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Bio Toilet Project Launch 2006
Bio-Toilet Project Launch 2006
The idea is to install a high tech composting toilet into a low tech cob house by the playground. Begun in 2006, the project is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2008. Check out the links (just to the right here) for details.
Composting Toilet Foundation
Read the proposal presented to the first public meeting for an overview. Review clarification of general and technical issues. Read about By-Law Issues. See bulletins about the project, and Composting Toilet News. See the Picture Gallery of the beginning of the project (2006), scheduled for completion in the summer of 2008.
See the organizations and groups which are involved with Project Funding, Vetting, and Support of the Composting Toilet.
posted September 8, 2006
 The foundation has been laid |
 The composting toilet arrives |
 But the project has gotten a bit bogged down in the zealous application of rules by the City, such as this fence. | |
posted September 17, 2006
On September 13, 2006 the Friends of the Park and the City came to an understanding: The project design was approved by an architect; and the fence could come down and stay down for the building of the cob enclosure (except for a couple of days for installing the roof).
The project will be suspended at the end of September for the winter, and resume in the spring.
Click here for a collection of answers to frequently asked questions.
posted August 21, 2006
Detailed site plans.
For the technically inclined, here are the detailed plans for the composting toilet project. They are all rather large (230K-428K) pdf documents.
- CT_Overall_site_plan.pdf
- CT_North_elevation.pdf
- CT_North_section.pdf
- CT_East_elevation.pdf
- CT_East_section.pdf
- CT_South_elevation.pdf
- CT_South_section.pdf
- CT_Site_plan_roof_level.pdf
- CT_Site_plan_toilet_level.pdf
See the Canadian Standards Association Certification Report of the Phoenix toilet.
posted June 8, 2006
Cob Courtyard News
From Georgie Donais:
It's truly satisfying for me to see people sitting near the cob, having picnics or eating cafe food, and generally enjoying the new space. The wall made it through the winter just fine, though there was some vandalism and also some plaster failure. I had intended to call a work bee to fix up the plaster, but I'm going to be trying some plaster experiments which means hard-to-schedule, slow-going work, so I will tackle that on my own instead.
When the big cob-building project was going on last summer, people kept asking: so where’s the toilet going to be? For parents and caregivers of young kids, the lack of a toilet near the playground has been a drawback for years. And Georgie has been interested in the ecology of sewage forever – i.e. composting toilets.
The brother of a cob volunteer, living in the southern U.S., heard about the cob project and offered to donate an industrial-strength composting toilet (the kind used in campgrounds and highway rest stops). There was no place for it in the courtyard structure, but there’s a good spot nearby, just south of the wading pool. In the fall, Georgie started talking to the park manager about the idea. She proposed building another smaller cob structure to surround the composting toilet. The manager was interested, so Georgie designed a beautiful, sculptural little cob building and applied for two small grants to cover its cost. Both grants – $10,000 from the Toronto Arts Council, and $2000 from the Parks and Trees Foundation – were recently approved.
The Parks manager has changed in the meantime, and on June 1 Georgie and several park staff met with Sandy Straw, the new Parks manager for Toronto and East York, Peter Leiss, the new West Parks maintenance supervisor, and Chris Martin, the new West Parks horticulture supervisor. Georgie showed them detailed drawings, specs, etc. (including the number of bums the toilet can accept before it needs a rest). Hopefully the final details can be worked out soon, and we can see how a composting toilet works in a city park. This means more clay and straw and sand and water and stomping with feet and shaping this summer, for playground visitors who like to build.