A question for our European friends: My wife and I are planning to head across the pond and are considering replacing our Lavac head and holding tank with a composting toilet. Are these 'approved/accepted ' in Northern Europe (England, Norway, the Baltic etc)? Are they commonplace there, or might we be looked upon with 'suspicion ' due to unfamiliarit by maritime authorities? Several folks in our neck of the woods here in Maine love their composting heads, but before looking into them further I want to be sure we would be OK in Europe. Many thanks for any feedback, Max

Max I have never heard of composting heads so I suspect they are uncommon in the UK. In fact pump out facilities are few and far between in the UK once away from the main centres and I suspect a lot of yachts don 't even have any kind of holding tank. I am not sure what the rules say but I think that is the reality.

Our experience was much the same in Scandinavia and even in the tideless Baltic few of the harbours we visited had pump out facilities. The Med is however a different matter with large fines in place.