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Okay, I have to go to the loo? I've had a few too many beverages and tacos! Does this floating island have a toilet, or am I going to have to swim for it?
Everyone needs a toilet and Richie's Sprial Island was no exception. Richie is a world renowned green living thinker and he planned for all the essentials of life's comforts that were possible on his budget. While building his floating island wonder, he used discarded material to create whatever he needed for his home or palapa. His composting toilet was made of plywood and an old toilet seat? Essentially the toilet on Spiral Island was an On Site Waste Treatment Plant, which meant that Richie did not have to go into the village of Puerto Aventuras whenever nature called. He could sit on the throne like anyone in the village, and relax in his tropical island paradise knowing that his toilet was only steps away.
 Self composting continual process toilet
Composting toilets use little or no water, are not connected to expensive sewage systems, cause no environmental damage and produce a valuable resource for gardening.
The systems used in composting toilets can be broadly divided into two different types: BATCH SYSTEMS or a container filled and then replaced with an empty container, or in the case of Spiral Island's loo, it was a CONTINUAL PROCESS SYSTEM. These systems are in a constant state of composting as waste enters the system, and then composting reduces the volume and moves it downward where it is harvested after 6-12 months as fully composted material.
Why did he need a toilet on the island? Who wouldn't want a toilet in their home? The advantages of his composting toilet system were an onsite toilet, which was a huge benefit for Richie, and his many guests. He didn't have to store water, didn't have to use any non-environmently friendly chemicals like some toilets use, and he had the ability to compost vegetable peelings and garden trimmings with toilet wastes, and the advantages to the environment were very beneficial.
The elimination of sewage through coninual process system greatly reduced nutrient flows into lagoon to almost nil waste entering the ecoystem, and ocean and subsequent rejuvenation of marine systems was a benefit. But, the true benefits and cost savings came in the long term, with no water use costs, non-existent sewage costs, and the ability to produce valuable nutrient humus which feed the plants on the island. How did he get rid of the waste that the composting toilet produced? With composting toilets there is no “waste,” merely useable end-products. The liquid end product has underwent conversion in the composting pile in the toilet and was a valuable liquid fertilizer and/or is evaporated. The solid end-product was a valuable humus with high nutrient levels in a form that it was slowly released to the island's plants on demand. And the mangroves and plants on Spiral Island loved it as witnessed by their growth. From the pictures of the island you can see that all the plants flourished. In fact the whole underside of the island was a living ecosystem.
Didn't the toilet on the island smell? The composting toilet did not smell at all, in fact, because their was a positive suction of air through the toilet, there was no smell compared to what comes from a conventional toilet, especially the ones in Mexico.
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