For the full version of this article, check out our free Substack post. Crystal’s dog, Lucifer, playing in the sawdust while she turns over the bins. Compost needs time. When we collect poop from a Toilet Equity toilet, it isn't compost yet. We can give it carbon, air, moisture and time. We can tend the conditions. But we can't make compost. A whole living ecosystem does that. Bacteria and fungi break things down. Tiny organisms feed on what they find and become food for othe

For the full version of this article, check out our free Substack post. Earlier this year, a team of Colorado Mesa University civil engineering students took on an unusual challenge with Toilet Equity: help design a permitted composting site for collected human excreta. The students called their team BrownTown. Erin Brown served as Project Manager, alongside Chase Brown on hydrology and hydraulics, Nolan Morse on environmental engineering, and Alex Spink on structural enginee

For the full version of this article, check out our free Substack post. The Western Colorado desert has a way of reminding us what's important. We can ignore a lot of problems in March. We can pretend systems are working in May. But by August, when the pavement is radiating heat and the forecast has read triple digits for a week, everything gets tested. Heat tests our fields and the people who grow our food. It tests our power grid as air conditioners and swamp coolers work o

For the full version of this article, written by TE CEO Kaitlin Louise Pettit, PhD, check out our free Substack post or subscribe to...

For the full version of this article, written by our Founder and Board Chair Paul Padyk, MD, check out our free Substack post or...

For the full version of this article, written by TE Board Member Avery Pope, check out our free Substack post or subscribe to our...

For the full version of this article, written by TE Board Member Avery Pope, check out our free Substack post or subscribe to our...

Why it's time to rethink your poop practices For the full version of this article, written by TE Board Member Avery Pope, check out our...

For the full version of this article, written by TE Board Member and Civil Engineering Professor Kari Scholtes, P.E., Ph.D., check out...

For the full version of this article, written by Mason Bunce, check out our free Substack post or subscribe to our Patreon . What is...

Our latest compost pile, with our whole site in the background O ur annual report is in! In 2024, we learned how much it takes to...

Most of us don’t think about not having a toilet until we’re in a position where we don’t have one but have to go! This is a privilege we...

Around the world, access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) is an ever growing public health focus as nearly half of the world’s...

Our annual report is in! Read the whole report (it’s worth it, we promise) on our website, or keep scrolling for the highlights. We met...

When I first conceived of the idea to place toilets along the Colorado River corridor, I learned there were 7 conventional port-a-toilets...

Compost Toilet Q&A One of the most common questions we get asked when we tell people what we do is, “Is it gross?” The answer is,...

In my last blog entry, I wrote about going from aspirational to operational. I was very happy to have finally launched our idea of...

This past weekend Toilet Equity made the transition from an aspirational idea to an operational one. We launched our first two toilets...