Off-Grid Adventures: Solve Waste Challenges with CompoCloset Composting Toilets

Erica and Richard - CompoCloset - Audio

Howard: [00:00:00] Hello everyone. This is Howard Fox, and welcome back for another episode of the Outdoor Adventure Series, the podcast that celebrates individuals and families, businesses and organizations that seek out and promote the exploration, stewardship, conservation.

Howard: Access and enjoyment of the outdoors. Erica Pugh and Richard Peter are our guests today. Richard and Erica are from Compo Closet. Richard is the CEO and co-founder, and Erica is a co-founder and head of Marketing now, compo Closet manufacturer. Off grid toilets. We're gonna get into a real dicey subject here, folks, but these off grid toilets are for RVs, vans, truck campers, and other adventure rigs.

Howard: And the company's mission is to help people stay off grid longer and enjoy a cleaner, simpler travel experience. Richard and Erica, it's a pleasure to have you [00:01:00] both on the podcast. Welcome.

Richard: Pleasure to meet you, Howard. Thank you for having us.

Howard: Excellent. Now, I, I do, uh, have to ask, I I know, uh, we are truly an international podcast today and, uh, Erica, where are you sitting right now?

Erica: I'm in Vienna, Austria. I'm originally from the US but I've lived for the past 20 years in Vienna.

Howard: Okay. You have a little bit of an accent there. I don't know, there's an accent quite like that here in the US but, uh, I, I love it. I love it. Now I do have to ask, it's seven o'clock here. It's a notes, it's the afternoon in, in, in Europe, in in Austria. How do you start your day with a nice cup of coffee, a croissant, uh, some chocolates.

Erica: No, sadly I'm off the gluten, so it's no croissants, even though I do love them. I usually start off with, uh, coffee. So we've got like a little poke pot. It's kind of an Italian coffee maker and, A soft boiled ink [00:02:00] is what I'm on at the, yeah, that's a breakfast s in my house. Yeah.

Howard: I love it. I love it. And I appreciate the coffee too. And just the idea of, uh, I'm very much, I've actually had guests on from Bulgaria who was, uh, he would take his coffee, his little mocha pot or his, uh, AeroPress 'cause uh, and take that everywhere and just shoot pictures. And I thought, now that's an episode I wanna do.

Howard: so Perfect. Well welcome, uh, to you. From beautiful Austria. Hopefully someday I will get there. As I said, I'm a opportunistic podcaster. Richard, where are you, uh, dialing in from?

Richard: I am calling in from London, right in the middle of London in a beautiful building called Somerset House,

Howard: Okay. Very

Richard: London, England,

Howard: London for our, for our guests, London, England. The London. Okay. All right. Excellent. And. I love in, I used to live in London in, um, Chisik out, going off the M four towards, uh, [00:03:00] Heathrow. And I always loved the office. Buildings were called something house, like Somerset House, Chisik House, and I thought that was always kind of, kind of cool.

Howard: Now, so f first off, we're gonna get into a dicey topic here, but, uh, Richard, I, I, you are the founder, uh, or the co-founder, uh, but this was, this originally. I mean, well, I guess I should

Richard: How, how did I get into

Howard: this? Whose idea was Compo Closet.

Howard: I think I can take the blame for that one. Okay.

Richard: it was, uh, I, I was, I used to work in finance of all things. and during COVID I was taking time out and couldn't go traveling. but instead I converted a camper van ready for the end of lockdown. And when we installed like the market leading composting toilet and I was like, wow, this thing's a great idea, but it could be so much better.

Richard: And I was kicking it around in my head as I was driving around Europe and I was like, I think I could make a better [00:04:00] one and I think I can make it, slightly more affordable. And so we passed through Vienna, popped to see Erica, she's my sister-in-law. And convinced Eric. Yeah, exactly. It's a family connection.

Richard: and then convinced Erica to come on board and we, we decided to give it a go crowdfunded, our first product, and we've never really looked back.

Howard: All right now, so 2020 COVID. Many things happened to many of us. I moved from Las Chicago to Las Vegas, right? At the start of COVID, uh, I literally was told after my first week in Las Vegas, I can't come back because that was the lockdown and I, but I ended up, well, I'm moving anyway, so, but as I traveled across the country to get to Las Vegas, I thought it would've been cool to be in a van.

Howard: And, and, and it kind of meander around a little bit. And that age old question is where do, where can I. Take a poop, so, now [00:05:00] had you been, uh, renovating, you said renovating the van or Correct. Crafting this van prior to COVID or as a result of COVID?

Richard: It was kind of a pipe dream, and then with COVID it became a reality. So it was during the first lockdown, I was locked on my driveway, converting this thing.

Howard: Okay. Very good. Now I have to ask you, because is in my coaching practice, branding is a big part of, uh, our business. 'cause each of us is a brand. We are trying to represent ourselves to grow in a company, change jobs. We. My question for you, Richard, is what is your brand? So ki that's my gotcha question.

Howard: I'm sorry, I, I kind of promised you I wouldn't have one. So Erica, you can kind of think about this and I'm going because I'm gonna get to you next. What is your brand and also how would you describe Comp Closet?

Richard: That's a good question actually, there, I, it's not the first time. There's always like that brand, you kind of question and

Howard: Right.[00:06:00]

Richard: how would I, I'm, I like to think I'm not, I think I'm helpful and friendly and I try and I just want the best for everybody. That's, that's a really we way, way of saying it. yeah, I kind of. Want to help other people. I believe in doing something better. And that's, I think where we, what got me into toilets because I realized through, once I peeled away and got into toilets, I was like, wow, this is actually a really big problem, which we'll touch on later.

Richard: and I think compa Closets as a brand, so we wanted more people to use compost and toilets and we believed more people would if they were better and more affordable. And now our goal really is. Better toilets for people and planet. Make 'em better for the planet. Make them better for people.

Howard: I love it. I love it. Now, Erica, uh, i, I, I thought it was very interesting when I was on the website and I saw that there, there's the, a family relation here. [00:07:00] So when Eric and your sister arrived in, uh, Vienna, and Richard said, Hey, Erica, I've got this idea. How did, how was that pitch made to you and what did you, what was your initial reaction?

Erica: well. There was a lot of adult beverages involved. I'm gonna say that. Yeah. Yeah. And if you had said that we were allowed to have adult beverages, rich and I probably would've had them. 'cause it's already afternoon in our,

Howard: yeah. It's like, I wish I could,

Erica: be a little late

Howard: and water. Yes.

Erica: but no. I was previously in the restaurant business and in actually in wine and spirits marketing and during COVID that took a bit of a, a backseat in general.

Erica: I was definitely working with events, um, for wine and spirits and I had some time on my hands and it was an interesting project.

Erica: the pitch was made to me if I wanted to help what I thought, what I thought about the idea, [00:08:00] and I love.

Erica: I love ideation. I love problems. I love looking at like, what could we do? Oh wow, how could we do this? What, what would this be? And it's such an interesting, unique topic, And I had been, we had actually, so we then drove across Europe during CID to see my sister and Rich. They had settled for the second lockdown in, um, Spain and driving

Howard: to hear that, Richard.

Erica: Sorry. So my husband and I drove across Europe, uh, during COVID and we have a smaller van and did not have a toilet. And it was, it was really a problem, I guess to preface that before we'd made a crisp trip across the United States and didn't have a toilet either, and so I just knew the pain of not having one in your own vehicle if you're taking a road trip, especially.

Howard: I have IBS, um, or for had, hopefully not anymore. Yay. For Healthy Holistic Cures. gut, it's all about the gut.[00:09:00]

Erica: But definitely having ib, having problems with IBS and traveling through, um, United States and Europe without a toilet, um, during times when there were no toilets was really difficult. and so I knew this as a personal pain point, and that's always good if you can set yourself inside the head of your customer.

Erica: You, you're kinda like, okay, I got this. I know, I know this. So the pitch was made. Of, but the idea behind it was really good. We can turn this into something really amazing. Yeah, let's, yeah.

Howard: Very good. When I moved from. Chicago to Las Vegas. One of my goals was to go car camping and I also needed a new car, my 20 some year old Honda Accord. She was great. She, she got me to Vegas. gave her a nice hug, goodbye. And I bought a, uh, Subaru Crosstrek, affectionately known as Subaru Ruby.

Howard: it's bright cherry red. they did that on purpose at the, at the dealership. but [00:10:00] as I was researching how do I go car camping, how do I do dark sky photography? One of those questions I had, what do I do when I'm boondocking out in the middle of, uh, BLM Bureau of Land Management Land? And I, if I'm gonna take a, a shovel with me, the shovel's not gonna be for my poo, it's gonna be to bury me.

Howard: it was like, what do I do here? 'cause you look at the YouTube videos, oh, look at the van, look at what we did here. Look at what we did there.

Howard: But nobody really talks about this topic of. Waste. And, and, and as I've been getting more and more into it, it's beco, folks like yourself are beginning to talk about it and do something about it. This idea, Richard, of the composting, for our listeners who are not as familiar, uh, with the topic, what is, what is composting and what makes it a game changer compared to say, traditional black and [00:11:00] gray tanks?

Howard: Of the like, what, what? Give us a little lesson here.

Richard: so a composting toilet is one where you'll mix feces or crap with. A very rich carbon, a carbon rich material. Sawdust or coco core are the go-to ones that are quite readily available, and it's that balancing of nitrogen rich number twos with carbon rich sawdust and coco core, that gives the right environment for composting to begin that most of the waste you're gonna expel is mainly urine.

Richard: And the longer you don't and the urine's relatively easy to dispose of on the road, um, down a regular drain, down a regular toilet, um, over a mature tree, if you are well off grid, totally, totally cool to solid waste. However, that's the problem and that's really what brings you back to grid to dispose of a lot of the time.

Richard: And with a composting toilet, what converted me initially was like, Hey, don't use water [00:12:00] to flush this thing. So my water now lasts a lot longer. Water conservation isn't important. Facet. Then there's, well, like the longer you leave it to break down and compost, the less you have to empty it. And this is the thing that really got me.

Richard: They really don't smell. They really don't. I, I, I, we had a friend who said, actually, if you are emptying your composting toilet between trips, it's not a composting toilet. You don't need to, mine's, I have an empty mine since April. It's now September. It doesn't smell.

Howard: you're kidding me.

Richard: No, I, if I go away on a trip, um, leave it in there.

Richard: Let it keep going. It's fine. It doesn't smell. It's everything else in your van might smell like a sweaty sock, but your toilet won't. It's amazing.

Howard: Okay. As you were. Then embarking on the, the creation of, of Compo closet, what was the, the first toilet, what was it like to, to go through the, the ideation and the iterations of crafting [00:13:00] this, this product and ensuring it was comfortable, useful, it did what you expected it to do. What was that like?

Richard: I actually really enjoy like product design. I am not a product designer. I have to say I'm like a tinkerer at best. Like I'd love to be in a shed. if you remember Robot Wars from like, however many years ago, I was on that in the uk. So I'm not an engineer, I'm not a product designer, but. I do believe I can get to the crux of a problem.

Richard: And so ideating and designing and trying to solve the problem, um, was really enjoyable for me. I still enjoy it now. and I think the, we actually ended up realizing that there's two toilets that we needed to make. One was a small portable version for everybody that wanted a portable toilet, and then there's actually a full size unit for bigger RVs or camper.

Richard: Oh. Cabins or off grid, tiny houses. And so actually there's two things. And portability, semi portability, because it takes 12 volts [00:14:00] and full size is the other option. And once we, and then you get to like what is the crux of the problem with compost and toilets and a lot of them don't have an agitator, which is the thing that mixes it together.

Richard: that's great, but you then need a lot of space. So having an ator means it's self-contained and you put all the sort at the start and it.

Howard: Right.

Richard: Piecing it, picking it apart and thinking about this and how to keep it portable, compact. That was really fun. I don't wanna go too much into the weeds because I pig cat all day long and blow like stupid composting toilet jargon.

Howard: I, I love it. And by the way, you, you just said something that really sparked a, on a thought is so I. Here in Las Vegas, I, I rent two rooms and a house. I have a roommate and her boyfriend, nice couple. They're older than I am. Their goal right now is to get rid of this house, which means I will be homeless to, uh, to a certain extent.

Howard: They wanna start a 55 plus [00:15:00] community in Oregon, and they're interested, not in tiny homes, but they call 'em ADUs, um, alternative dwelling units. And as I was looking at your website and I was seeing your bigger units, it's like, Connie, Michael, you guys gotta check this out. So, so I, I think.

Howard: It sounds like we can get very creative and solve pro the issues, the problems from a, as basic as I want to go car camping or RVing all the way to, I wanna live more and more off grid. And you're, you actually have a, a product, life's, uh, products for each one of those, those markets. So that, uh, I don't know if I, if I've simplified it, but that's what just.

Howard: Literally dawned on me as we were just chatting about this. Erica, this is for you. How do you begin to prepare to [00:16:00] market? Say like the first, the, the first, uh, compo closet unit. How do you begin to market it, and where do you go to say, Hey, look what we got guys.

Erica: That's a really good. Question, and I am, I'd say I'm more of a. Doer than a real planner. I, I, I lack some of that. And the problem with, and you've actually just hit on the main problem, or as Richard said, the crux of the problem with our product, um, is that it is adaptable to so many different markets. And so how do you pick.

Erica: Which market do you pick? The tiny home market? Do you pick boats? Do you pick Van Life? Do you pick RVs? 'cause they're slightly different than Vans, or the crowd that you're selling it to. And so it is a, it's a difficult question that we've had and one that we're continuing to evolve and we've, at the beginning we kind of.

Erica: Used Facebook ads to kind of test different things. [00:17:00] Honestly, um, we didn't have a product, so we're like, is this even of interest to people? So we did like a giveaway. We did different things in order just to see what people were interested in it. And we did focus on the camper van or van life and quotation van life crowd.

Howard: Hmm. Mm-hmm.

Erica: Mostly because we both came from a background where we understood that a bit more, which in his camper van. So our units, it is actually only one size. So we have one size unit that fits in all these different things. But it is it, a lot of people say that though. They're always like, oh, your larger unit, your smaller unit.

Erica: Nope, they're all the exact same size, which is kind of nice 'cause they can switch back and forth between each other, but. The unit was designed specifically for camper vans. It's made, it's. Square, it's made to fit inside a small space in a, in a camper van or an rv. As I'm, I'm sure you've seen this, a space is premium and so you need something that you can fit into different areas.

Erica: our com some of the other [00:18:00] market leaders were bigger and bulkier and took up more space. And so because of our roots in the camper van and Van Life seen, we focused, I would say 90% of our attention there. We dabble in tiny homes 'cause we actually just found that a lot of people put them into tiny homes.

Erica: I, I send people a survey, I'm like, Hey, how did you find us? Where's your cutting gonna live? And they're like, oh, in my tiny home. I'm like, ah, cool. And so we, we dabble in tiny homes. We, we've tried several different events. I think events, being able to talk to people at the beginning to see what their particular use case is has helped us bit.

Erica: But that's kind of how we started, just to see, who's out there, who's interested, um, and kind of move from there.

Howard: Okay. Very good. Well, I, uh, who knows, maybe there'll be a follow up conversation because, 'cause I, when I showed it to 'em, they're like, oh wow, this is good. 'cause they, I mean, it's. Oregon it, I mean, this is the land of, [00:19:00] flowers and trees and, and tree huggers and of the like, and I grew up in the Midwest, so I'm learning how to do that.

Howard: but you know, living in a, in an area, in a state that really appreciates conservation, sustainability is important and what they want to do, it's like that could be perfect. it takes one equip one. Problem off of the table because now you can solve it. And speaking of solving,the use of, uh, a composting unit, the Cudi,

Howard: Richard, How did you tr again, for our listeners and for me, solve this issue of being able to, for the, the overlander, the van lifer, to be able to stay off grid longer? Because I, I, I liked what you just said earlier, uh, and the individual said, if you're not, if you're not staying off grid for a while, you're really not camp, you're not camping, uh, something of the sort.

Howard: But how does that, how did, did you achieve. That [00:20:00] milestone of like, you don't have to come back.

Richard: Okay. Yeah. good question. So, when you live in, like when you live in a van, you really are a tuned to how much you consume electricity, water, um, how much waste you create. Like if you don't. If you have, if you lot of goods, your van is immediately filled with all the trash from that goods and you're camping with all the rubbish.

Richard: so I kind of became aware of like, okay, if, so the three big ones whenever you're camping seem to be water, electricity, and waste. few Now electricity with solar panels, um, people in let.

Howard: Mm-hmm. Right?

Richard: A composting toilet means you're not flushing, wa you're drinking water, which is an incredibly valuable resource that we all crack to and flush out down the stream. you don't, you can serve your water, so you stay longer that way. But also [00:21:00] you, most of the waste that you're creating is urine, which, like I said, you can dispose of much more easily.

Richard: And then you're left with the solid waste, which you need to be careful about, like how you dispose of. Because you give it much, most of that is water. So the more you can give it the time to break down and dry out, the longer you can stay off grid. And a lot of the time, the, that's actually the limiting factor.

Richard: You can carry loads of water. You, you'll run out or you can even get like the really big, uh, no vans will have like several water purification systems. So electricity and water solved. But what to do with your crap is still one of the bigger problems when you're traveling around.

Howard: Okay. What kind of research is going on out in, around the globe around helping to continue to solve some of these questions?

Richard: That is fascinating. there's a lot actually. there is a very high profile. Project by the Gates Foundation called the Reinvent [00:22:00] the Toilet Challenge. And it sparked so ingenious, uh, work, uh, by so many different strands from Vermiculture I worm toilets, composting toilets, nano membrane toilets, um, incinerating toilet toilets, um, smoldering toilets, not the smoldering composting actually burning stuff, but a very low temperature.

Richard: and it, it's, there was, yeah, so there's. Tons of innovation and we're still seeing the knock on effects. It was a really incredible project. we're that's still ongoing in different channels and there's people with different avenues around how you can solve this, um, varying from premium residential.

Richard: How to solve it depends on the context. For cities, steward sanitation is still a great idea. It'd be really good if we didn't crop in drinking water.

Howard: Mm-hmm.

Richard: Then you need two, two sewer systems or two plumbing systems for off grid. We think composting toilet's a great [00:23:00] idea, but I'm okay with incinerating and other things.

Richard: we're still continuing our own research. We were recently partnering with, um, university College London, around trying to have, um, continuous thermophilic, so super continuous composting in your toilet. And those research, that research was really successful and we're trying to see how we could bring it to market.

Richard: We're looking at actually a completely new type of toilet with another startup. and another, and, and another way to treat the urine with two other startups. So there's tons of, we've got the technology to solve this phenomenally big problem, and I get really excited about this, so I'm gonna stop there.

Richard: But we're working on,

Howard: you're getting very excited. It's, and I was like, I want to come over and just like, hang out with you guys. I didn't mean that to be very, as opportunistic as I meant it, but it just, I love. When I'm, when I'm coaching and I'm working with a, a client who just loves what they do, you can tell the body language, the energy, the eyes light up and they're [00:24:00] just, and, and that's ideally what you want.

Howard: I hate to, have a nine to five job sitting, sitting at a, at a desk day in, day out. What's it like to market? the Cudi and, and the shows. What, what are some of the challenges you face and how, what, what are you doing day to day to kind of accomplish in getting the word out?

Erica: I that, that's a good question. What are some, I'd say I would honestly say so, at least at the shows and so online, in different areas. just SEO normal things and stuff like that. So that, just getting the word out that way. I mean, I'm gonna just say money is always, how much advertising money you have in order to, to send people things.

Erica: So just people not knowing about us, but another thing, so at least at the shows, I'd say one thing that is the e factor, there's just you, there's just the e factor of like. You wanna do what? It's the, I wanna just flush and forget, that's what, especially in the United States, um, I [00:25:00] find that a lot of, um, and, and this, that's unfair.

Erica: In the uk we had a lot of people as well. I've not been to everywhere with ev, all of our toilets. So maybe some countries have the E factor as well, but there's just this e factor of like, eh. And they, they don't, they don't make it past that factor to, to hear the other benefits, like we're just talking about like the staying off grid and stuff.

Erica: I think that we've found kind of a niche with the overlanding crowd because they really, they, they know about these things that they need to do. Whereas the Dan lifers, they're may be living in a city, they're able to use different, utilize different things and different waste management. So they're able to manage their waste a bit differently than someone who's, really traveling off grid or staying off grid longer.

Erica: They then have to think about it in different ways and they're like, okay, let me get over this U factor and then what do I need? And that's where we have found the niche with the over lenders. 'cause they're like, well this is better than a bucket.

Howard: yeah, and,

Erica: Yeah. And so it's.[00:26:00]

Howard: There, there was a video, a YouTube video I was watching yesterday, and it, it, there, uh, there's a, there's a guy, it looks like Santa Claus got this long white beard and you probably know who I'm talking about. And one of his associates was interviewing this woman who had been, uh, she had a camper van.

Howard: Okay. A big Ford e Conno line 12 feet long and the host asked her like, how long you been in the van? What do you do about facilities and this and that? It was so very much. It's the bucket, it's the shovel, it's, being close to a gym where I can go and I just thought that's kind of defeating the purpose.

Howard: 'cause if I get out somewhere, I just wanna stay there and minimum be. Yeah. I would lo by the way, I was, I have an idea for you 'cause my, the roommate and her boyfriend just came back from a show and they, they got those little rubber squeeze balls. You need a poo [00:27:00] ball or, or a cudi ball, a cu, a cutty, uh, square.

Howard: You can squeeze it. So. Feel free to take that idea. It's my gift to you today. I would, I would love if we could take a tour of your website, if that's okay. 'cause I think it's pretty cool. It's very well designed. who is going to be the, uh, who's gonna be the navigator for me.

Erica: I think I'll start and then Rich can probably jump in with a, um, a lot of things. Yeah, we've actually just,

Richard: on that note, actually, one of the things that we always have at shows, like a lot of people are still new to composting toilets and when they're like, how does it work? Seeing one from above and seeing a urine diverter is really important. So when we're on the website, it'd be great to say, Hey, this is how they work.

Richard: But anyway, I'm gonna leave it to Erica because she's the website

Erica: Maybe you should jump in then.

Howard: Okay. Well, I, I tell you what, we should, maybe we should, we'll go there. We'll, uh, let's show people how it works first. So, rich,

Erica: here's the website, beautiful website. I love that guy sitting out there. [00:28:00] That would be me. I just need a cup of coffee in my hand. Definitely.

Richard: Excellent.

Erica: Yeah.

Howard: lou.

Howard: All right,

Richard: One of the better view. okay, let's go to composting. Let's start there on the very left.

Howard: All right.

Richard: And you are gonna, if you just scroll down,

Howard: Okay.

Richard: white is compost. So, so there's cutting and you can see, let's click on that and click view. Cutting. That's our original product and our biggest seller. And if you look at the pictures and click through, this is the beautiful bamboo lid, and then skip the next one because it's a video and then we'll go to, this is Inside with the agitator.

Richard: That is not for poo. Don't worry about it. And the

Howard: the sawdust in the, uh, co in the coco. All right.

Richard: And the agitator slides back. The bin is removable so you don't have to disassemble it, which is one of the big, the biggest feature. And if you go to the next screen, this is the one I [00:29:00] wanted to show you,

Howard: Okay.

Richard: or the one after that. Sorry, I skipped one.

Richard: that one there. That's the urine diverter. So where those two little arrow are, that's the drop zone as we call it. So when you're sitting down, everybody sits to pee. Everybody sits in the number two urine is in the forward section of the toilet and goes into a bottle. And in the back there's a little, those two plates are retractable and you do your business back there, close 'em off, and you don't have to look at it every time you go for number one.

Richard: So we call those the marriage saver. and we made that drop as big as we could. and when the urine box was four with as little led and it tells you when it so to empty. And that's it. That's the, that's the crux of urine diversion.

Howard: Very good and

Richard: This is our sort of, one of our features that we put in to try and push the boundary of what's possible is to put in an activate common filter into Cudi to help reduce odor. and you can also vent externally. But I'll hand over to [00:30:00] Erica to navigate you around the rest of the website.

Erica: Okay. All right. thank you for that. all right, Eric, it's you and I now. So we gave, we gave, uh, riches a moment. His moment of glory, didn't he? we actually just, uh, are in the process of redoing the website, so, it's, it does look nice. We have a new, um, new member of our team who's been taking care of that Jack, and we're pretty impressed. we can go to, we looked at composting, so these are different use cases here that we've got, and it really is then the, the.

Erica: The point that Cudi can be used in so many different areas. This is in Cudi. This is our Cudi light. you mentioned before about having an agitator in order to mix the number and to mix the number twos with a carbon rich material, and this dries it out and condenses it down and lets you stay off grid longer. however, there are some people who would prefer our Caite model, and this is more like a [00:31:00] pre-bagged model where you would then use the layering system and then you would put, you would, after each. Number two, you add a layer of substrate, so like coconut. Or sawdust or something. because you are layering it, you are creating a little tower, and so you will not get as much aeration and you will not get as many uses of it because the space will just fill up.

Erica: However, a lot of people, the trade off is that because it's already in a bag, it's easier to dispose of. So it's a, apples and oranges, they're both good. it just depends on what people, like. Here you've got the, um, the two different units compared side to side. These are our composting ones.

Howard: So that's like two plus weeks. I mean, this is, uh, I mean, just the aggravation of having to do it every week. I mean, it's like for coffee, I roast my own coffee, right? And. I could also go to the, to the grocery store and buy coffee. And it's probably, well with tariffs these days it's three, it's increased, uh, [00:32:00] exceedingly.

Howard: And so there's this, the idea, then you've got less material like the bags and you also have more time off grid. So it's kind of paying for itself.

Erica: Well, and this is just, that's just the time between emptying it. But because the materials basically or is dry, you can then put that into another, uh, container, into a bag itself and stick it with. Of your, um, your waist in the garage or something of your vehicle and then empty it. You could stay out almost indefinitely with, depending on then your walk situation and others.

Erica: Yeah. So that's just the time between changing it out itself.

Erica: And then how they both work. this is set up here. It says my internet table, but maybe it's still working. And then some common facts like how does a composting toilet work, which has gone through that. and then. Yeah, let's go maybe up top and we can go, for example, we have a lot of resources on our website.

Erica: We've got a more section, [00:33:00] um, and we can go there

Howard: these little, uh, every time with the mouse, it kind of wants to go somewhere. So more, where am I going? Oh, yeah. Learn more.

Erica: and learn more. Yeah. This is just different resources and different things. We can then go, um, how to choose the best composting toilet for me. Composting versus ceiling. we have, uh, we are now bringing out a new toilet. we're still, yeah, we're still composting. So this is, this is just how you can choose the best one with you considering your needs, use cases and stuff like that.

Erica: Let's go to, um, let's go to Camper Van Pilots.

Howard: Can't prevent toilets. All right.

Erica: You were talking about camper vans so

Howard: Yeah. Yeah.

Erica: And so, we now, if you go down, so choosing a portable toilet for your camper van, what you should think about. And we actually now here you can see all three of our models. You can see our caddy composting toilet, the evolution of making a, a simpler, simpler to empty unit.

Erica: And then our brand new toilet, which is the S one dry flush ceiling [00:34:00] toilet. And these. Are all three the same size, same before, and their module, which is really nice, so they each can be turned into the other one. So you can upgrade your Cuddy light to a sealer. You can up, you can go back and forth between a sealer and a Cuddy.

Erica: And it's a really nice system if you're not quite sure what you want or if you have guests who are coming and using your, um, this,

Howard: I love it. Yeah.

Erica: I mean, we've talked about composting, but yeah, the sealer is an interesting one. I'm not sure if you're familiar with dry flush toilets.

Erica: okay. Dry flush is then, um, what they do is a dry flush toilet is a dry toilet, so it doesn't use water either.

Erica: It's usually, usually waterless. and in most cases, chemical free. We'll kind of put quotations around that. But what it does is it seals your waste into bags, or there's another type that will twist your waist Yeah. Into little packages, but that just twists, it doesn't actually seal it. So there's the, the, there's two types of dry flush, [00:35:00] a twisting, and a ceiling.

Erica: So what Rich the Mastermind here has done is he's combined our urine diverting. Toilet, so a UR system of Cudi and made and added a heat ceiling mechanism into it.

Howard: Rich this, this to me when I was looking at this is like, this is a game changer here.

Erica: This is a game changer. And this is, then this will be really big. This is then for the Americans who are And other people, not just the Americans. I, I, I am American, everyone. Okay. I understand the, but if you kind of wanna flush in for grip, a dry flush is really for you. But one of the main problems with the dry flush is that you're sealing both your number ones and your number twos.

Erica: Yeah. And so that means you're paying to pee and for. These type of bodies like myself, who pee a lot and wanna pee inside, it can get pretty expensive. And so what we've done is we've created one that separates out the number ones so they can be easily emptied.

Howard: Okay.

Erica: Which was saying down a [00:36:00] drain, buy a mature tree, um, or into another toilet.

Erica: And then we also made it, so there'll be compostable bags. So we're continuing with our composting theme. So we'll offer type of bags, compostable and plastic bags.

Howard: So where would this bag go?

Erica: This bag goes into, so in the toilet itself, or where would it be then?

Howard: A af After I have filled it up and it's ready to get sealed, am I gonna go find the local tree or the to another toilet? What? What am I gonna do with this?

Erica: No, with the back, so you can continue to, so if you're using compostable bags, you can continue the composting pro, you can add it to a compost pile and compost it. But most cases. You could even throw it on the fire. I know. We are just gonna wanna say that. Throw another log on the fire. I think like a cow patty, think like cow patties from the, pioneer thing.

Erica: so you could actually burn it as well, but in most cases you're going to you're going to bin it. And this is [00:37:00] the same baby diapers, adult diapers and things like this.

Howard: Gotcha. Okay.

Erica: You're gonna find a, a, a trash bin that in choose your trash bin wisely. not the one down by the beach, but you're gonna a trash recept and you're gonna emp it into there.

Howard: Okay. Very good. Very good. Well, this is very cool. very cool. Now, do you have, Let me go back.

Erica: Mm-hmm.

Howard: Do you have, do you have testimonials from some of your, your

Erica: do have testimonials. This is something that we're working on our, our page as well. If you go up top, um, to the first backup. Yep. You can see reviews, uh, how to says reviews. we are still working. So what, what we have, we are really big in community. We've got something called our Campo crew. Yeah. And so from our compo crew, we are working on getting, um, more than just reviews, but really like little interviews and I call 'em our toilet talks and really getting to know them and their stories because it's, it's easy to have like a [00:38:00] review.

Erica: I mean, easy, but it's, you can have reviews, but everyone kind of wants to know what, what the real use case is and what the story is behind it. So they wanna know why Julie loves the compo closet. And so we've got like. Toilet talks with Christian blessing and Karen. Karen lives on a houseboat in the UK and she loves composting toilets and she had a self bit built composting toilet before and she made that herself and she loved it for years.

Erica: But she wanted to upgrade and see, she was actually part of our original Kickstarter and she upgraded two Cudi and she's been with us from the beginning and absolutely loves it. She loves the fact that it composts, that it really kickstarts the composting process and works really well for her. Yeah.

Howard: love it. I love it.

Erica: Yeah, so we

Howard: is great.

Erica: we really value like community and I need to add more stories to it. Now that I have Jack to help me with the website, I, I think we can get

Howard: And you could, I mean, even it's like what we're doing now, like the podcasting, having these, these actual interviews and you, you [00:39:00] kinda share it. I, I just love it. And thank you both for taking us on a tour of, uh, of the website.

Howard: be before we go back to just the three of us, anything, any last, uh, action you want people to take if they're on this website?

Erica: I think they should explore and get to get to know us and the brand. we really, we really want to help people. So if there are questions they should, they should reach out to us. We have a contact section. We have a lot of, um, videos. I mean, we will tell you later about YouTube and stuff. We really wanna provide as much information to people as we can and in order to help them make the decision about composting, um, and, and or the sealer now that we have a ceiling toilet, but really just yeah, to get to know us and that we're here, we're here to help.

Howard: Excellent. No, I love it. I love it. Now, uh, thanks to the miracle of technology, we've seen the website. I'm gonna stop sharing our screen again. [00:40:00] So it's just the three of us and really want to thank you both for spending time with us today. And, uh, just, again, it's a, it's a. It's not the most, uh, enticing of topics, but it's so neat.

Howard: It, we, if, if we have any inkling to go out in, in a camper van, an RV boondocking on a boat, we have to have answers to those questions. So, you are helping to solve a problem that exists and, and you've made it kind of fun to kind of talk about it. And, uh, so really, this, this is wonderful.

Howard: So thank you so much, both of you. before we, before we head out today, um. I, I am curious for both of you to answer this as you kind of look back on this journey that you're now on and, career changes and, having this desire to, an alternative, area of interest then where you started.

Howard: what has been your biggest aha moment? And I'll start with you, rich. What's been your biggest aha [00:41:00] moment as you, you left the world of finance to deal with Pooh. And invent.

Richard: I think. I think I've always been a bit entrepreneurial, but now that I've worked out, okay, if there's a really big problem, figure out a, a, a slight thing if you even think you can make solution to it and that people are willing to pay for, give it a shot.

Howard: Mm-hmm.

Richard: The money is out there looking for people with solutions because that's what people need and make you an idea.

Richard: People back you out. Doesn't matter if

Howard: I love it. I love that.

Richard: change the world.

Howard: Change the world one, one poo at a time. So it's, uh, that's beautiful. Erica, uh, by the way, if if God willing, we're, we're, we're going to travel on [00:42:00] different planets. I mean, this is, maybe someday the Cudi will be up on one of the, uh, the shuttles or the rockets or something like that.

Howard: 'cause they've gotta deal with that too. Yeah.

Richard: You gotta grow stuff if you're gonna live on Mars.

Howard: There you go. Erica, what's your aha moment?

Erica: Oh my aha moment, and I. I'm lucky, rich didn't steal it, even for the entrepreneurial part. I think my aha moment is when you realize that there is, I've always, I've worked with some other, um, some other charities and some other groups and I've definitely, I have a friend who does, um, we have a, a woman's group that we started here in Vienna and we've, she does design and graphic design and stuff like that with websites.

Erica: And, and we always talked about how we'd wanna start an agency that was able to help, like, NGOs and stuff, do better marketing and be able to bring the, bring their cause to the world. 'cause this seems like it's a marketing issue, not necessarily that people don't wanna help, and I think that if we can bring the [00:43:00] idea of global sanitation is a, um, what is it?

Erica: 3.2 billion people don't have access to safe sanitation. And if we can then. I tell people that safe sanitation is a, is a right and that they, they should actually fight for it and help with it. I think that it's, it's a great cause. It's like there somehow water companies convinced us that water wasn't a right.

Erica: And so it's like, it's the same sort of thing. We don't have this idea that actually everyone should have a bathroom. And there are so many marginalized, and usually it's marginalized people who get affected more. So it's women, it's people who can't take care of themselves. It's vulnerable people, and. No matter where they are in the United States and other countries as well.

Erica: And I think when you really see this, see this and think about it, think that we can then help make a difference. I think that that's the aha moment. And it seems me, okay, we're, we're a luxury, so it's not a luxury, but we do, we're in the leisure market and looking at that, you're like, ah, you really doing something?

Erica: But if you can tell people that, if you can convince [00:44:00] me, uh, a white woman, who's relatively, who has enough money that composting toilets are great in their way to save the world, then that's gonna trickle down to other people as well. And it is convincing. The affluent that this is a great idea and then everyone else, will want one as well.

Erica: If Instagram wants our toilet, then everyone's gonna want it and it can help people.

Howard: There you go. I love it. I love it. Now, I know we were, uh, just on the website, but uh, again, for our listeners, uh, rich, where's the best place to go? To find out more information about Comp Closet.

Richard: So there's lots of information. On our website, Eric has alluded to, if you can't find something, shoot as an email and I will try and make that content for you. speaking on that note, I, another, the great resource is YouTube. You'll see lots of videos of me answering such questions all over YouTube. And then Eric's done a great job of cultivating a community on Facebook and Instagram.

Richard: there's a great Facebook group where people [00:45:00] can have shared their stories of Kadi, both in the US and there's a massive Australian group. So those are great resources as well.

Howard: Excellent. Well, we will definitely, uh, add those links. Erica, anything else you wanted to add there?

Erica: I was just gonna say I'm a bit jealous of the Aussie group because it's like they, they just like to talk about post, so their group's really active and it's really great. But it's a lot of, um, as you're talking about before, like testimonials and stuff, it's a lot of users and we're not experts or anything.

Erica: We're not, we don't, we didn't know where Cudi was going to be used in every, in every situation. And they're using it in real life in different areas. So if there is some sort of little, little issue, sometimes it's moisture, sometimes it's, this, that or the other. And this group of this group is really a great, um, community.

Erica: It's a great resource and they're a great community. They're really helpful and yeah, it's something you should, they let you in. Even if you don't have a cardio, if you're just like curious, if you're compo curious, they'll let you in as well.

Howard: cur. I love, I love that term, [00:46:00] Campo. Clear, uh, curious. I'm gonna have to put that as one of the, the, the hashtags in, in the show notes. Now. So

Erica: oh, I was just gonna say, our big hashtag is just go and, uh, go further. Yeah.

Howard: just go, go, uh, okay. I'll remember that too. I love it Now. Hey, it's been a pleasure to have you both on the podcast and Eric, I'm so glad. again, thank you for, uh, following me in the outdoor adventure series and okay, who is this person? And, oh, that's an interesting topic. this is a great fit for the Outdoor Adventure series and, uh, I am certainly gonna have my, the roommate and her boyfriend, you guys have to check this out for the community in, uh, in Oregon.

Howard: So we might be another use case for you. Who knows, or they might. Be another use case, but thank you for spending, uh, time, uh, with me today with my, with our audience. And, uh, I love the international flavor of this. It's always fun, to, to chat with people who are, do enjoying their [00:47:00] life and the work they do and really, uh, how are helping to inspire others in, in solving.

Howard: Big issues, and they're, they're all over the world. And I, that's what I love about the power of podcasting. So thank you both for, uh, spending time today.

Richard: Thank you so much, Howard.

Howard: All right. Listen, yeah. Stay in the line. We're gonna do a quick close, and then we can have a final chat. Okay.

Erica: Okay.

Howard: All right. Alright folks, we have just been chatting with Richard Peter and Erica Pugh, co-founders of Compo Closet. this was a really cool topic. Who knew that poo could be so exciting? And really this, the technology and the desire to.

Howard: make a better mousetrap, so to speak. And, uh, I, I know this is a topic I was interested in as I had shared earlier when I moved from Chicago to Las Vegas and go car camping, uh, I don't know if I could fit it into the back of my Subaru [00:48:00] Crosstrek. That could take up a lot of room. But if I ever get a camper van, uh, I, I, I know what product is gonna be in that camper van.

Howard: And, uh, so I would invite you, dude, take a look at, uh, the, uh, the website. You can go out to kapu closet.com. As well as their Facebook and Instagram pages and on YouTube. And of course the YouTube, uh, recording of this episode will be up on our YouTube channel. So you can, you see that tour of the website.

Howard: But if you have questions about composting and how to accomplish it, uh, these two are, uh, Richard and and Erica are wonderful. Check 'em out, check out the website and hopefully you'll have one less issue you've gotta worry about when you get get off. The, uh, the, the pavement and go explore. Okay? Now, as for this episode, you can find us on our website, outdoor adventure series.com.

Howard: We're also on LinkedIn and Facebook on our outdoor adventure series pages. [00:49:00] we do have our YouTube page again, and of course, you can listen to this podcast. Wherever you get your podcast from. So remember, we love, likes, comments, and sharing. Until next time, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, go out there.

Howard: Have a fantastic day, and we look forward to having you join us on a future episode of the Outdoor Adventure Series Podcast. Take care now.