How it All Began
After 15 years in the corporate world, our founder Richard and his partner Angela left it all behind to travel in their self-converted van, Morrison. Life on the road brought freedom—and also the challenges of off-grid living. A composting toilet in their campervan impressed Richard with its sustainability, but its design left much to be desired.
In 2020, during the global pandemic, CompoCloset was born. Backed by a passionate crowdfunding community, we set out to design toilets that were practical, sustainable, and truly user-friendly. What began as a way to make vanlife and off-grid living easier has since grown into a mission to tackle the global sanitation crisis and create better toilets for people and the planet.
From R2D2 to Real Design: The Birth of an Idea
Despite seeing the advantages of composting toilets he couldn't help notice the problems with current designs.
- The poop compartment door was too small.
- Aiming for the pee portion was also a creative task…..
- And honestly, they looked like the love child of R2D2 and a vacuum cleaner.
These niggles became a minor obsession as they travelled around Europe. Richard would sketch toilets and research other amazing composting endeavours around the world. He would talk to anyone they met about them (well, everybody poops!) and how great they are but how he couldn't help but see improvements.
Then the pandemic ratcheted up a gear...
Before borders closed for a second time, Richard and Angela made a break across Europe. They headed to the south of Spain to enjoy the warmer weather over winter.
As they couldn’t really travel, they rented a small apartment and Richard threw his efforts into realizing his vision of the best composting toilets in the world!
Enter Erica - Angela's twin sister (No this will not get weird.)
Erica and Angela grew up on Orcas Island, Washington State but both moved to Europe for studies. Erica returned to Washington State to finish her degree in Economics at the University of Washington. She returned to Vienna settled down and completed a Masters in Marketing.
Before the second lockdown Richard and Angela visited Erica and her husband Gogo in Vienna, Erica wasn't spared Richard's ramblings on how amazing composting toilets were.
Erica and Gogo had a T5 VW van that doubled as a work van for hauling lighting and rigging in the week and camper van at weekend. Suffice to say that Erica knew about the difficulties of having a stinky potty in a small space.
In a moment of schnaps-induced weakness, Erica agreed to come on board and sort out Richard's half-baked marketing. Finally, there was someone qualified for their role on the team! Yass!
Our Mission
At CompoCloset, our mission is simple: Better Toilets for People & Planet.
Why settle for the best when even the best can be improved? We’re committed to continuous innovation, designing toilets that are smarter, safer, and more sustainable for every lifestyle.
From composting toilets to our dry-flush systems, we create solutions that are practical, odor-free, and environmentally responsible. By offering superior user experience and reducing water and chemical waste, we aim to make sanitation simpler, cleaner, and better for people and the planet.
But we’re always developing new ideas…
Our Vision
We want a world where affordable and equitable access to safe sanitation is available the world over and will work towards achieving sustainable development goal 6 (whilst also aiding SDGs 5, 14 and 15!).
We believe it should be possible to safely close the poop loop, to stop flushing away precious resources that pollute the environment and damage people’s health.
We believe composting toilet systems are currently the best candidate for making progress towards SDG6.
OUR TEAM
Q&A with Richard Peter
Richard Peter CEO and Co-founder of CompoCloset talks about why he started CompoCloset and what the future holds.
