Odour-free waterless and composting toilets
A waterless toilet for bird watchers on the remote Scottish island of Handa. Architect: David Somerville
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NatSol wheelchair accessible waterless and composting toilets are ideal for allotments, nature reserves, parks, churches, glamping & camping sites, golf courses, gardens and all sites without mains services. We provide guidance as to which model will best suit your application. We have designs for low, and very high use situations. See Products and view particular sites under Examples.
Our stainless steel pedestals and glass reinforced concrete in-ground chambers are designed for long life and low maintenance.
The vast majority of these odourless toilets require no mains services of any description. With no water; no power; no smell; no freezing risk and no chemicals, NatSol toilets are widely regarded as the best composting and waterless toilets available. Watch our 5 minute video.
The Specialists
NatSol was founded in 2005 by Andy Warren and Nick Grant. Both were unhappy with available products. In setting up NatSol they used their 40 years of combined experience of dry toilets to develop and manufacture products which meet, or exceed, the hygiene and odour standards expected of flushed toilets. You can read customer testimonials and NatSol composting toilet reviews here.
Our clients include The Royal Parks, National Trust, Environment Agency, and Natural Resources Wales.
Toilet types
Our reputation was built on our fully accessible twin vault composting toilet. We call this the Full Access Composter, or FAC for short. It has been very popular for allotment sites, churches, and many other low to medium use sites.
We have also developed the non-composting Zero Discharge model (the ZD) for busy public sites and a smaller toilet, the Compact, for private use.
Waterless toilets for almost any location
With no requirement for power, water or drainage, our Full Access Composter is an ideal solution for the most remote sites. We have installations on a number of islands including this fine example on Handa by David Somerville Architects.
Need a toilet for a busy public site?
Our Zero Discharge toilet is ideal for high use situations or where no discharge to ground is permitted. It is waterless and each one will take around 8000 uses before emptying by vacuum sludge tanker. It utilises a stainless steel Teflon coated pedestal.
Odour is controlled by a low powered fan which draws air down the pedestal. On some remote sites this toilet can be passively vented.
Need a smaller eco toilet?
Our Compact compost toilet is ideal for lower use situations and is a very good alternative to a chemical toilet or Porta Potty type toilet. The Compact utilises the same high quality urine-separating pedestal as the FAC but has a removable container that is emptied into a separate outdoor composter. The Compact is particularly suitable for private installations such as holiday homes, shepherds’ huts and garden studios.
Odour control
We believe that correctly designed and operated waterless and composting toilets should smell far less than conventional toilets in use - if at all. We achieve this without the use of a fan on almost all sites. This means higher reliability and no electrician required for installation. The waterless urinal is also vented and avoids the use of a troublesome trap or urinal blocks.
Toilet buildings
- bog standard to extraordinary
We have a range of functional standard buildings which are designed to blend in on allotments and many other sites. All our buildings are generously sized and wheelchair accessible. If you want something different then we can provide custom timber buildings, either fully finished or for completing on-site with the cladding and roofing of your choice. Of course you can design and build your own.
Architect designed buildings
If one of our buildings won't do the trick then we can supply the complete toilet without a building. The chamber forms the floor and foundations so you just add the walls and roof. Drawings and a Sketchup™ model are available to download. Go to Other Building Options. Please discuss your ideas with us to ensure that loadings are acceptable and that wheelchair accessibility will be maintained.
Bigger projects
We are happy to work with architects and engineers as part of a team on larger projects.
The building shown here was designed by Crosby Granger Architects for a National Trust site. We supplied the toilet tanks and pedestals and we designed and commissioned the ventilation system.
Our composting toilets - more information
The why and how of urine separation.
Urine is the biggest challenge for composting toilets in the cold, damp UK climate. We have not found evaporation to be reliable and draining the vault usually requires the chamber to be above ground, making level access difficult. The urine diverting pedestal on our composting toilets prevents it from entering the compost, thereby solving a host of problems. Other urine separating toilets use a funnel which is prone to blockage by loo paper and worse. The NatSol pedestal utilises the Coandǎ effect, the tendency of fluids to adhere to a smooth surface, you can read the story here.
Twin high capacity compost toilet vaults
The Full Access Composter has two chambers, each used for a year so that the compost is between one and two years old when removed. This is the preferred approach for the best DIY compost toilets but uncommon in commercial designs. The combination of urine separation and generously sized compost chambers means that the Full Access Composter can handle peak uses such as parties or weddings. The capacity for continuous use is between 5 and 10 full time residents and we have single toilets servicing 200 plot allotments. Please contact us to confirm capacity for your application.
Maintaining your NatSol composting toilet
NatSol toilets are made from durable hygienic materials for long life and easy maintenance. The pedestal is stainless steel and shaped to minimise fouling. There is no water to freeze, no fan to fail and no moving parts. The only consumable other than loo paper is the soak which mops up any stray urine and helps decomposition by keeping the compost pile aerobic. Some installations have run for years without compost removal but we recommend an annual switch over and would suggest you allow two to three hours a year for two people to remove the mature compost and swap over the pedestal. You can download a Management booklet on maintaining the twin vault full access toilet.
Installation
A twin vault composting toilet and building can be installed in one day by an experienced team on a typical site. Machinery is required for at least half a day. It can take a little longer if it is your first, or if the site is tricky or the weather adverse.
