The Kildwick (Hi)Story

Hi! We’re Christiane and Alex. We’re avid camper who have had many adventures in our caravan. With three children on board, our built-in chemical toilet had to be emptied daily. This meant many tedious stop-go moments and needless to say, the necessary ‘ewww’ that always marked this occasions. When the time came to expand our "Schrotti" camper van, a Mercedes-Benz Vario 814d, one thing was non-negotiable: NO CHEMICAL TOILET.

This spurred on our search for chemical toilet alternatives and we discovered the exciting world of dry composting toilets. After much research, we learned that the separators from then British brand, Kildwick, received rave reviews. We tried to order them from the UK to Germany which was impossible and we even tried to order from a local retailer – to no avail though. In the meantime we also discovered that the Kildwick company itself had filed for bankruptcy.

Our new camping toilet joy was within reach and giving up was definitely not an option. We got our friend Robert on board and after some consideration it was clear that we wanted to save Kildwick and the much coveted separation unit. To cut a long story short, we contacted the insolvency practitioner in the UK and after a few weeks severe heart palpitations, we were finally awarded the contract. Robert acquired the brand and licenses, allowing Kildwick to restart in Leipzig on July 22, 2019.

And so the rest is (hi)story. We changed the material of the separator insert to recyclable plastic, we improved what we could and the team grew. It became apparent that composting toilets were not only very useful for campers but it was simply the easiest and most sustainable way of going to the toilet –anywhere & everywhere!

Christiane, Alex and Robert