Britesea said:
Actually, you can make a dry toilet for almost nothing. Build a box, cut the hole and insert a seat. Underneath, install a urine diverter and have two buckets: one for urine (which can be used in the garden right away) and one for feces (which needs to be composted). Sprinkle sawdust (the wet, living kind- like from a mill) over the feces everytime you go, to keep the smell down. Empty buckets as needed into composting barrels and allow to moulder for a year or more until it becomes compost.
I have read that there is little to no odor in the bathroom with this method.
This is the type of toilet I have in mind, since we are short on cash.
The bit about the sawdust is interesting. My grandfather had a latrine on a little island in Canada and he had us using 1/4 C or so of lime on-the-spot, followed by enough pine straw so you couldn't see the toilet tissue. Hadn't thought of wood, though. Why fresh? Is that just what's available?
What you described (above) is only part of the process. Actually, the seat and such are the least important. What matters is how you deal with the waste. Dealing with the waste so that you don't get hookworms, etc, or end up with fecal matter in runoff are critical. You probably already know this but composting poops safely is different from a pile of kitchen scraps.
Honestly, I am still struggling to figure out the difference between a cesspool and a proper latrine. I think most of the difference is that the latrine allows an active bacterial/mold/worm/etc culture that breaks down the poos. Most of that is sensitive to moisture, so urine diversion is another common feature. I wish I knew all the features that make a sustainable composting toilet/latrine....
There are a variety of dry systems that separate urine and feces.
