet. Therefore all water use is in addition to the water a toilet uses for flushing. I hope I can clear up some of the confusion, and examine how sustainable they are.

First, there are 3 main types of bidets:

• handheld sprayer bidets, similar to a kitchen sink sprayer;
• stand-alone bidets, which are separate fixtures, some with nozzles, some without, that look to me like a cross between a sink and a toilet bowl;
• and, bidet seats that are add-ons to traditional toilets, that range in price and features from a simple jet stream to heated seats to ambient lighting.

Most popular on the market today (in the US at least) seem to be the bidet seat attachments. Tushy, the bamboo toilet paper maker mentioned above, makes a variety of styles of bidet seats. A quick search online will turn up plenty of other options.

There are many reasons people give for switching to a bidet. They are often touted to be more sanitary, and in many places around the world they are considered an essential part of the bathroom routine. They are also said to be easier on sensitive skin than wiping with toilet paper, and easier than wiping, especially for people with disabilities and physical limitations. I don’t see the need for me to rehash all of that information here; I recommend these pages if you want to learn more:

• Is a Bidet Seat Right for You and Your Bathroom? – Consumer Reports (2018)
• Benefits of Using a Bidet – Bidet.org
• Are Bidets Sanitary, Safe, and Clean? Should I Use Them? – Brondell (2018)

Other factors aside, the question I’d like to focus on is whether or not they really are more sustainable and efficient than using toilet paper. Some of the articles touting the benefits of bidets make environmental claims based on the unverified facts and figures I discuss in the above section So, how much water does it really take to make a roll of toilet paper? I think it merits taking another look.

First, as far as trees go, it has to be said that toilet paper uses more. Even if you are using toilet paper made from recycled materials, there’s still the argument that the materials could be put to other uses, or simply not manufactured at all.

The bathroom tissue paper still requires plenty of energy to create (not to mention transport). A ton of recycled tissue still uses 23.6 million BTUs of energy.** That’s almost 7000 kWh. That’s more energy than I used at home last year! That means it takes ~1.2-1.8 kWh per roll. If I use a roll a week, that’s almost 100 kWh a year vs. an unheated bidet, which uses no energy to operate. And while it does take energy to make a bidet and ship it to you, that cost is spread out over a lifetime. I don’t have any figures on bidet production, but I have to assume that a long-lasting item is going to win out over single use toilet paper.

As far as being more water efficient, it’s a close call. I’ve had difficulty tracking down verified information on amount of water a bidet uses. The most commonly stated figure is about 2 cups, equal to 1 pint, or 1/8 gallon, and common sense says that’s probably close enough to right to work with.

Let’s compare that to the 5.35 gallons of water used to make a roll of recycled toilet paper.** 5.35 gallons = 42.8 pints. That means that the water used to make a roll of toilet paper is the same amount of water I would use if I used a bidet nearly 43 times. If I use 10 sheets per bathroom visit, of a 500 sheet roll, that means each roll of toilet paper will last about 50 visits. At which point the bidet is less efficient, using 6.25 gallons for 50 visits.

On the other hand, if I average just two more sheets per visit, 500/12 = 41 2/3 visits, which is less than using a bidet. So, with it being so close, and our numbers estimated anyway, I think it’s safe to say that at the very least, using a bidet is just about as efficient in terms of water usage as using toilet paper with 100% recycled content. And compared to bath tissue with no recycled content, the bidet uses much less water.

I see no reason not to pat dry with a towel instead of toilet paper. It’s really no different than drying off after a shower. And since the bidet towels could be thrown in with the rest of the laundry, I don’t think we need to tack on any additional water or energy costs there.

Even More Efficiency: Saving Water

It does seem silly to be fretting over how much water is needed to take roll of toilet paper, given how much fresh, clean, potable water gets wasted with every single flush.

According to the EPA’s WaterSense program, “toilets are by far the main source of water use in the home, accounting for nearly 30 percent of an average home’s indoor water consumption.”

The current federal standard for toilets is 1.6 gallons per flush. If you flush 4 times, you’ve already used more than the 5.35 gallons of water used to make 1 roll of toilet paper with 100% recycled content.** Older toilets “use as much as 6 gallons per flush.” Toilets that are WaterSense certified use 1.28 gallons or less per flush.

Sink Twice

A simple way to be more water efficient in the bathroom is a product called the Sink Twice.

It’s a clever fixture that replaces the lid of your toilet tank. Essentially it’s a way to retrofit a grey water system into a regular household toilet.

You hook the faucet into the water supply to the tank (which is almost always the same clean water that comes out of the rest of the taps in your house). When you flush, instead of the water filling the tank and then going into the toilet bowl, it first gets diverted through the faucet. You wash your hands in the fresh running water, then the dirty/soapy water from the hand washing goes back into the tank. So instead of using clean, potable water to flush away the unmentionables, you end up using grey water instead.

I’ve never seen one of these in action, but my husband claims to have seen them overseas. It honestly looks a little awkward to be leaning over the toilet bowl to wash your hands. But I really appreciate the innovation. It’s such a simple, obvious design, that with a little planning and creative interior design could really make a lot of sense in a bathroom.

It wouldn’t be able to totally replace a bathroom sink because the faucet only runs when the toilet is flushing. You’d still need a sink to brush your teeth or wash your hands other times. But at least you’d be getting more out of the 1.28 – 6 gallons of water used for every flush.

I also found a couple inspiring DIY versions of a toilet tank top sink:

Plus one more that for some reason I wasn’t able to embed here, but it has a nice diagram in the video and list of all the parts you’d need to make your own: Conserve water with a DIY Toilet Sink

And also this commercial version from Australia that’s the whole toilet system:

Separating, Composting, Waterless Toilets

The other way to save water is a bit more extreme, using a completely waterless system. These are commonly called composting toilets, but that’s actually a bit of a misnomer. Some decomposition might start in the collection bin, but it really requires a separate composting area to complete the composting process. “Separating toilet” or “urine diverting toilet” more accurately describe the basic mechanism – keeping liquids and solids apart.

I first heard of composting toilets when my dad and I were talking about tiny houses. And I have to admit, I was a bit squeamish about it. I sort of wrote it off as too out there and just not for me.

Then, last year my husband and I bought our first sailboat, and it came with some plumbing issues to tackle. It was time to put on my big girl panties and start having frank, adult conversations about waste management. It made me realize just how much of a taboo subject poop is, and the fact that we can’t seem to talk about it has serious environmental and social consequences. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I grew up in a culture where it was common to hear things like, “Girls don’t fart” and “girls don’t poop.” It seemed normal at the time, but looking back now I feel like it’s a slippery slope from that to banishing women into huts when they menstruate, you know, another completely normal, biological process.

So, if this is a bit much for you, I totally get it. Turn back now, no hard feelings. On the other hand, I encourage you to step outside of your comfort zone for a little while and see where you end up.

In my research into composting toilets for our sailboat, I learned that the key to success is the separation of liquids and solids. This is what really distinguishes a composting toilet from your regular old outhouse. When you can keep the poop dry, by diverting the pee and then covering the poop with an absorbent material like sawdust, it eliminates the odors! Users report that once you get used to it, it’s a lot easier to manage than the traditional cassette style toilets popular with RVs and campers or the pump out style marine toilets common on boats.

There are couple commercial versions, like the Nature’s Head and Separett, but there are lots of DIY options out there as well. We bought a couple components (urine diverter and urine bottle) from a company called Kildwick, that has since folded and re-emerged as Strumpet and Trollop. I’m also intrigued by the EcoDry toilet, which isn’t suitable on a boat, but might be more appealing in a home since it is designed to look similar to a traditional porcelain toilet.

Some DIY options are as simple as a bucket with a toilet seat over it that don’t bother with urine diversion at all. I think I’d steer away from this design. Most of what I’ve heard is that you have to use a lot more absorbing material to soak up the moisture, and it fills up too quickly. That’s especially a limitation on a boat or in a tiny home.

Here are a few useful links about separating & composting toilets:

• Composting Toilet – Tiny House Blog (DIY tutorial)
• Johnny Compost (sells components)
• About Composting Toilets – Greywater Action (background)
• Build a Composting Toilet with Urine Separation Project – The Homestead Survival (DIY tutorial)

Finally, no discussion of separating/composting toilets is complete without mentioning the Humanure Handbook. This is pretty much the standard guide for all things composting toilet. You can purchase a copy of the 4th edition online, but there is a digital version of the 3rd edition available through archive.org. I also recommend taking a look at the free PDF document Humanure Compost Toilet System Condensed Instruction Manual.

Further Reading:

• Yellow Is the New Green – New York Times Op-Ed (2009)
• Why Your Toilet Needs Reinvention – BBC (2014)
• World’s biggest eco-toilet project ends in failure & Doomed eco-toilet scheme was “valuable experience” – China Dialogue (2012)
• Final Report: NoMix – A new approach to urban water management – Novaquatis (2007)

It seems evident that there would be major advantages worldwide if everyone switched to urine diverting toilets, so why hasn’t it happened yet? As the further reading articles show, the toilets are more difficult to use, particularly for children and women, but it seems that men struggled too. Some large-scale implementation experiments failed due to poor construction, while others lacked the necessary human buy-in and proper use. It seems the technology just wasn’t mature enough for mass implementation, and the world just wasn’t ready.

But the quest for waterless toilets goes on, and there’s hope for the future. As water resources become more strained, viable alternatives become more critical. And as composting toilets become more mainstream, we will see a paradigm shift.

One technology I look forward to seeing come to fruition is being developed by change:WATER Labs. You can learn more about the project in the video below:

Basically, their idea is to have a waterless toilet without pre-separation, which seems to have been the main hangup in implementation of other composting toilet systems. Instead, the waste collection bag will be able to quickly absorb and evaporate the liquid. They don’t specify the next steps when the bag is full. But it’s a revolutionary technology in development, so we’ll just have to see!

*As of first publication in June 2019. For the most up to date pricing details, policies, restrictions, and limitations be sure to check the companies’ websites. HandyFinch.com is not responsible for changes in pricing or policies.

**Environmental impact estimates were made using the Environmental Paper Network Paper Calculator Version 4.0. For more information visit www.papercalculator.org.