Yes, News!

I've just completed construction on my new sawdust toilet. It's out in the carport with the stain drying. I'll try to get up some pictures as soon as it's actually in operation but for some imaginary pics, just imagine a box about the size that a toilet without the tank might fit in. The box is made from oak plywood with a standard store bought oak toilet seat with brass hinges.

Though it has been in the planning stages for a few months since I read "The Humanure Handbook," I was forced to build the toilet after I found out I'd have to tear up the whole floor in my bathroom because of a water leak from the toilet supply line. That would leave me with no toilet for a few days or even weeks. So, I decided to build the sawdust toilet.

Construction was easy, though my toilet was a bit more complicated and expensive than "normal" ones are. In fact, if you can find some scrap lumber, old buckets, and a toilet seat, it would be essentially free. Mine cost $40 for the plywood, half of which is left over and $10 for the seat as well as some 2" screws, hinges and stain. My wife knows a woman whose husband is a carpenter, and they say we can have all the sawdust we want. I did have to buy buckets, but you can get those at any paint or big department store with a home improvement section.

Take a look around the internet for sawdust toilets and the theory behind their operation. It's basically a hot compost operation, allowing plenty of time to cook and cure. Then enjoy the richest compost you could imagine. After all the stuff I've read about composting toilets going wrong, I haven't found any complaints with the sawdust composting method, in fact, I've read a number of articles and stories about people who have been doing it for years.

The benefits are vast, especially from a sustainable living viewpoint. Think of all the water not wasted flushing the toilet, and all the energy and pollution saved from not treating that water both before and after the toilet. But the best part is that the nutrients go back into the garden or lawn or wherever you decide to put it. Returning the nutrients to the soil is something that rarely goes on in today's huge fertilizer fed farms.

I'll probably be using it for the first time some time tomorrow so I'll keep you up to date.

This poo's for you!!!
WiredForStereo

Be your own Waste Treatment Plant

Many or all of the problems related to human waste treatment could be eliminated at home. A very large proportion of our water usage (some estimate 40%) is nice clean water that we flush straight down the toilet.

This does us a disservice. All those nice nutrients that we've taken from the earth we are now going to flush down the crapper and it will end up most likely somewhere where it will do us no good. Most of our waste will end up as carbon dioxide, and the rest will be flushed down the river or sprayed out somewhere, or dried and landfilled.

So if we use composting toilets, we suddenly retain most of our nutrients for reuse and save 40% of our water usage. So what do we do with that extra 60% of water that gets used in the house? Well the first and best idea is to conserve it which can be done with standard low flow sink faucets and shower heads. But, since the water is not from toilets, it is much more free of harmful bacteria such as most fecal coliforms, it can be easily treated with plant and tree roots. This does not mean we just dump gray water out on the ground, this would cause mosquito and other pest problems as well as possible utrification. Do a couple of searches around, and you will easily find systems that treat gray water.

There are a couple of good ideas such as a reed bed system, or underground deposition similarly to a leech field, but much closer to the surface so that plants and trees can benefit from the water and nutrients. Most of these systems incorporate some type of holding tank that holds the water until there is a batch to be sent out, but not longer than a day to avoid the mix going south. The water then goes to a reed bed system, or to underground pipes that distribute it directly to root zones.

This type of system not only allows you to eliminate your water waste, but allows you to recycle it into your garden or lawn and water them too.

Water is one of the most important resources in the world, and just because it is easy come, it should not be easy go, because it may not always be that way.

WiredForStereo