Composting Toilets for Allotments

We have been asked to build several dry waterless compost toilets for allotments this year. Compost toilets present the ideal solution for allotment sites by providing a clean, odour free, ‘off grid’ toilet that functions without water, electricity or chemicals. Composting toilets are a cheap alternative when mains toilets are not an option and make being ‘caught short’, or having to trek home in the middle of your gardening session, a thing of the past. Compost toilets work by turning human waste into an organic composting material that can safely be used to fertilise the soil, using natural biological processes.

Composting toilets offer the following benefits to allotment associations:

• A long term solution
• Environmentally friendly
• Disability friendly
• Low running costs, both cash and labour
• Capital costs can be covered by grant funding
• Requires no water or electricity

Can’t get an allotment? You may be only 5 friends away from your perfect plot. There are laws in the UK that state that if six or more people join forces to request land for growing, then their council has a duty to provide them an allotment.

The laws bind all UK councils, with the exceptions of Inner London and Northern Ireland. But even if you’re based in these areas, it’s still worth applying – your council will still have some requirements to provide you with land.

If you want to lobby your council for land, LetsGrow helps you form a group of six. There is even a pro forma letter which you can send to your local councillor at the click of a button. If you would like to see that letter, click here to view the letter for England and Wales, click here for the version for Scotland and click here for the Northern Ireland version.

Have a look at some of the photos of our toilets and follow the link for more of our compost toilets for allotments.