What is a Composting Toilet?
November 23, 2009 – 6:14 pm by MarinaHanes
Imagine having a zero-waste system for your home. This would be an ideal situation, but you’re not going to reach this dream by continuing to use your toilet. All of you waste along with gallons of fresh water gets flushed down to your local water treatment plant, which then uses fossil fuels to purify and chemically treat the water. However, you can eliminate your use of a conventional toilet by creating a composting toilet.
A composting toilet is a simple way to turn your waste into something useful. It’s common to use cow and horse manure to enrich the soil, so why not use human waste as fertilizer? A human’s manure is full of nitrogen, so it’s just as an effective fertilizer. In comparison to processed and chemical containing fertilizers, it’s more efficient and eco-friendly.
Similar to a compost bin that you would use for food scraps and yard refuse, a composting toilet contains waste (urine and fecal matter). A composting toilet can be made with simple items such as a bucket and toilet seat. If you don’t like the idea of going to the bathroom outside, you can keep the composting toilet in your garage. Once one or two buckets are full, you take it outside and add it to your human manure compost pile. As with any compost bin, it should remain odor free as long as it’s maintained properly. Since it contains human waste, you will have to take some precautions to prevent groundwater contamination and scavenging animals. However, it’s a fairly simple process to get the hang of.
Within a couple years, the compost can be used as fertilizer around your home and even in certain areas of your garden (e.g. blueberry bushes, apple orchards, etc.). A composting toilet has numerous benefits including saving water, reducing your dependency on water treatment plants and eliminating the need for chemical fertilizers. This method of composting will also help you become one step closer to making your home a zero-waste system.
