#compost toilets

[rumade]

People in areas where the pipes are frozen: here is how you can make a simple dry toilet for solids.

You need a bucket with a lid, and sawdust. If you don't have a lid, store the "toilet" outside the back door.

Put a layer of sawdust about 2 inches deep in the bucket.

ONLY POOP IN THE BUCKET. Urine takes up a lot of space, is stinky, and messy and will use up your sawdust's absorption. Pee in a milk jug with lid if you can, or in a kitchen jug/pitcher, and then slosh down the sink.

After you use the bucket, give it a gentle shake. The sawdust will cover the poop. After a couple of uses, add more sawdust. It's fine to put the used paper in here too.

When this is all over- if you have a mulch/compost pile, add it to that. Do not use the resulting compost for food production (fruit trees/bushes is fine but on salad crops is a no no). If you don't have a compost pile, double bag and throw away with general rubbish.

I used this method when I was living on a site that had compost toilets very far from my house, and had stress induced IBS

[sustainablemountainarchitecture]

The existing toilets in the Habeli Outdoor Learning Center (HOLC) were not capable of handling the expected influx of new visitors so there was a need for more toilets. We also saw it as an opportunity to make it a demonstrative project to teach school children about ecological sanitation. 

We designed and built a dry compost toilet with heavy stone base and lighter timber structure on the top. Stones and wooden planks used for building the toilet were also salvaged from an old house that was demolished on the site. 

We followed a human waste disposal system that utilizes a water-less flush in conjunction with a tank in which urine and human fesses are collected separately and aerobic bacteria break down the waste, which later is used as fertilizer.

Client: HOLC SMA Team: Anne Feenstra, Bikash Palikhey, Aman Raj Khatakho, Bijay Shrestha

[reedienews]

On tap for tonight at Reunions, a fire-dancing rehearsal and the social-justice sing-along! Also, two presentations by alumni: Sasha Kramer ’99 on transforming waste into resources and Alex Gagne-Hawes ’07 performs his piece examining survival and sustainable resistance.

See details on Guidebook.

[followyourheartandkeepsmiling]

Dammit, off-grid community, you've done it again. You took something I swore I'd never do and made me love it. First it was living on well water and now it's compost toilets. My friends think I'm crazy and it's all your fault.

[seductivejellyfish]

Compost Toilets in Solarpunk

In my (granted short) amount of time exploring solarpunk, I have never once heard anyone mention compost toilets! So here are my thoughts. If you don't know what compost toilets are they are basically toilets where the poo and pee goes into a big compost box instead of into pipes. Basically a large box is built above or below ground and then a toilet seat can be added on top of it with a hole leading in. You do your business, wipe with biodegradable tp, and then usually scoop in a few woodchips to help with the composting. When the box needs to be emptied machines or people with carts empty it and bring it to a place to be used as fertilizer. It should be self explanatory, I think, why this fits in so well with solarpunk. Basically, it creates a way to live without wasting so much water, a way to nourish the ground, and a way for humans to give back to their environment in the basic way that all other animals do. Compost toilets are so cool because generally humans have fucked up the cycle of the environment by eating food and then not returning their waste to the ground. Compost toilets remedy that issue. But of course, anyone who has ever been in one may protest "they're so ugly and clunky!!! They smell disgusting!!! They only work sell with one toilet!!" While that may be true of the few I've been in, that's just the way our society has made them. It's very easy to modify that. Solarpunk compost toilets would have underground boxes. The insides would look basically like normal bathrooms. Except of course, they would have the ability of being decorated and beautifully designed just like every other building. They could also have decorated steps that lead to the door to empty the compost box, and solar powered machinery capable of emptying it. Not only that, imagine the adorable matching woodchips cans and the widespread use of biodegradable toilet paper. There could also be above ground boxes that use the sun to speed up the compression and process of compost. Plumbing is still a good idea for running water, but with the large infrastructure shift solarpunk calls for there's no reason these two systems can't exist side by side. Long story short, compost toilets are great and our future should include more of them. Especially our solarpunk future.

[shanghaimetalcorporation]

Tree Houses Are Not Just for Kids

Tree Houses Are Not Just for Kids

Today’s trend is to behave as much eco-friendly as you can. Recycle everything what is recyclable, produce less waste, save energy, build your houses in a sustainable way – live in harmony with nature.

These tree houses supported by metal piles are a great example of low-energy solutions, compost system and low water use taps and showers.

Tree house with metal piles

Bower House Construction uses…

View On WordPress

[downtownmarine]

Essential Ingredients Required for Composting Toilets

When people do shift to certain areas, where there is a limited source of water, it is pretty obvious that they have to use minimum amounts of water for everyday usages. Now, apart from drinking, water is also used for bathing and sanitation purposes. Now, if you are also in similar situation, then you will need to opt for composting sanitation process for water less sanitation experience. This certain concept of composting toilets is very simple and easy to understand. The technology involved is not rocket science and anyone with basic knowledge of science can understand the process and execute it smoothly. The person will only need the urge and will to execute it.

Whether, you are living in deserts or travelling through boats, you can always get hold of these compost toilets by either buying them through websites like downtimemarine.com or by creating one on your own. This process will also help you to get the faces broken down by different micro organisms into micro nutrients for the soli which in turn will fill up the void in nature’s cycle.

This method and technique also enables you to grow your own farm and make manure out of human wastes and faces. If anyone asks you the time zone from when this method has been put to use, then it would be probably from the nineties that this method has been extensively used all over the globe.

Important Elements

There are certain elements that you will require to arrange and bring upon for achieving the complete process of composting. Along with design these factors are also necessary and will decide the fate of your entire process. At first, it is very essential that you understand the elements that will help you achieving the process and these are namely Carbon, nitrogen, moisture, temperature and oxygen. A complete balance is very essential and a certain imbalance in the overall composition can lead to failure.

You might now ask about the importance of nitrogen. The answer would be that it is essential for the complete microbial decomposition of human faces and in particular the human urine. Carbon is also very essential for the overall decomposition operation and is required in a fraction of about 30 parts of carbon for every 1 part of nitrogen.

Now, a slight miscalculation and this whole process might be jeopardized. Carbon is added in the process by adjoining a carbon rich material in the compost system.  Now, there are a few examples of such material and they are respectively leaves, straw, sawdust, and shredded pepper. The carbon material is often regarded as the bulky agent and sometimes they are refereed as the covering material.

Oxygen is also very essential for completing this process of composting. The oxygen is mainly supplied through mechanical means that is either the process of tumbling or stirring or through the means of some sort of coarse carbonaceous cover matter.

Conclusion

You can easily grow nutrient rich plants and foods from the drainage system of composting. This method clearly provides a natural and efficient way of supplementing the Mother Nature.

Quin Summer is an efficient blog writer. He has penned many articles and micro blogging articles on the topic of compost toilets, aviation bags. His writings always contain authentic information and are widely followed by online readers.