Disposing of the “Flush and Forget” Approach

As the global population continues its rapid growth and thus strains global water availability, Lester Brown argues in his piece in the Globalist that the one-time use of water to dispose of human and industrial waste is outdated.  Our current “flush and forget system” is “expensive, water-intensive, disrupts the nutrient cycle, and is . . . a major source of disease,” rendering it neither economically nor environmentally viable (especially for developing countries).  Instead, Brown highlights a low-cost alternative, the composting toilet—a waterless, odorless toilet that converts human waste into a soil-like humus, which can be used as a soil-supplement.  Pioneered in Sweden, these dry toilets reduce residential water use and garbage flow, eliminate the sewage water disposal problem, and restore the nutrient cycle.  With the certain rise in water costs that we will experience globally, Brown sees this dry toilet technology becoming an increasingly attractive option for individual homeowners.  To read an EPA report on the composting toilet, click here.