Composting toilet

[Britesea]

When our leach field bit the Big One, we were somewhat lucky-- we were able to still install a new septic tank and leach field. BUT, the only place we could put the leach field was uphill from the septic tank; we need electricity to pump everything into the leach field. So I've been looking into alternatives in the event we lost electricity for more than a day or so. The simplest seems to be what is called a "sawdust toilet". Here is a good video about how they work:

 

[baymule]

Oh I like the idea of composting in place. And now I have to do some research into deep litter!

Make sure your coop and run have dirt floors, no wood or vinyl! I also toss in corn shucks, pea vines, Kitchen trimmings, end of garden plants, anything organic. What they don't eat, they compost!

 

[sumi]

Here's a good article on the deep litter method, from one of our sister forums:

http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/deep-litter-method-the-easiest-way-to-deal-with-chicken-litter-dlm

 

[sumi]

Back to the original question asked here, we've used a composting toilet for a bit, in the house we stayed in before emigrating and oh my heck… I don't know if it was because the house was originally build for ONE person only, but that thing could not handle 4 people and the smell… I'm sure there are better designs and better functioning designs out there, but that experience put me off them a bit.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

The legal cards are all stacked in favor of the contractors and the big guys. Makes me sick. Legal doesn't mean right. My septic tank works just fine and hopefully no neighbors decide they hate me and report me to the board of health, because it stinks to high heaven when all those beautiful, new houses, in new subdivisions have problems with their treatment plants. And supposedly, you can take a glass and fill it at the end of the system and drink it......yeah right.
Well, I have a potty chair in my room for when my feet hurt me too much in the morning for me to walk fast enough to get where I"m going and what I really want to make is a methane digestor, which I figure I can put our waste in there and then have a fuel source and compostable material to put into the garden later. As soon as I build one, I plan on getting pigs.
I don't see any reason to waste so much water flushing a toilet. My grandmother told me water is cheap, but its good to learn to conserve because if I am ever in a situation where I have to ration myself, I might suffer if I don't know how to economize on everything.
But for me, its not just the toilet.....its everything related to flooding my back yard. I make the shower water a comfy temp, wet myself, wet the towel and shut it off, soap up the towel and wash (with the water off), then I rinse off, which is pretty fast, then I towel dry, with my wash cloth, wring out that towel and then get really dry with the bath towel. I have particular ways to wash dishes as well. Start off with almost no dishwater and wash the cleanest in that, then the rinse water for those dishes, becomes more wash water for the next stuff and I'm still only trickling the water and don't even have a sink of it, until I am just about done with the real dirty stuff.
The one thing I splurge on, as far as water is concerned, is with clothes washing. I spent extra on my washing machine because I didn't want one of those Save the Earth washing machines, that use only 1/3 the water. I mean, how am I supposed to get clean clothes if I'm washing it in stew? But considering how much I conserve on the other areas of water consumption, I think I can do that.
But I only have one bathroom with a toilet right now. DH never finished the other bathroom, so its only a shower room and clothes washing station, but I'm wondering if a camping toilet would be Ok. I think you can get a gazillion flushes, before you need to empty out the tank. Not sure how the smell would be though.

 

[Denim Deb]

I have a camping toilet out at the farm. I don't flush it. Instead, I use a gallon jug of water and only use as much of that as I have to. The one I have takes bags instead of needing to be emptied. I don't let it get filled all the way.

 

[Yaya]

Composting toilets can be great but have to be done properly and cleared often enough
The main thing is ventilation and getting it dried out. Once dry you have no bugs and no smell.
A friend has one and built it as part of his water heating system. He has a huge fire to heat water in an old geyser and the daily fire dries the poop.
He also has a methane system from his pig manure and has been thinking on adding the human manure to this.....
But he has a stronger stomach than me lol.

 

[baymule]

I am A-OK with my passive septic tank. I make a phone call every 4-5 years, a truck comes, pumps it out and I write a check.