Make your own composting toilet with a bucket, a toilet seat and some sawdust or other wood debris. Perfect for the rustic cabin or camping, you can solve your own sewer issues with a composting toilet.
The bucket can be placed inside a nice cabinet or a homemade wooden frame. Simply place a toilet seat on top, have a squat, do your duty, and cover it up with a layer of mulch. Urine and excrement alike will be absorbed and start to break down immediately.
The http://www.humanurehandbook.com/humanure_toilet.html offers clear instructions, pictures and videos about how to make and maintain various styles of composting toilets. Personal experience may vary, but this author was impressed with how one bucket took care of a family of four for an entire week in the wilds of Montana.
Set your facility up in an accessible area or behind closed doors if you need extra privacy. Place a roll of biodegradable toilet paper close by, and put a scoop in your bucket of compost nearby, too. If each deposit is thoroughly covered, the smell will not be noticeable. In fact, users may be able to place their face near the open lid and only smell the woodsy odor of shavings.
Empty the bucket as it fills up to the top. For regular use, deposit the humanure into a compost area that gets plenty of moisture. Cover it with grass trimmings or hay to keep it looking nice. Turn the inner layers with a pitchfork every time more compost is added. Kitchen scraps and garden leavings may be included as well. Allow a full year for thorough breakdown of bacteria and then mulch into next year’s garden.
Rinse the bucket with water from a rain barrel if possible. Use environmentally-friendly dish soap and a scrub brush used solely for that task. Because compost piles crave moisture, dump the rinse water into the compost pile. Gutter water can also be directed to drain down into the compost pile. Be sure to keep the compost pile contained or fenced so that small chlldren and animals are not tempted to play in or around it.
Making your own composting toilet saves water, plumbing costs, and connects us with the earth. Waste isn’t wasted when it’s returned to the ground. It will produce more food, bringing the cycle of sustenance full-circle, back around to benefit us again and again.
