Green Outhouse In Md. Anchors Educational Project

MOUNT SAVAGE, Md. (AP) -- A composting outhouse in the western Maryland town of Mount Savage is providing environmental education as well as convenience.

Representatives of Frostburg State University and the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services plan to join Thursday in a ribbon-cutting for the green restroom at the Evergreen Heritage Center.

Frostburg State ethnobotanist Sunshine Brosi says university students designed signage and landscaping for the toilet. Juvenile offenders helped to install the unit and prepare the ground for landscaping with plants chosen for their ability to remove pollutants from the soil.

Brosi says the toilet should produce about four bushels a year of compost to be raked into the lawn or used as fertilizer.

Evergreen is a 130-acre, outdoor learning center on the grounds of a pre-Revolutionary estate.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)