Kompotoi – the toilet revolution

Beautiful, comfortable rental toilets, made entirely of wood, which helps the environment and turns “human output” into something that can be used.

Rental toilets are needed

Sanitary facilities are the counterpart to kitchens, so they are indispensable. Parties and events in the summer, construction sites and fixed toilets in the winter months.

Conventional rental toilets dispose of faeces with a lot of chemicals, water and energy. In contrast, Kompotois function without chemical additives and additionally convert the residual waste into recyclable materials. Thus, municipal sewage treatment plants are not polluted, mineral fertiliser is replaced by natural fertiliser and CO2 is stored in the soil through the addition of plant carbon.

Kompotoi wooden toilet fleet

Kompotoi has a wide range of wooden toilets and the necessary infrastructure for transporting and processing waste materials. In addition to renting, Kompotoi offers workshops and the sale and construction of individual composting toilets.

The high quality and good looking toilets bring this alternative sanitation system closer to the user. Topics such as drinking water pollution, mineral fertiliser and the importance of closed cycles are explained in the toilets using information boards. In general, the toilets provide a platform for advertising and informing about various projects.

Toilet house from Komp

toi: A better environment thanks to human output (© Kompotoi)

The composting toilet rental in Switzerland and the related in-depth research work an have a great impact on the exploration and testing of residual waste treatment techniques, also for developing countries and places where drinking water is scarce and sanitation systems are insufficient. The Kompotoi team, in collaboration with the ZHAW Wädenswil, is constantly developing techniques for residual waste treatment.

In general, the separation and use of urine seem to be a field of work in which a wide variety of institutions are involved. For example, EAWAG together with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For several years, EAWAG operated the principle of urine stabilisation by nitrification in a low-tech plant at Kompotoi.

Effects on our climate

In composting toilets, litter is “flushed” after every toilet use. Vegetable carbon is an important component of this litter. In addition to its positive properties for composting, the use of plant charcoal stores carbon in the soil for up to 1,000 years and thus removes it from the atmosphere.

This technique was already used in the Amazon 2,500 years ago. The fabulous Terra Preta, a highly fertile soil in the rainforest, was discovered and analysed by researchers. Terra Preta soil is of higher quality than conventional compost and can be used as a locally produced, valuable substitute for artificial fertiliser or peat in agriculture, gardening and private gardens. Waste becomes black gold.

If the Kompotoi example is extrapolated to all rental toilets in Switzerland, this results in the sequestration of 250,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. At the same time, 80% of the plant carbon remains stable in the soil for over 1000 years. If Kompotoi’s rental toilet model is extended to the whole of Europe, over 37 megatonnes per year could be removed from the atmosphere. These figures depend heavily on how much plant carbon is added to the composting toilet litter.

Market and target groups

Kompotois are made of wood, which makes them very pleasant and homely for the users. These facts clearly set them apart from conventional rental toilets. The trend towards a sustainable and ecological lifestyle is another incentive for Kompotoi to break into this market. The event customer receives a new and trendy toilet with which he can also show his environmental awareness.

Kompotoi – From start-up to SME

For almost eight years, Kompotoi has been on the road with mobile, user-friendly rental toilets at festivals, equipping remote mountain and hunting huts with permanently installed composting toilets and increasingly setting up dry toilets in public spaces and apartment buildings.

Jojo Linder

Marcos Garçia Tomé

The start-up, once founded jointly by Jojo Linder and Marcos Garçia Tomé, has built up a market for its sustainable premium product throughout German-speaking Switzerland in this time, was officially founded as a public limited company in 2016 and is now a productive SME with around ten employees. The locations in Bern, Zurich, Basel and the Grisons will soon be followed by others, for example in French-speaking Switzerland.

Nominated Solution: Komposttoiletten von Kompotoi

Company: Kompotoi AG

Further information: www.kompotoi.ch