I am considering a composting toilet. Anyone ever used one? Pros and cons? Do you have to use peat moss for it to compost properly? I'm thinking there might be something I don't have to buy that I could use. As I understand basic composting, as long as you have the right ratio of browns and greens, composting should take place. Thoughts anyone?

-- Chris Tomlinson (horsewhisper411@hotmail.com), January 09, 2002

Answers

My brother had one; it didn't work. I'd buy from a reputable company.

-- Kevin (kevinmail@earthlink.net), January 09, 2002.

Go to the library and check out Humanure. It details a system of bucket composting that works just fine - we've been using it for over a year now and have no problems at all. And nothing could be less expensive!

We use sawdust, which we get by the pickup load - for free. Dried leaves, peat moss, wood chips - if fine enough, could all be used.

We don't know anyone who has bought a composting toilet who is happy with it. But the bucket system works very well and composts quickly. There are no nasty odors, either. We dump the buckets in the special bin for buckets only, hose them out into that bin, let them sit in the sun for a day or so and then reuse them. Have three buckets for solids, that we rotate using. Have two buckets for urine, and we rotate them also. Nothing could be simpler. Finished compost is used to fertilize fruit and nut trees.

-- Carol - in Virginia (carollm@rockbridge.net), January 10, 2002.

Here is the humanure web site. The book is there.

http://www.weblife.org/humanure/default.html

-- Rose (open_rose@hotmail.com), January 10, 2002.

I bought one 15 years ago, it sort of worked but it was always a problem. I used it mostly in the winter, (used the outhouse in the summer). Mine used Peat moss & Buckwheat hulls, keeping the moisturre balanced was the biggest problem and I ended up putting the end product down the outhose anyway.

-- hendo (redgate@echoweb.net), January 10, 2002.

Hello Chris,

I personally think they are a waste of money. The one that I use is a simple 5 gallon plastic bucket that sits inside a box. You can add sawdust or other natural ingredients inside the bucket as you use it. Empty the bucket in the outhouse or have an area set aside to empty it and allow it to decompose.

Modification on the box will allow you to vent the odors (if any) through a pvc pipe outside. You can attach a small fan like the ones inside computers to a switch so that you can actually draw the odors into the pipe and out of the bathroom. We use ours during the winter and do not need to modify the box. Summer use would require this modication as odors tend to increase during the warm months.

If you chose to compost the humanure, I suggest you allow it one or more years of decompositon before adding in to plants. The plants you should not use it on would be of course edibles. It works fine for compost on ortemental shubbery and the like.

I do it, my neighbor does it and Helen and Scott Nearing did it, authors of Living The Good Life.

Sincerely,

Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), January 10, 2002.

Sawdust, and the "humanure handbook" is the only way to go. I have 3 of them around our place and probably don't have $2 invested in all three. It is possible for me to get a truckload of sawdust, once a year or so; for free. That lasts all year. This is a considerably better solution than keeping the problem.

-- Ed Copp (OH) (edcopp@yahoo.com), January 10, 2002.

Check the archives at the bottom of the screen under Waste Disposal/Septic. We have both the electric and the non-electric Sun- Mar and are quite satisfied with them.

-- Katherine in KY (KyKatherine@Yahoo.com), January 10, 2002.

Dear Chris, there is a book called "Solviva" by Anna Edy, I think her name is. Anna worked a lot with developing her own composting toilet, and she writes about it in her book. She developed a waste management system for the entire island of Martha's Vineyard. Her book is about that, and also about her house, and the attatched greenhouse, which was all solar heated. It's full of wonderful ideas and beautiful pictures. You can order her plans for a composting toilet. A neighbor of mine used her plans, and his system works beautifully. They catch their solid waste in a box that has composting worms in it. The worms eat everything up within 24-48 hours and it never smells bad. There's a screen on the bottom of the box to let the liquids drain out. Good luck! And thank you to everyone for the great feedback. My husband and I were thinking about buying a ready made composting toilet. I haven't spoken to anyone yet who says theirs works satisfactorily. I agree with you all.

Christine

-- Christine Baillie (towanda515@yahoo.com), January 11, 2002.

We currently use a sun-mar composting toilet exclusively. After the first year, the crank handle got ready to break. You MUST keep the amount in the holding tank low to medium, to avoid breaking the handle. That means emptying the drawer no less than once a week. We have only used peat moss, but we buy it in bulk, so about $20 a year keeps us in peat moss. I think ground corncob would work, or any other very DRY ABSORBENT material in very small pieces. Whatever you use should be REALLY LIGHTWEIGHT. If we had it to do over, we'd get the kind of composting toilet that drops below the floor, and goes into a really big tank that needs cleaning or shoveling once a year instead of all the hard, messy work of emptying drawers and hauling not quite totally composted stuff to a larger trash can to finish composting before we use it. After all, it is human manure you will be dealing with and it don't smell like daffodils either. Oh, if you don't use enough moss, and don't keep the tank low, it will start to smell in your bathroom. We've only had ours smell twice, for the reasons listed. Ours has a fan, and it does work well when we follow manufacturers rules to the 'T'.

In a nutshell-

They work, but you MUST stay on top of the problem at all times for the equipment to hold up

You must be prepared to have a few trash cans, or a protected compost pile for the stuff to finish up

You MUST MUST MUST use lots of peat moss (or whatever) to keep the stuff in the toilet light and airy, or else your crank handle will break

Your flowers (not your veggies for safety reasons) will TOTALLY LOVE IT!

-- Marty in KS (Mrs.Puck@Excite.com), January 11, 2002.

Thanks to all for your input. My family is not keen on the "Humanure" idea and it sounds like most people don't like a composting toilet. We may have to do the leech field after all.

-- Chris Tomlinson (horsewhisper411@hotmail.com), January 11, 2002.

I keep getting re-interested in this sawdust toilet idea. One thing I wonder, How does it work in January? You dump the bucket of STUFF in the compost bin, but doesn't it just sit there in the cold? What about animals messing around with it? (my dog would just LOVE to roll in that!) Does the pile just sit until spring when it warms up enough to allow good composting?

The other issue I wondered about: How much pile maintnence is there to this system? Ie; how often do you turn it, check it for moisture, heat, and general messing around with poop?

Lots of questions from a skeptic.

-- James in ID (jlfinkbeinerSPAM@yahoo.com), January 11, 2002.

James read the book cited below:

I am quoting "The Humanure Handbook" by Joseph Jenkins here: Complete pathogen destruction is guaranteed by maintaining a temperature of 143.6 degrees F. for one hour, or 122 degrees F. for one day, and 114.8 degrees F. for one week, 109.4 degrees F. for on month." Currently we only plan on using this compost on our fruit trees.

-- Rick (Rick_122@hotmail.com), January 12, 2002.

Hi Chris:

Been using one kind or another for about 25-yrs. Three major brand mfrs are: www.envirolet.com; www.biolet.com; www.sun-mar.com.

Now they each have their own idiocyncracies and I'd be hard pressed to pick one over the other, but we use them all. Peat moss and sawdust are about all you'll need for their operation.

I live high up in the mountains, in a State that can and often does fine homeowners for polluting it's waters. That State also sends fines to Yellowstone Park, everytime their sewage disposal plant malfunctions sending hundreds of thousand of gallons of raw sewage into the rivers. They (NPS) don't pay the fines, but they're accumulating. Pretty soon some federal judge is gonna file a "lien" against the park service and won't that make the American public happy?!

Anyway, when we cut logs on the property to build cabins we get more than enough sawdust for various uses. Right now our five kids, who've moved back home, since the attacks, are building cabins. We gave each one of them 40-acres, a brand-new composting toilet, a spring and cistern for water and the beginnings of a garden. Matt

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 13, 2002.

Hi Chris! After reading most of these responses, I wouldn't want one either, but... what a lot of you are forgetting in your reluctance to use "humanure" is that if you don't have parasites and pathogens in your body to start with, you can't pass them into your garden. Why the squimmishness about waste?! You use cow, goat and chicken manure without a qualm, yet all of those animals are far more likely to be transferring nasty things to your soil than your own families will be.

This is a case of cultural bias, I think. Asians have been using human waste for centuries, and consider it a very valuable commodity. Check out Farmers of Forty Centuries by F.H. King for some valuable and eye opening info on farming with human waste.

As for composting toilets - there are way more varieties out there than anyone has even touched on. (Both manufactured and do-it- yourself.) The clivus-maltrum comes to mind immediately. Also consider waste burners. Just don't give up so soon. Water is far too precious a resource to waste on waste!

Debbie

-- Deborah Stephenson (wonkaandgypsy@hotmail.com), January 16, 2002.

Debbie, we use the composted waste in our coal burners for heating the machine sheds. We don't use it in the garden.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 16, 2002.