Thunderbox Mobile Compost Toilets

The Thunderbox mobile compost toilet has gone ICONIC! Not only famous as a festival toilet, it is now proving a best seller at a camp ground near you! The National Trust, Forestry Commission and Natural England are amoung our recent clients as well as many private estates, Allotment Associations and of course glampers galore!

Here at the Thunderbox Collective we make a variety of Thunderboxes to order, or you can hire them for short term events. They are designed as a low cost, low maintenance system that is ideal for a wide variety of situations. They are easy to assemble, take down and most importantly make great compost!

Thunderboxes give total flexibility whilst maintaining sanitation standards and user comfort, and are the environmental alternative to the standard portable loos, which have high-embedded costs, minimal capacity, strong chemical usage and highly consumptive water requirements.

Existing portable loo provision represents a very unsustainable and often unpleasant experience, and requires specialist smelly disposal, employing large vehicles generating high “Poo-miles.”

There are clear social, environmental and cultural benefits for using a viable alternative. We, the Thunderbox Collective are on that mission!

Thunderboxes are made using sustainable timber provided by ‘wood4trees’, sourced from Devon woodlands classified as PAWS (Plantation on Ancient Woodland Site). These are managed using continuous cover techniques, and the timber extracted is assisting the conversion of the plantations back to native broadleaved woodland.
A number of other components used in the construction of the Thunderboxes (including the bulk containers) are of recycled origin.

By definition, a compost toilet should produce compost, not waste. Thunderboxes have demonstrated easy production of friable compost.

How does it work?
To create safe and useful compost,the material needs to either spend considerable time composting away from human contact, thereby breaking the pathogens cycle, or by rapid “Hot composting.” Oxygen loving bacteria are present almost anywhere there is a organic matter to break down and oxygen supply - they just turn up!

They do have specific requirements though. The more material the better. The reason we use our bulk tanks means easier servicing and better compost results due to turning. Just like a fire they need oxygen and fuel in the right condition. The “fuel” in this case is our “deposits” plus “soak”, usually sawdust or straw. This produces a mix of carbon to nitrogen around 30:1. The oxygen loving or aerobic bacteria will attack this with fervour given good oxygen supply. That's why we use fitted pipe chimneys to create a "draw" just like a regular fireplace.

The unique bulk turn-ability of the Thunderbox containers enables tumbling of the compost at our convenience, with the more turns the greater the speed of composting.
A cubic metre of fresh compost will reduce by one third in a month and reduce to one third its original bulk in three months with occasional turning. With careful monitoring it can get to 55-60 degrees Centigrade, killing
all known pathogens to humans in hours!
However, has every molecule reached this temperature? We like this sort of heat level, but also compost for months and generally don’t use our compost inside two years. By then it is virtually soil and full of nutrients and high humic content.

Purchase your Thunderbox either as a DIY kit (recomended as you will then know how to put it up and manage the compost side of things) or we could come and install. We also make wheelchair accessible Thunderboxes as well as a moveable 'shifty' version with a towbar.

We have a number of units available for event Hire including our new "Multi-unit" for bigger gigs. We generally only operate in South-West England due to the generation of ‘poo-miles!’ but are building a franchise network, so do contact us via the contact box below.

Run your own Thunderbox Business and get paid to go to festivals/parties! We are looking for like-minded people to take Thunderboxes to places we don't reach, and are therefore offering Franchise deals - talk to us!

There are a number of regulations and laws concerning composting and dealing with human waste. We take these issues very seriously…its our business too! They become particularly important for larger events and more Authorites get involved. We've been building compost loos for over 9 years and so we have considerable experience in all scales of events and sites. We have also been working with the Environment Agency over the last couple of years to develop the new code on composting human waste, based on the Thunderbox method - legal recognition at last!
We also hold generic risk assessments and safety records as well as special excemption licences for some of our clients.
It is important to talk to us early in proceedings to allow time for the paper trail to catch up with our bacteria!

We like to think we can offer custom prices to meet your needs:

A single Thunderbox can work out as cheap as £1400 although if you want wheels and whistles it'll cost a bit more!
A double Thunderbox (2 cubicles back to back) costs around £1600 depending on your particular wishes. We can offer discounts for larger orders, festival toilets and franchises - talk to us!

The all new wheelchair accessible Thunderbox with ramp, handrails and easy access sliding door! Comes as a double with larger than normal cubicle on the other side. Price £3200 including local delivery and installation.

Those of you with larger events will usually need site specific discussions beforehand but will have the advantage of economy of scale.
Generally, the hire of a double unit works out around £300 (or £150/loo) without servicing, but includes delivery (within 30 miles), collection and subsequent disposal. All our loos come with lighting, sawdust, loo roll, magazines, a pot of flowers and LOVE! (by the way, there’s no VAT on love or any of the rest either!)
We know we are a tad more expensive per unit than the conventional portable loo on the shorter hires….sorry, but there is simply more work in composting and no price tag (as yet) on the hidden costs of chemical usage. We do work out a lot cheaper, depending on length of hire, for larger events where the costs of emptying chemical loos really start to stack up. With 500 litres capacity under your seat there’s no fear of getting full! We do take “poo miles” seriously - so sorry, but hire outside of Devon will incur additional transport and carbon sinking costs.

Please contact us by using this form