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| Home > Resources > Composting > Home Composting > Composting Toilet |
Using a Home Composting ToiletBy Joan HarrisonIn 2005, my husband Mike and I celebrated the summer solstice by making that ‘someday’ move to the country. Mike had retired, I had finished my long-awaited agriculture degree from the university. We owned land with others north of Loon Lake, Saskatchewan, and had often discussed taking up permanent residence. Our house in the country is a two-story, no basement, super-insulated home (R40 walls). The only truly unusual thing about the house was the bathroom—there was no flush toilet. Water limitations and a general inclination to avoid using water for this purpose were the reasons that this was a ‘no flush’ zone. The original house builders had used a combination of an outhouse and a relatively compact commercial compost toilet to serve the needs of their family of four. They had had enough problems with the toilet that they didn’t recommend it. We were well aware of this issue long before the move. Given my personal and professional interest in composting, some type of composting toilet seemed to be an obvious choice. The commercial compost toilets with the best reputation are the models with large composting tanks, that are usually housed in warm basements (see www.clivusmultrum.com) and we didn’t have a basement. We chose to experiment with a much simpler approach and have been pleased with the results. The system we use is called a ‘humanure toilet’ by Joe Jenkins (see box). It is a two-stage process: indoor collection and outdoor composting. The indoor toilet is a five gallon plastic bucket housed in a wooden enclosure fitted with a standard plastic toilet seat. After each use, the toilet is ‘flushed’ by adding a scoop of aged sawdust, which covers the new deposit, acts as a biofilter that prevents odours, and adds the carbon needed for a balanced compost mix. Toilet paper is also placed in the bucket. We have modified the system by lining the bucket with a compostable plastic bag (35 litre Biobag purchased on-line from dirtworks.net). With two of us using the toilet, the bucket needs to be emptied every two days.
The actual composting is done outdoors in a four-bin system made from pallets. Each bin is at least a cubic metre in size. We have chosen to compost the ‘humanure’ in a separate system from our kitchen and garden materials. The bins are built behind a shed, relatively close to the house. The bottom of each unit is open to the ground and is covered with a thick (30 cm) absorptive layer of hay or leaves before any toilet material is added. The compostable bags make the dumping process quite tidy. The buckets usually need to be rinsed with a couple of litres of water after use because the bags are designed to ‘breathe’ so are not completely moisture proof. The water is added to the compost bin and the empty pail is left outside to air for a day. Each time a bucket is emptied into the bin, a cover layer of leaves or hay is added. We have settled on a two-year cycle to let the compost process unfold, a timeframe that is supposed to be adequate for disease organisms to be destroyed. The first compost was harvested this fall. It was nice, earthy-smelling material that was used to upgrade soil in a large flower bed. We plan to use the next batches to amend soil where we plant fruit trees. This toilet system is quite appropriate for use in rural areas where there is space available for composting and easy access to sawdust and hay. The sawdust provides amazing odour control. The compost process addresses health concerns. The major work involved for us is connected with the sawdust. We are mining an old pile on the property. It is compressed enough that we screen it to make it more scoopable. We use two half-ton loads a year. (Source: November 2007 WasteWatch)
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