Renew America Success Stories

NutriCycle Systems LLC

The NutriCycle Systems Demonstration Site features a waterless, composting toilet and a greywater filtration system that, together, serve as a complete, low cost and nonpolluting alternative to installing septic systems or sewers.

The composting toilet, manufactured by Clivus Multrum, Inc., converts human waste into a nutrient-rich compost through the interaction of tiny organisms, insects and other decomposing processes in the composting chamber without water or the addition of harmful chemicals. "The process," says NutriCycle founder, "is exactly what happens on the forest floor."

The system consists of one (or two) toilets attached to 14-inch pipes that lead to the composting chamber, which is located in the basement and directly under the toilets. A countertop-mounted garbage inlet in the kitchen is connected similarly to the chamber for composting kitchen waste. Waste entering the system slowly decomposes, over time producing a rich mixture that is safe to handle and apply to a garden as organic fertilizer.

Because the composting toilet uses no water, it typically reduces home water use by 50% and reduces the load of contaminants in a municipal sewer system that currently must be eliminated at wastewater treatment facilities.

In a separate system on display at the site, a plumbing system directs all greywater (all wastewater from sinks, showers and laundry) to a filtration chamber that removes hair, lint and food particles from the water. The water then flows by gravity to out to an elevated leach box, a long trough set lengthwise down the middle of a flower bed. Microbes begin to purify the water as it seeps from the leach box and through the garden soil into the groundwater. Because the greywater never comes in contact with toilet waste, no municipal treatment of this water is necessary, either.

Composting toilets and greywater systems recycle nutrients back to the land-based food chain from which they come, instead of allowing them to pollute ground or surface waters by the use of septic systems or sewers. Absolutely no hazardous materials, such as sewage and sludge, are produced by these systems.

Program Highlights

Composting Toilet

• Exhaust fans installed in the composting chamber ensure an odorless system.
• About once a week, wood shavings are dumped into the compost chamber to help facilitate the composing process.
• Twice a year the compost is raked.
• Composting produces a 90% reduction in the volume of the biomass input.
• Composting toilets can be installed on properties that are too small to accommodate a septic tank or to be attached to the sewer system.
• Liquid waste produces liquid compost, which can be stored and sprayed on a garden as fertilizer.
• Composting toilets eliminate the remedial costs of illness, disease, well contamination, seafood contamination and habitat loss that are associated with septic systems and sewers.

• The only maintenance associated with the greywater system is to replace the filter - an inexpensive nylon mesh screen -- once a year.
• Greywater that does not come in contact with toilet waste contains 70% fewer pollutants in the form of suspended solids, nitrogen, phosphorous, and disease organisms.
• During the winter, water flow is diverted to a second set of pipes that are located just below the frost line.
• Greywater systems provide water for use in the landscape at a low cost.

Vital Statistics

Program Management/Partnerships: The demonstration site is managed by NutriCycle Systems. Both the composting toilet and greywater system are manufactured by Clivus Multrum Inc.

Budget: A composting toilet and greywater system can be installed for $10,000 -$12,000.

Community Served: Homeowners and businesses that benefit from reduced water and sewer costs, and residents of municipalities who are exposed to fewer potential pollutants and disease organisms within the municipal water system as a result of reduced production of these contaminants.

Measures of Success:

Nearly 30 composting toilets and greywater systems have been installed across Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and West Virginia.