Composting Toilets

[The Hammer]

Composting toilet - Wikipedia

Let all save more water and help out our farms and gardens. I present to you, dry composting toilets. Turn your waste into fertile gold, aka night soil.

Have you used or do you have a composting toilet?

 

[ChristineM]

Ive used one once. A zoological park out in the country, the only water they have is shipped in and used for the animals,. None to waste on human hygiene. The strategically placed toilets dotted around the several hectares of differing habits are all composting. I was loath to use one when i needed to "spend a penny"* fearing the smell ... Surprisingly there was no smell at all.

Just shovel a load of sawdust over your waste

* English phrase for using a public toilet.

 

[Subduction Zone]

Composting toilet - Wikipedia

Let all save more water and help.oit our farms and gardens. I present to you, dry composting toilets. Turn your waste into fertile gold, aka night soil.

Have you used or do you have a composting toilet?

Technically yes. My grandparents in northern Minnesota did not have indoor plumbing, until the 1970's. They had an outhouse. That made for quick trips in the middle of a Minnesota winter when it easily got down to -20 F. It was not that they were poor. It was just how it always was for them. To get clean they had a separate building that held a sauna with a wood fired stove. One gets cleaner in a sauna than any other way that I know of.

 

[The Hammer]

Technically yes. My grandparents in northern Minnesota did not have indoor plumbing, until the 1970's. They had an outhouse. That made for quick trips in the middle of a Minnesota winter when it easily got down to -20 F. It was not that they were poor. It was just how it always was for them. To get clean they had a separate building that held a sauna with a wood fired stove. One gets cleaner in a sauna than any other way that I know of.

Doesn't the sweating negate the cleaning?

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the sauna (dry and wet varieties). But a shower afterwards always felt necessary.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Composting toilet - Wikipedia

Let all save more water and help out our farms and gardens. I present to you, dry composting toilets. Turn your waste into fertile gold, aka night soil.

Have you used or do you have a composting toilet?

I have a question. It looks like it still requires a septic (perhaps a smaller septic) setup to handle the urine and excess drainage. Is that correct?

Another question is how bad it smells. Are my neighbors going to ask me about it?

Last question: can rodents and lizards get into and surprise me when I'm using it?

 

[The Hammer]

I have a question. It looks like it still requires a septic (perhaps a smaller septic) setup to handle the urine and excess drainage. Is that correct?

Another question is how bad it smells. Are my neighbors going to ask me about it?

Last question: can rodents and lizards get into and surprise me when I'm using it?

I think it can be done with our without a tank (currently the place I am staying uses a bucket filled with cedar shavings).

If you want to cut down/out on smell, I think a tank is necessary. And if well maintained it should not smell.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I think it can be done with our without a tank (currently the place I am staying uses a bucket filled with cedar shavings).

If you want to cut down/out on smell, I think a tank is necessary. And if well maintained it should not smell.

I see, so its not as easy as a water toilet. If you want to encourage its use through policy start with old neighborhoods that no longer have dependable sewage systems. Many cities have suburbs with such aging infrastructure, and you can take advantage of that to press the point that something new be tried. When the suburbs were built it was assumed they would always pay for themselves, but this is not the case. As they breakdown they begin to cost cities more than the taxes they provide -- at least according to some youtube videos.