4 ms·

The no-flush movement: the unexpected rise of the composting toilet

23 points by ciconia 7y ago

duelingjello 7y ago
Quakers and Mennonites have been doing it similar to this way for hundreds of years.
mc32 7y ago
Does this process address issues associated with pathogens like e-coli, etc? Japan also used to collect waste to use as fertilizer[1]. Though with modern fertilizers it’s little used. [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_soil#Japan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_soil#Japan
- brippalcharrid 7y ago
  It can close the parasite lifecycle loop when it's used for agriculture, so it's best avoided for growing stuff that's going to reenter the foodchain. The defector from North Korea who was in the news a couple of years ago was found to be full of parasitic worms when he was operated on, apparently because NK is using nightsoil to fertilise crops. https://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/04/health/north-korea-defector-doctor-intl/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/04/health/north-korea-defect...
notjtrig 7y ago
Urine has a NPK of 11-2-4, that’s something you $10 a bottle for at a garden store, it definitely has a noticeable impact on plant life, especially nitrogen hungry corn. My farm was built with an outhouse, today it has a toilet with a septic system where the waste is stored and liquids dispersed underground. It’s wasteful and destructive to the water table, but convenient and recognized as safe, despite being biggest water quality threat in rural areas. Composting toilets are definitely needed if we’re going to keep up this standard of living we’ve grown accustom to.
- wool_gather 7y ago
  Can you use human urine directly as fertilizer or are there other chemicals in there that are not so good for the plants?
tomatocracy 7y ago
I'm always surprised that urinals (especially so-called 'waterless' urinals) haven't taken off more in residential settings - they don't take a huge amount of space, can pay for themselves in terms of water costs relatively quickly if you have metered water and enough men/boys in the house and don't present any particular new issues in terms of dealing with waste. For toilets, gray water systems (using waste bath/shower water to fill the toilet) equally achieves savings (at a cost of space) without people needing to do anything different.
- Flozzin 7y ago
  Why install a urinal when there is a perfectly good sink just sitting there?
  - tuesdayrain 7y ago
    That reads like a joke but I'm genuinely curious what the answer is.
    - Flozzin 7y ago
      I was half joking. I read an article from dollar shave club a while ago on the subject. Apparently some men do it. Just a warning, their articles are closer to click bait than to journalism. https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/content/story/toward-grand-unifying-theory-men-pee-sink https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/content/story/toward-grand-u...
opwieurposiu 7y ago
I installed a composting toilet a few months ago at an off-grid cabin in the mountains. The important thing to get right is the venting system. This keeps a negative pressure in the compost chamber so air is continually drawn down through the toilet and up out the vent stack. When this is working correctly the bathroom will have no smell at all. The second thing to worry about is the overflow drain. Depending on temperature and usage, urine may not evaporate faster then it is added. There is an overflow drain to handle this situation. Local building codes may require you to pipe the overflow to a conventional septic system, thus negating a lot of the cost and simplicity benefits of a composting toilet.
throw0101a 7y ago
A practical advice video on the topic by the (formerly) RVing couple Gone with the Wynns: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYR6GPmDzVM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYR6GPmDzVM They actually switched to a sailboat a few years ago for their travels and are now partly across Pacific (per recent episodes). Still use a composting toilet on the boat.

23 points by ciconia 7y ago

Quakers and Mennonites have been doing it similar to this way for hundreds of years.

mc32 7y ago

Does this process address issues associated with pathogens like e-coli, etc? Japan also used to collect waste to use as fertilizer[1]. Though with modern fertilizers it’s little used. [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_soil#Japan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_soil#Japan

brippalcharrid 7y ago
It can close the parasite lifecycle loop when it's used for agriculture, so it's best avoided for growing stuff that's going to reenter the foodchain. The defector from North Korea who was in the news a couple of years ago was found to be full of parasitic worms when he was operated on, apparently because NK is using nightsoil to fertilise crops. https://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/04/health/north-korea-defector-doctor-intl/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/04/health/north-korea-defect...

notjtrig 7y ago

Urine has a NPK of 11-2-4, that’s something you $10 a bottle for at a garden store, it definitely has a noticeable impact on plant life, especially nitrogen hungry corn. My farm was built with an outhouse, today it has a toilet with a septic system where the waste is stored and liquids dispersed underground. It’s wasteful and destructive to the water table, but convenient and recognized as safe, despite being biggest water quality threat in rural areas. Composting toilets are definitely needed if we’re going to keep up this standard of living we’ve grown accustom to.

wool_gather 7y ago
Can you use human urine directly as fertilizer or are there other chemicals in there that are not so good for the plants?

tomatocracy 7y ago

I'm always surprised that urinals (especially so-called 'waterless' urinals) haven't taken off more in residential settings - they don't take a huge amount of space, can pay for themselves in terms of water costs relatively quickly if you have metered water and enough men/boys in the house and don't present any particular new issues in terms of dealing with waste. For toilets, gray water systems (using waste bath/shower water to fill the toilet) equally achieves savings (at a cost of space) without people needing to do anything different.

Flozzin 7y ago
Why install a urinal when there is a perfectly good sink just sitting there?
- tuesdayrain 7y ago
  That reads like a joke but I'm genuinely curious what the answer is.
  - Flozzin 7y ago
    I was half joking. I read an article from dollar shave club a while ago on the subject. Apparently some men do it. Just a warning, their articles are closer to click bait than to journalism. https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/content/story/toward-grand-unifying-theory-men-pee-sink https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/content/story/toward-grand-u...

opwieurposiu 7y ago

I installed a composting toilet a few months ago at an off-grid cabin in the mountains. The important thing to get right is the venting system. This keeps a negative pressure in the compost chamber so air is continually drawn down through the toilet and up out the vent stack. When this is working correctly the bathroom will have no smell at all. The second thing to worry about is the overflow drain. Depending on temperature and usage, urine may not evaporate faster then it is added. There is an overflow drain to handle this situation. Local building codes may require you to pipe the overflow to a conventional septic system, thus negating a lot of the cost and simplicity benefits of a composting toilet.

throw0101a 7y ago

A practical advice video on the topic by the (formerly) RVing couple Gone with the Wynns: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYR6GPmDzVM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYR6GPmDzVM They actually switched to a sailboat a few years ago for their travels and are now partly across Pacific (per recent episodes). Still use a composting toilet on the boat.