We use two compost toilets. We also have a regular flush toilet. We had it removed, but then replaced it when we realized that some of our guests would leave early to avoid using our humanure toilet, which is admittedly a fancy name for a bucket with sawdust. They just don’t know what they are missing!
Maybe it’s just a whacky fascination on my part, but I think the sawdust toilet is actually quite fun to use. Here are some advantages: it will never overflow when your child uses too much toilet paper, no noise when you tinkle (no tinkle) or “flush”, no water used except the small amount to rinse the bucket. It was extremely easy to make and it returns nutrients to the soil and relieves our septic tank of excessive burden. In fact, we’ll probably never need the septic pumped again as it is essentially a large underground greywater tank now. The biggest disadvantage? Convincing your guests that you aren’t crazy and they really should give it a try. We’ve posted a sign and instructions near our toilets so that people can understand the reasoning behind it and how to use it properly.
C’mon, don’t be squeamish, composting can be enlightening and there really is no issues with smell at all! Try it!
This post was submitted by Gaia .
Yay! We use humanure buckets, too (with sawdust) and build a compost pile outside for hot composting (kills any germs) as shown in Humanure Handbook. I love closing the nutrient loop and not polluting water by flushing poop!
Comment by greta — September 13, 2009 @ 4:59 pm