Recycle Your Toilet? It's Not as Nasty as it Sounds

It doesn't sound very pleasant, and it certainly doesn't seem very appealing, but there is such a thing as a recyclable, environmentally-friendly toilet that you can compost.

And, Ed Begley Jr. is going to try it.

"I'm getting one of these compost toilets," Begley said, feigning his enthusiasm a bit. "A guy brought it over and showed me how it worked."

It won't be his main commode, but one for a spare room, perhaps, and probably a fixture in the new house he is planning to build from the ground up as an environmentally-friendly fixture.

"This would be something that would make more sense in the pool house, or that kind of thing," Begley mused.

The toilet, called an Envirolet, breaks down human waste, and it requires less cleaning than a regular commode, according to the website of Sancor Industries, the company marketing it.

Begley, it should be pointed out, has an endorsement deal for the Envirolet and is pictured and quoted on its website.

"This kind of a system would make more sense for people living out in the country or who rely on septic tanks," Begley said. "When you are hooked up to a sewer system it does not make as much sense."

"It all breaks down into a nice sewer sludge, apparently," Begley said. "You can put it in your garden, but it's not recommended that you put it on food crops, obviously."

He added, "You can put it in a trash can and it gets desecrated, dehydrated and becomes a powder."

An Envirolet, however, can cost more than $2,000.

"Yeah, that's a bit of a problem," Begley said. But he points out that it can save thousands on septic tank costs, and the company has been around more than three decades.

But, Begley was excited about the potential decrease in impact on the environment and as soon as he found out about the product, he Twittered about it to all his friends.