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Composting Toilets

Thu, 2006-04-27 11:18 — jmdraft

Howdy,

I am interested in comments (pro or con) from people who own stand alone composting toilets.

I am NOT interested in testimonials from the manufacturers.

Dear Administrator,

How will I know if anybody responds?

Comments

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous
May 10th, 2006

composting toilets - should be the new trend

Hi, I have many friends with composting toilets...usually Clivus Multrum ...some SunMar...some sawdust buckets! It is important to move to composting toilets and I can see composting toilets in Parks, both rural and urban...and then catching on for people's rural residences and cottages...and then in trailer parks and coastal homes...and in green build communities..especially desert communities ....and then all over the place. The current technology of mixing toilet waste with industrial waste and moving it along the pipe with drinking water is very wasteful of water resources, and creates sludges and effluent that are very hard to manage environmentally. Source separation for our fecal wastes through composting toilets would be a huge step in pollution prevention and sustainable sanitation. Maureen Reilly Sludgewatch maureen.reilly@sympatico.ca
Geoffrey Tolle's picture
Geoffrey Tolle
April 30th, 2006

Re: Composting Toilets

  • [My HTML commands are not working]
  •      This may be a little off-target as it does not address an existing composting toilet but I think that the information is worth passing on.
  •      Two problems that I have noted with composting toilets are: 1) On a household scale, they are huge and 2) They take several months after last use to be considered theoretically pathogen-free and, even then, many communities won't accept your use of the wastes in yard, garden, or field.
  •       To deal with the household scale, I believe that the best answer may be to deal with the wastes in an external composter that is not connected to the earth toilet (composting toilet). This can be done on an individual or community scale and will require some research to be practical.
  •      To deal with the pathogen problem, I believe that the use of solar pasteurizers is the answer. Pasteurization is not quite sterilization but staying at >150 degree F for several hours will kill off all common pathogens that are likely to cause trouble in compost use. Small greenhouses (scaled to application) would be usable even in Winter in cold regions with minimal non-solar. Wastes from earth toilets would be collected in lidded buckets and placed in the solar pasteurizers (the time required is a function of greenhouse temp. and mass of toilet wastes). Once the pasteurization requirements are met, the wastes can be removed, mixed with carbonaceous wastes (paper, lawn wastes, etc.) and composted as normal.
  •      The benefits of the system are its fit into a solar economy, nearly complete pathogen reduction, integratability with current vermi/composting technologies, integratability with components of other household solid waste stream treatment (especially paper/lawn wastes), scalability for household to community scales, re-direction of waste stream, reduction of household water use, greatly reduced capital and maintenance costs compared to development of a sewage treatment plant and ensuing sewage lines, and potential increase in employment (if scaled to community use) because people will be needed to transport, pasteurize, and compost the wastes.
  •      I don't know if that helps but I hope that it provide something to think about. Also, if you haven't read it yet, you really should read Jenkin's "Humanure Book".
  • Geoffrey Tolle - If the future is dark, then at least we'll be able to see the stars.
arun1951's picture
arun1951
April 29th, 2006

composting toilets

Arun Shrivastava CMC

Dear Friend

I will send you details soon. Give me a few days. I constructed a community toilet in Delhi for Rs 1400, with partially donated labour. Seven years ago. Thw whole world needs composting toilets, so you have raised a critical question