Sanitation Recipe

Initial Considerations
Before you start planning your system, if possible consult the people who will use it and the ones owning/using the site normally. Once you've drawn up some initial plans, run through them with all concerned, so everybody is kept in the picture.
If possible, stay above ground. Pit latrines, although easy to set up, increase the risk of ground water contamination, and the compost will always be more useful and accessible on ground level.
Build a permanent system if you can. That is, if you have a good relationship with the landowner, and they are using the site for other events too.
If you have to build a temporary system, the first thing to sort out is where to take the humanure afterwards. If you’re lucky, there is a friendly farmer or allotment site happy to take it off you. It’s top quality fertiliser, once it’s been stored for long enough.
Try separating urine from shit, for a number of reasons. If you can collect urine separately in containers, the volume of soaking material (and subsequent transport) needed, reduces drastically. Unlike shit, urine is a sterile substance and can be caught on straw bales, making excellent quick compost. This can happen on or off site, although with time urine gets increasingly less pleasant to handle.
Find a disposal site as early as possible – start looking as soon as you know your site. Wwoof farms, permaculture projects and some community allotment sites may be willing or even keen to get their hands on your droppings. The Community Composting Network, the WWOOF network, Permaculture Association and the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens may have useful contacts.

Calculating volumes and numbers
The legal minimum is 1 toilet per 100 people – no separation between men & women or between urine and shit is required. However, if you provide urinals I would recommend separating them for obvious anatomical reasons.

Piss and shit in facts & figures
Average volume of shit per person per day
about 100 cubic centimetres = 0.1 litre = 0.0001 cubic metre
The same volume is required in soaking material

Average volume of urine per person per day
at least 1 litre = 0.001 cubic metre

Systems described, starting with the least sophisticated:

Pit/trench latrine
The big issue with this system is to minimise nitrogen and pathogens leaching into the ground water. It may not be easy to work out the ground-water level, especially if you arrive at the site in a dry period. If you’ve got any concern that the ground water might rise to near the bottom of the trench, use a different system. If you are sure that the bottom of a trench, will be well above groundwater level, then dig on; 2ft wide, 2-3ft deep. Add walls and roof to taste. Place a couple of boards across it, for people to squat on. For extra sitting comfort you could even nail an old commode on it, or a chair with the centre of the seat cut out. Dig another small trench around the outside of the toilet, to avoid rainwater entering the trench.

Flatpack wheelie toilet
See drawings and cutting list (timber lengths and thicknesses required) for construction details of a 4-seater block. If you build the toilets from scratch, we recommend starting well ahead of your event in a nearby yard with hard standing. Start by sourcing your wheelie bins and measuring their dimensions – they can be quite different in size.
The seat support, seating board and steps can all be manufactured in advance, and all other wood can be cut to size, to minimise assembly time on site. If you’re super-organised, you can even pre-drill holes for even quicker assembly. Proper toilet seats are the all-important ingredient for comfort and confidence in the system. Doors, walls and roof can be wood, fibreboard, plastic or fabric, depending on the character of the event and the desired grade of comfort. If you can make them reusable, all the better. If you’re expecting high winds, use ropes or posts to anchor the block in the ground.

Thunderbox
This is a closed system using 1 cubic metre industrial bulk containers (IBCs), with two seats and urine separators fitted. The IBC also serves as support structure for the frame, walls, steps and cabin floor. Probably the most comfortable of all portable systems, but the components definitely need to be constructed off site. Detailed instructions and training can be obtained from www.thunderboxes2go.co.uk

Strawbale urinals - Male
Men’s urinals are easy – put some bales on the ground, provide some shelter and the boys will just get on with it. It’s worth adding a shallow trench below the bales and filling it with sawdust, which can be replaced occasionally, to keep odours down. Pallets in front of the bales makes the users more comfortable. To prevent rain making the area messy, dig a trench around the whole structure.

Strawbale urinals – Female
Female urinals are a variation of the Flatpack toilet, with shorter legs and a space for one strawbale per cubicle. The same design principles apply. As with men’s urinals, a trench around the back of the structure helps keeping the area dry, hygienic and pleasant.

Children’s and Disabled toilets
These can be easily built using a bucket-and seat system. If you can’t find seats that are big enough, you can build them yourself easily enough. For disabled toilets, plywood flooring and a frame made out of scaffolding poles ensure wheelchair access and sturdy handles.

Urine separation systems
There are a couple of useful commercial systems – the main ones are built by Natsol and Separett1. They need connecting with guttering and/or waste water pipes to a receptacle. You may need to add extra height or depth to your toilet, to accommodate the pipe work. Alternatively, the urine can be caught on strawbales, or led into a patch of willow or another nutrient-hungry biomass crop.

Designs & cutting lists
see separate sheets for
Flatpack wheelie toilet and
strawbale urinals
Disabled toilet - principle

Preparation
Equpiment: 12V impact drill & screwdriver, claw hammers, panel saws, spirit levels,
Ingredients: timber as per cutting list,
Nails – 3”, 4”, 5” Buy by the bucket, they’re much cheaper & you’ll probably get through them.
Tacks and staples for fitting fabric, 1 ½” or 2” pins for planks or boards and bracing

Assembly
For flatpack toilets - see instruction sheet
In general, the more work you can put in off-site and before the event, the quicker structures will go up once you're on site. Cutting timber to size and pre-assembling components all helps. Make sure you bundle and mark components clearly, to avoid chaos later on.
Four well equipped people with reasonable woodwork skills in a suitable space can pre-fabricate most of the toilets needed for a large event within a week. One person taking on the role of coordinator makes things go much more smoothly. So does a supply of cash for unexpected expenses. It's good to use the strength of electric drilled screws for the flatpack parts, but don't depend on them in any way on site. If you use them for the superstructure, electricity and these special tools will be needed for dismantling, and slow things down.

Equipment and Signage
buckets for sawdust – one per cubicle
small buckets for sanitary products – one per cubicle
toilet roll container (ideal: Suma 1kg peanut butter tub)
Signs for the obvious stuff – Men/Women/Kids/Disabled
Instructions for use
Arrows pointing to toilets from strategic locations

Maintenance
Equipment: rubber gloves or gauntlets, waterproofs or overalls, antiseptic wipes, disinfectant cleaner, buckets, mops, dustpan and brush (all marked TOILET and for toilet use only), wheelbarrow, pitchfork, buckets for sawdust and for sanitary products (one per cubicle)
Ingredients: Loo roll, sawdust, loo paper, replacement bales,
A committed team of volunteers
At Climate camp 2007, we had teams of six going round twice daily most days, and three times during the days when we had over 1200 people (Friday to Sunday)

Tat down – Dismantling and site clear-up
The most smelly and most heroic part of the operation. We needed four 7.5 tonne lorry trips for about 300 straw bales and 60 wheelie bins. Each lorry had a separate car full of volunteers coming along, to spread the work between as many people as practical.
When taking structures apart, make sure the steps, seat support and seat board are kept intact. They can be stored and reused. Recover as much of the superstructure, doors etc. as possible – but wood smaller than 2”x2” is hardly worth bothering with & should go to recycling or the bonfire: its difficult to remove small bits of wood without breaking them.

Law, Health & Safety
Composting in closed containers is not regulated. To transport piss, shit or indeed any compostable material, you need to apply for a waste carrier license with the environment agency. If you transport only a small amount (which you are likely to do for an event under 2000 people), you can apply for an exemption, which you will have to show if someone stops and checks your vehicle. This is unlikely to be the cops, if you tell them what you carry. The Environment Agency is more likely to be interested, but when do they ever do roadside checks?
See separate sheets for license pro forma

Literature:
The humanure handbook, John Jenkins
Lifting the lid, Peter Harper & Louise Halestrap (CAT)