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Composting Toilet Project

The Dufferin Park Bio Toilet

We wanted to combine a high tech composting toilet with a low tech cob building, with the goal of offering toilet facilities by the playground. Planned as a community-building project, the foundation was completed by volunteers and park staff during the summer of 2006. Building was halted while requirements were clarified and authorities were consulted. The building of the Dufferin Grove Park bio-toilet is still stalled. There is currently no support from the City to build this structure. The plans as commissioned by the Parks branch would not allow a community-built structure, and to have it built by a contractor would be prohibitively expensive.

The $8000 never-used donated bio-toilet, however, is in storage and ready to install with a nice wooden frame structure around it. Park friends have asked Councillor Giambrone if he can help make this happen. If city councillors consider the standard price tag for a park toilet: $600,000 – and the price tag for the Exhibition Place rainwater-flush-toilet pilot project (over $900,000) – the bio-toilet seems a pretty good pilot project for public places where money is scarce but people still need a toilet.

Quick Cob Figures - Benefits of Cob

A real-life example: Natural Building Colloquium '08 finished project

Here (see the picture at right) is some inspiration from California, a bio-toilet project done through the Natural Building Network.

Hopefully, conversations in the Dufferin Grove Park playground this spring will lead to finding a solution, for installing the long-awaited playground toilet.

Comments Bio-toilets Bio-toilets (modern composting toilets), of the sort that Georgie Donais got donated for Dufferin Grove Park, have passionate friends...	Other Composting Toilets There are by now quite a number in use in various places, including Vancouver, where a UBC building has relied on them since 1996	Picture Galleries
News We are transforming the bio-toilet site into earthen bench seating and a conversation area. Other activities: Toronto Botanical Garden or the Everdale Learning Centre here in Toronto or City Repair and Natural Building Colloquium in the States	Media About, or mention of, the project in the press Tempest in a Composting Toilet September 17, 2006 Our Composting toilet made it on a Home Depot flyer: here	Archive click on the Archive and you will find the original material as well as the proposal presented to the first public meeting and a collection of answers to frequently asked questions.
Simon, Greg, Sarah and Silvie are building a false floor	Problems And Follow up Records of project maintenance dialog with the City	What is cob: Cob is a building material made by mixing clay, sand, and straw by foot, and forming it by hand into walls. Support: Composting Toilet Project Funding, Vetting, and Support

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