Composting toilet (Clivus Multrum)
Retrete de compostaje (Clivus Multrum)
- Date
- 1939 (comercial 1964) · confidence medium
- Place
- Sweden
- Credited to
- Rikard Lindström
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A waterless dry toilet with a sloped chamber where excreta and kitchen scraps break down and become compost. Rikard Lindström designed it for country houses without water mains or sewers.
Wikipedia dates the design to 1939; the commercial Clivus Multrum product came in 1964 and the design's location is poorly documented.
What it led to
- waterless sanitation in isolated houses and arid areas
- reuse of human nutrients as fertiliser
- ecological urine-diverting toilets