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Award winning NatSol toilet in Assynt

The Loo at The Light is the composting toilet that was built in the walker’s car park at Stoerhead Lighthouse, Assynt this summer. After the success of the toilet’s first few weeks (it raised £805 to be donated to the community) it was decided to enter it in the Loo of the Year awards for 2013.

The Loo of the Year competition is in its 26th year and is run across the whole of the UK. It has hundreds of entries (over 1400 in 2013) every year in 60 different categories. All entries are individually inspected and given a grade based on various criteria. High standards are expected and competition is stiff.

After its inspection The Loo at the Light was given a ‘Gold’ grading which gave it instant entry into the National and UK wide competition for the 2 categories in which it was entered: Best Car Park Toilet and Best Eco Friendly Toilet.

The awards ceremony was on Friday 6th December and the Loo at the Light won 2 national awards:

Best Scottish Car Park Toilet and Best Scottish Eco Friendly toilet

Not bad for what might be the remotest loo on the UK mainland!

NatSol took a stand at the Farm Business Innovation Show in Olympia, London and were overwhelmed by the interest in our products, particularly by those looking for a high quality toilet solution for glamping sites and rural retreats.

We generally prefer designing and making stuff to selling it and Nick had argued against us doing the show. Indeed we both had modest expectations but decided to try it. In the end we were more or less besieged by enquirers for two days. Many people had already researched the subject in depth and came prepared with intelligent questions. To our surprise no one seemed to turn their nose up at the idea of a compost toilet and a number of people said they had seen our loos in use and were amazed by the lack of smell. Only one delegate said she thought toilets were boring and I’m not sure that we managed to convince her otherwise!

Compact compost toilet ideal for shepherd’s huts and tree houses

Of particular interest was the new Compact toilet with stainless steel pedestal. Delegates quickly recognised its potential to provide an odour free loo for shepherd’s huts, safari tents, tree-houses and other types of high quality ‘glamping’ accommodation. One fellow exhibitor, ECHO, a maker of very crisply designed and finely crafted off grid buildings described the new pedestal as ‘a beautiful object’ and saw it as the ideal solution for a current project on Crete.

We also had a a lot of interest in our full access toilets for campsites, riding stables, fishing lakes, allotments, churches and other off-mains locations.

Although we had no time to see any of the seminars, a string of people asked us if we had paid Alastair Sawday to promote our compost toilets as he had waxed lyrical about us in his seminar and sent people to our stand! We were able to thank him later and will hopefully work together at some point.

Overall we found the show to be a very worthwhile experience with lots of pleasant surprises.

We now supply a stainless steel soak box styled to match the pedestal.

The soak box holds wood shavings, or similar material, to put down the toilet after ‘number twos’! The style matches the pedestal and has a matching top in black or clear lacquered FSC Certified birch ply.

The soakbox is supplied as standard with out full access toilets and is available as an optional extra with the compact.

The lid has a neatly retractable hasp to allow it to be locked in more public situations where it is preferable for maintenance staff to control the addition of soak material.

The Mk 2 Compact Composting Toilet is now available

This compact urine separating compost toilet utilises our new stainless steel pedestal which avoids the plastic look usually associated with compost toilets. The MK2 Compact is even more compact than the Mk 1 and is much quicker to manufacture so it is cheaper.

The ideal toilet for low use situations: that garden studio or summerhouse which is occupied when the family comes home; remote work locations which are used intermittently.

Like the Mk 1 this toilet is ventilated and urine separating. Solids are removed for composting out of doors. We advise customers on construction of a simple, inexpensive and robust composter for this purpose

The picture shows both the pedestal and the below-floor base box prior to installation. Urine exits through the brown pipe and goes to a small soakaway. The pedestal is also available with a birch ply top and white seat.

This toilet can  be set up for wheelchair accessibility.

For more information please see the Compact product page

New Waterless Toilet for Mudlarks Community Garden in Hertfordshire

This waterless toilet for Mudlarks Community Garden in Ware, Hertfordshire took just 7 hours to install and fit out.

NatSol supplied all the toilet components, the timber building and certain specialist tools to help complete the job.

The Mk 3 Full Access toilet represents the state of the art in waterless toilets and incorporates the new stainless steel pedestal and GRC floor hatches described in previous posts. Internal walls are factory templated to make fitting out really easy. …

Our fastest ever compost toilet installationRead More »

Our latest composting toilet is now out and about.

The first of our new design full access compost toilets has just been installed on an allotment site in Dagenham, East London for the organisation ‘Growing Communities’. As previously reported, the changes are refinements and the proven functionality remains unchanged.

With a stainless steel pedestal and GRC hatches that blend in with the floor surface this is a very smart product. The pedestal is less bulky and this creates even more wheelchair turning space.

Despite being made of stainless steel, the new urine separating pedestal is actually lighter than the previous GRP model. The urine separation plate is now part of the pedestal which makes it easier to remove and service.

The photo above shows the interior just after installation. The OSB lining can be left natural or painted as it is now.

We are pleased to have a number of installations in the London area. You can see a map showing where our waterless toilets are installed here.

Small changes to our compost toilets give a fresh look

Designing the new stainless steel pedestal gave us the chance to revisit the floor design of our twin vault toilets as a new mould was required to accommodate the slimmer pedestal. The MK2 used standard galvanised steel inspection covers for the resting vault pedestal position and for compost removal hatches. These have worked very well but the fiddly locking screws are easily lost and, well, they look like inspection chamber covers!

GRC compost removal hatches

The new hatches are moulded from the same glass reinforced cement (GRC) as the compost chamber and building floor. They give a neater appearance and an easy to sweep and mop surface. Removal is with a special lifting key and being made of GRC they will not corrode. However if you have our previous model, there is no need to worry about spares as they are a standard item that we will continue to stock (although we have yet to see any significant problems with corrosion).

As with the floor they can be left in their natural state or sealed with stone-oil or floor-paint to suit the required decor and usage.

It has been great working with BCM GRC who manufacture our chambers. They have taken great care in getting all the details just right and are, we think, rightly proud of the result!

Our new website was launched on the 5th November. We hope you will agree that it retains all the clarity of the old, much complimented site whilst making certain things easier to find and adding some new features such as testimonials and the ability to view toilet installations according to product type.

Please let us know what you think.

We are very excited about our new urine diverting, stainless steel compost toilet pedestal. this will be standard from January 2013. The original GRP model has proved robust and functional, attributes that are retained in the new design. We hope you will agree that the new pedestal is rather good looking.

We recently undertook an access assessment for our toilets by MaceMark Access Consultants. The report was very complimentary and we are tweaking some details to further improve accessibility.

If you have particular access requirements please call us to discuss.