By Mariel S. Clark
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — Riverside Park is hoping to go a little greener by installing composting toilets.
The lavatories, which would recycle sewage into fertilizer and use solar power, were proposed by the Riverside Clay Tennis Association, according to the New York Times.
The bathroom complex would go next to the clay tennis courts near 96th Street, an area currently lacking in suitable options other than two portable toilets or a five-block trek to the nearest bathroom, the paper reported.
The carbon-neutral, low or no water toilets would be a first for a city park though there are some in the Bronx Zoo and the Queens Botanical Garden, according to the Associated Press.
The tennis association has been raising funds to design the complex and the Parks Department has endorsed it for a state planning grant, the AP reported.
The bathroom is expected to cost $5.5 million and could be up and flushing by the summer of 2012.
