Environmental Building News, the publication from BuildingGreen recently ran an article about the composting systems at the World Trade Center construction site in New York City.

Clivus Multrum composting systems are providing comfortable restroom facilities and food composting to save time and money by reducing crane usage for waste hauling.

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Source: Environmental Building News

The New York Times covers the new Subway at the Freedom Tower Construction site. Clivus Multrum composting toilets serve the workers and will rise with the building as it goes up. The Subway restaurant will provide lunch in the sky so workers don’t have to travel as far. All the food waste from Subway will be composted in a Clivus Multrum composter and eventually used as fertilizer.

A few notes on the NYT article: “The waterless toilets and urinals are cleaned by negative pressure that pulls the waste into an evaporator that turns much of the sewage into steam.” is not quite accurate. The negative pressure neither cleans the toilets nor moves the waste. Here’s what we think the author was getting at: The waterless toilets and urinals are kept odorless by negative pressure that pulls air down through the composters and out through a chimney. Gravity and a small amount of soap convey the waste to a tank where liquids are separated and pumped to an evaporator while feces are composted. Both these processes dramatically reduce the volume of waste.

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Source: New York Times, New York City, NY