In 1992, Greenpeace International sponsored a clean development initiative for the Federated States of Micronesia, a nation of small islands in the Western Pacific. Other Pacific Island initiatives include an AusAID project in Kiribati and Tonga and a small FSP project in Kiribati. Now, tourism resorts in the Pacific are adopting these systems, as they find that ecological sanitation is less expensive than conventional wastewater treatment systems and, due to the specification of flowering plants in some systems, they provide an attractive way to prevent pollution of the shoreline areas that draw visitors. Increasingly, service contracts are available for maintaining composting toilet systems. Water shortages threaten at least one-third of the world.
Some estimates place it at one-half.
Many states are tightening on-site wastewater system standards, so that many of the United States, millions of septic systems are now considered inadequate, and therefore in noncompliance. As a result, many property owners are seeking ways to supplement their septic systems so they can avoid installing new ones. Diverting excrement and flush water from the flow removes more than 90 percent of the pollution, leaving only graywater to manage. Population densities are increasing in cities and coastal areas, intensifying the challenge of managing human waste. More people are converting vacation homes into year-round residences.