Anyone have a composting toilet?

[kimmom]

Anyone else have a composting toilet?? We use the bucket system and thermophilic compost pile as written about in the Humanure Handbook... I have questions for your others if you are out there

[wallabi]

we use the same system and have for almost five years now. no problems so far - how`s it going for you?

[ScarletBegonias]

we are just about to start using a compost toilet. i can't wait. it just seems responsible. we'll be living in a yurt/tipi/converted travel trailer for the next several years while we build a straw bale home, which will also have composting toilets.

what do you guys use as "cover" and where do you get it? we're going to be getting sawdust from a local hardwoods supply, as long as it keeps being free.

any obscure tips or ideas you'd like to pass along?

[Chicky2]

[ambivamom]

Hubby is downstairs at this very moment jigsawing our second toilet box. I am excited to do this but have a lot of reservations, too. We live in Baltimore City and I am still not sure about regulations.

Even more importantly: How do you tell guests about it? Anyone have friends who stop coming over?

[PreggieUBA2C]

We did this for a year and then had to move to a temporary cabin with an outhouse and now we live with septic still hooked up but without running water...

Once we gut the bathroom and cap the septic in the spring we'll be right back to the bucket toilet.

After having a bucket system, I found that I began to find flush toilets totally disgusting. I hate that the water splashes and the awful sound of the toilet which still startles me, if I remember to flush (I'm not forgetting anymore, but in the beginning after months of not flushing ever, I forgot a few times in public washrooms and remembered on the way home).

Most people where we live are accustomed to using outhouses- either their own or someone else's- so it isn't an issue to explain to put a handful of shavings/clippings to cover.

I'm going to seem horrible by saying this, but if my toilet is the reason for friends not to visit anymore, then they are free to stay in their sewage-loving comfort zone.

I don't make them use family cloth though. Even I can be somewhat hospitable now and again.

[kimmom]

Hi everyone!! Glad there is more of us around
For us with guests our close friends and their kids all us it, others pee outside or leave before they need to go WE are building our cob home this spring so will be putting in an outside composting toilet too. We are trying to pass ours through code without having a septic in first, that will be a first in this area, everyone else has septic but doesn't use it. I will let you all know how it goes. We will be plumbing the house to be "flush toilet ready" and having an engineered GreyWater System.
On a negative though we had someone call child services on us because we poop in a bucket!!! Horrible experience to go through but we did end up educating them on it all!! So be careful who you share your toilet excitement with
Back to the positive our compost pile is cooking away at 115F

[wallabi]

oh my - someone called CPS for your bucket toilet!!!! where have the little jaw droppy smileys gone? dh and I are foster parents and the toilet thing has never been an issue (but we are in Japan - rural Japan, where no-water, big-truck-comes-to-pump-out-a holding-tank-style toilets are still very common).

for cover we use a combo of sawdust (at the moment, plenty of that because dh is working on next years firewood) and rice hulls. Both work best when they have sat around being damp for a while. When we first had the toilet we used fresh, dry sawdust from lumber and it was too fluffy and didn`t absorb moisture well.

visitors - we just say here`s the toilet, here`s the bucket of rice hulls, please put some in when you are done. but, most of our visitors are expecting smelly hole over a holding tank type toilet, so our way is generally a pleasant surprise.

obscure tips - this really is obscure and odd, but really very good - to wash out the buckets after emptying, we use some very easy to make fermenty citrus liquid. gather up a big ol` bucket of citrus peels, put in enough water to cover and let sit in a warm spot (if you have one) until you have a very strong citrusy smelling liquid, and use a little bit of this liquid after you rinse out the bucket. impressive cleanliness results, and you can just dump the liquid out on your compost pile (unlike if you were to use soap or something). possibly some water with citrus peel essential oil would acheive similar results, but we happened to have a bucket of peels that went fermenty.

[PreggieUBA2C]

Originally Posted by wallabi

obscure tips - this really is obscure and odd, but really very good - to wash out the buckets after emptying, we use some very easy to make fermenty citrus liquid. gather up a big ol` bucket of citrus peels, put in enough water to cover and let sit in a warm spot (if you have one) until you have a very strong citrusy smelling liquid, and use a little bit of this liquid after you rinse out the bucket. impressive cleanliness results, and you can just dump the liquid out on your compost pile (unlike if you were to use soap or something). possibly some water with citrus peel essential oil would acheive similar results, but we happened to have a bucket of peels that went fermenty.

This is a fabulous tip that will make my dp very happy. We have used our dr bronner's, but then can't put it in compost obviously, so this is way better. Thanks!

P.s. It makes me happy too, but I don't do the toilet stuff when I'm pg and in the past, he has done it anyway because it is easier for him to lift the bucket than for me and it's not like I don't already have a million other domestic things going on. When he starts making our traditional foods, then we can talk about sharing toilet duty.

[chinupchamp]

[LessTraveledBy]

We are about to do this, so it was great to find this thread. Somehow the whole Humanure thing just sounds too good to be true. Can't wait to try!

[alaskaberry]

I'm subbing on this thread. We'd like to have a composting toilet, but we live in Interior AK and I'm not sure how well composting will work unless we put the compost box in a heated shed or something...I guess we're not at that point yet (right now we have an outhouse). I have the Humanure book, though! And wallabi, thanks for the citrus peel idea. {plus I've always wanted to visit rural Japan, I am very envious of you }

[I Fly]

We are building a house this spring/summer, and what we've designed is a full bath with "future toilet" plumbing, and a regularly plumbed 1/2 bath. We plan on using a bucket toilet in the family bathroom. We used one for a little while in a cabin where we stayed for 6 weeks. It was totally fine, although it was spring, not summer. We used sawdust, but apparently many of our friends find that decomposing leaves work much better and yield better compost. I can't remember how the sawdust throws the compost out of whack, but you might look into it.

The only gross part of our stay was emptying the bucket into the compost. The pile was a heaped mound, not flat with a little dug out center like the Humanure Handbook describes. So, we found ick rolling down to the sides and difficult to cover. When we set up our system, we are going to be pretty by-the-book about building the compost pile so that fresh additions are buried in the center.

[kimmom]

WOod chips work great just not Cedar, they dont break down very fast. We built our double compost pile from packing crates, very and works great! We used some wire around the sides and on top to keep any critters out. When we are about to dump we push aside the upper straw covering, dig a indent in the center with the pitch fork and dump into there, works well! Then recover and add more straw. Our pile is around 120F, we have just finished the one pile and are now leaving it so set for the year and have started a new one.
It will still work in cold temperatures, you just need more cover material.
I would like to hear more on the "Future Plumbing", do you have septic? We are trying to pass "Flush Toilet Ready" through our local building dept so we can install a composting toilet without a septic system.