Turning household toilet waste into compost in northern Haiti
In Haitian neighbourhoods without sewers, SOIL rents waterless household toilets for a small monthly fee, collects the waste weekly and turns it into compost for farmers.
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The small thing
SOIL began with a handful of simple concrete public toilets. When those proved unsafe and hard to charge for, it switched to placing waterless toilets inside individual homes.
The problem
According to Global Citizen, fewer than a third of Haitians have basic sanitation such as a home toilet, and less than 1% of human waste in the country is treated. Latrines can contaminate water and become unusable in floods, and Haiti has no realistic prospect of city-wide sewers soon.
Why SOIL started
Sasha Kramer first went to Haiti in 2004 as a human rights observer after a coup. Ashoka reports that she came to see poverty as the most widespread human rights abuse there, and the lack of sanitation as one of its most basic forms, and wanted to use her training in ecology to respond.
What they did
SOIL was co-founded in 2006 by Kramer and Sarah Brownell. Its EkoLakay service rents families a waterless toilet built from local materials for a small monthly fee (Ashoka gives US$5). Waste is collected regularly, carried to a treatment site outside the city and composted to WHO standards; the compost is sold locally for farming and reforestation.
The Skoll Centre case study says SOIL first offered public toilets and, after the 2010 earthquake, developed household toilets linked to 5-gallon drums. It also sells black soldier fly larvae as chicken feed, according to Global Citizen, and works increasingly with Haitian government sanitation bodies.
What changed
According to the Skoll Centre (Oxford) case study of September 2024, SOIL served 3,074 households – more than 18,000 people – produced over 225 tonnes of compost a year and employed 69 staff. SOIL reports that in 2025 DINEPA pledged to cover public-sector sanitation costs for about 1,400 families on the EkoLakay service. Ashoka reported that compost sales recovered close to 70% of waste-treatment costs. Health outcomes have not been independently measured in these sources.
What they learned
Kramer has described a 'period of reckoning' on realising that a purely private, fee-based model could not cover the full cost of what is a public good, leading SOIL to seek public funding alongside household fees (Skoll Centre case study).
Copy this idea
Practical guidance written by our editors from the sources below. Adapt it to your place, and check local rules and safety first.
- Problem addressed
- Unsafe or absent sanitation where sewers are unaffordable or impractical.
- What to do
- Container-based or composting toilets with regular collection and properly managed thermophilic composting.
- Materials and resources
- Sealed toilet units with containers, cover material (e.g. sawdust or bagasse), collection transport, a secure composting site.
- Approximate cost
- Moderate
- Skills
- Composting and pathogen-control know-how, logistics, customer service, monitoring.
- Time
- Months to pilot; years to build a reliable service.
- People needed
- A small team for collection and composting, plus local health and sanitation authorities.
- Difficulty
- Hard
- Risks and limitations
- Human waste carries pathogens; composting must meet recognised health standards (such as WHO guidance) and follow local regulations. Never use untreated waste on food crops.
- How to adapt it
- At household level, a well-managed composting toilet for an off-grid cabin or allotment can follow the same principles, with local approval.
- Lessons learned
- Design for dignity and safety first; expect user fees alone not to cover a public service.
Why it matters
A toilet rental service in one Haitian city will not close the global sanitation gap. But it shows that safe sanitation can work without sewers or water, and that human waste can be treated and returned to farmland rather than polluting water supplies.
Policy connection
International commitments this kind of action contributes to. Listing a framework does not mean the person or group was working towards it.
- SDG 11.6 and 12.5: Improve municipal waste management; reduce waste through prevention, recycling and reuse.
- SDG 8.3: Support decent job creation, including formalisation of informal work.
What didn't work
Early public toilets were culturally hard to charge for and unsafe for women and children (Ashoka). Fee income and compost sales do not cover full costs, and transport is around half of costs. SOIL has had to operate through cholera, the 2010 earthquake, COVID-19 and political unrest; in 2022 fuel shortages and gang roadblocks forced it onto emergency protocols limited to essential services for existing customers.
Editor's note
Active as of November 2025, when SOIL reported a workshop with Haiti's national water and sanitation authority (DINEPA) in Cap-Haïtien and a results-based financing phase running 2025–2027.
Sources: how do we know?
Evidence level: Documented. Supported by reliable published sources such as UN agencies, award bodies and reputable journalism. Not yet independently re-verified by our editors. What the person says and what independent sources establish are attributed separately in the text.
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SOIL – Case Study — Cynthia Rayner, Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, University of Oxford, September 2024Supports: Founded 2006 by Kramer and Brownell; early public toilets then household model; 3,074 households, 18,000+ people, 225+ tonnes compost, 69 staff; 'period of reckoning' over private model. - award body
Sasha Kramer — Ashoka, 2015Supports: Why Kramer started; public toilets abandoned; US$5 monthly fee; compost recovering ~70% of treatment costs; transport ~50% of costs. - reputable journalism
En Haití convierten los desechos humanos en compost para combatir la pobreza — Joe McCarthy, Global Citizen, 9 September 2021Supports: Haiti sanitation statistics; waterless toilet; compost sold cheaply to farmers; black soldier fly larvae; crises SOIL operated through. - award body
Sasha Kramer — Schwab Foundation for Social EntrepreneurshipSupports: EkoLakay toilet rental and weekly collection; WHO-standard composting; compost used for agriculture and reforestation; Kramer's background. - organisational
Update from Haiti: October 2022 — SOIL, October 2022Supports: Organisation's own account: emergency protocols during fuel shortages and gang roadblocks; weekly service to over 2,000 households maintained. - organisational
Government Partners Join SOIL to Advance Sanitation in Cap-Haïtien — SOIL, 4 November 2025Supports: Organisation's own account: current status; DINEPA pledge covering about 1,400 families; RBF Phase II 2025–2027.
