I’m looking for local folks to chat with about the specific conditions we have in Newfoundland with regard to composting. Any NLers around?

We have a compositing toilet. We were able to get a truckbed full of sawdust to start but we are weirdly having a hard time getting our hands on more. Our local cabinet shops sell it off by the semi load, the nearest saw mill is an hour off. What have yall used instead of sawdust?

I am new to this and have some compost toilets which are used by 3 people but I filled the first bay (1.5 square meters or so) very quickly and so built a second of the same size which is almost full after only 1 month.

The temperature has been mostly around 45C (113F) and has been up to 55C (131F) and is a mix of toilet material, sawdust and kitchen waste. If I was to guess, about 60% of it is sawdust.

I live on a sawmill so fresh sawdust from newly cut timber is very plentiful and so this is the only carbon material we use on the piles, this is including in the biological sponge which we did as mentioned in the compost toilet handbook we filled the bays to halfway full before putting in any toilet material or kitchen waste.

My guess would be that there is too much sawdust compared to other materials but as I said, I am very new to this and so any help is appreciated!

I am doing the centre feeding method as described in The Compost Toilet Handbook which is where you dig into the centre of the compost heap, deposit your fresh material and then cover it all back up with cover material (in our case more sawdust)

We are anticipating our first baby in November. We’ve got the classic bucket system and a grey water design for our shower/sinks/laundry/dishwasher.

I’m wondering what systems folks have used to spray off baby poop (more so an issue once they start solids) from cloth diapers. The usual system is the hose sprayer connected to toilet, spray off poop into toilet.

I think we could connect the same sprayer to our sink and spray into a bucket…

Any ideas? Have yall created a system that works well?

I have a Sunmar compost toilet at my summer cabin. After seeing gnats, I sprayed the compost with pyrethrin. (Diluted with water first). This is the advice in the Sunmar manual. It initially got rid of the gnats, but they are back. I am not sure if I should dump it, clean it, and start over. There is a chance someone put a wipe in the toilet and contaminated it. Has anyone had experience with gnats, and pyrethrin ? Thanks in advance

Bucket toilets make the best compost and are obviously the cheapest option but the trade off is the amount of labor in creating and moving cover material, and moving and cleaning buckets. All that work became just too much for me finally so went with the Separett. Its a good compromise of features but not overly complex. I had tried a Sunmar in the past and was not happy with it. I prefer the type of toilet where the composting happens in a pile rather than in place (a lot more feasible IMO)

Downsides to Separett so far seem like: consumable bags that need to be purchased, power consumption from constantly running fan, indoor air gets exhausted outside constantly losing indoor temp (cool or hot), and urine lost/not composted

Upsides: 3 weeks before emptying toilet instead of days, load to empty is lighter, zero smell, more guest friendly, no cover material needed

Anyone else using one?

I started a humanure compost bin in March, about 3 and a half months ago. This still hasn't heated up or begun reducing in volume so I have slowed down adding to it. Thoughts?

How do you deal with coding and zoning when it comes to humanure? When it comes time to buy a property how do you approach the county or town about this? Thanks!

Update: I went out there last weekend, and miraculously, the bucket did not stink, nor were there maggots. The weather has been between 50 and 70 for the last month, so I expected it to be bad. The bucket is almost 3/4 full now. I plan to build the compost bin and get it started with any food scraps underneath. In the height of summer, I plan to empty it every 1-2 weeks regardless. I really appreciate your kind responses and help.

Original Post:

Hello! This might be a silly question, but I own property that I visit approximately once every two weeks and stay overnight for a few nights occasionally. I was very excited to create a compost pile and use a compost toilet vs. a latrine (yuck!) I got everything started, and my husband, son, and I stayed out there a few nights. We only filled the bucket about a quarter full in our outhouse, and we left, and I thought nothing of it. We didn't end up going back for a couple of weeks just for the day, and then I wondered if letting this partially full bin languish for months at a time was a good idea. Is there a time frame for how long a bin can be in use before it needs to be dumped? Should I dump it every time we are out there? Pity me, I am quite new to this. It smelled quite foul the last time I went out there, so I threw a bunch of cover material on it.

Came across this post: Blessed are the Bucket Poopers, an excerpt from Life at the End of Us vs Them. Interesting perspective on Development, whether for First Nations as in this post or India, my area of interest.

New to composting humanure, not new to composting organic waste from kitchen and garden. I typically keep my compost bins uncovered so rainwater can keep the material moist and active.

Now that I plan to add humanure to the bin, am wondering why all of the outside compost bins I see on The Compost Toilet Handbook have a cover. Is it to keep out rainwater? Or rodents?

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Hello,

About a week ago I noticed some kind of rodent had gotten into my humanure compost pile ... tonight while peeing on it I caught a rat scurrying off ... any suggestions on what to do?

The top of the pile is open, so they can get right in. I had the pile for about 3? months before they discovered it. I don't think we have lots of rats in my suburban area (Santa Barbara), but definitely some around ...

(I could snap trap/kill the one[s] that discovered it and bury them in the pile ... or try to rat proof the pile ... or ?? ...)

LW

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My black water tank has excess water that I would like to remove by capillary or other passive technique .

I transfer the materials to five gallon buckets, and want to dewater as much as possible. Any suggestions?

Hello! I have been living off grid on a land that composts human poop as the method of tending to that human process rather than using a septic system. I am a woman and I have a very challenging time holding in urine while I poop. I am wondering if that is a skill one can cultivate through training our muscles and if so can anyone share helpful content? We tend to wait months for the feces to dry out and then dump in a region of land that has been designated and safe for this purpose, however, today I went to check one of my bins with someone else, they told me that the contents of the bin is awful and toxic, bc of how watery it is. I need to learn solutions to be able to get the contents of the bin to a safer, dryer way, and also how other women or people have learned to compost human feces safely and responsibly. I am going to read the Humanure Handbook as well.

Hello, has anyone any experience with or know examples of toilet composting systems for a place that hosts more or less 50 people everyday? I haven't found much on the internet. Has anyone here read the latest book of Joseph Jenkins : The Compost toilet Handbook and knows if I could find some practical examples in there? Thanks

Hello,

I've been collecting my poop & pee in 5 gallon buckets for about 9 months now (9 buckets maybe?).

I just built a compost bin for the waste (so far I've just been storing it).

Question 1: is cover material for the poop/pee a good idea in the bucket for the overall/long term composting process? I was using it (first sawdust then coco coir) and then just stopped after a while, so just started collecting poop/pee exclusively in the last 5 or so buckets ... (I don't mind the smell too much and keep the bucket closed when not in use)

Question 2: how important is the "nest"/"biological sponge) for the compost bin (made of straw etc.)? I don't really mind if some of the material leaks out and/or into the ground ... my goal is just to compost it naturally (I'm stoked if it "fires" ... but also OK with it just sitting there for longer) ...

I'm also OK with the cedar boards on the bin breaking down/rotting over time ... not too worried about that (the bin is also compostable / doesn't need to last more than a couple years)

Thanks for your input!

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LW

I've been composting my humanure for a few months now but I'm having a little trouble getting my pile to heat up. Worst case I can just let the compost age for a year and use it on non-food plants, so if it doesn't get up to the 100's it's not the end of the world. But as I'm troubleshooting this, I was wondering about the carbon-nitrogen ratio and how it might be difficult to get to that ideal ratio of 20:1 or 30:1.

According to the humanure handbook, feces and urine have a C:N of about 7 and 1 respectively, while sawdust (the recommended cover material) has a C:N of 200-500 (let's say 350). I'd say that on average, it takes about as much sawdust to cover up my deposits as the deposit itself (by volume), so a cup of feces is covered by a cup of sawdust, a quart of urine gets soaked up by about a quart of sawdust, and so on. But if I plug those numbers into a compost calculator, I get a C:N ratio of almost 200:1, which is way higher in carbon than you'd need to go thermophilic.

Am I using too much cover material? I can't see myself going much lighter on the sawdust without urine pooling in the bucket, but this seems like it's way too carbon-heavy to heat up.

Does anyone have any firsthand experience with a Watson Wick system? I've read about it and it's appealing to me because it sounds like, theoretically, it combines some of the best features of septic systems and humanure composting.

There just seems to be a lack of practical pictures and videos on YouTube etc for such a system (whole there are tons of videos and pictures for regular humanure composting systems, as well as regular septic systems). I'm scared that in building it, it might just become a stinky leach field. I'm hoping someone can say "yeah I built one in my yard and it's great!"

This webpage has pretty much the most info I've been able to find online: https://oasisdesign.net/compostingtoilets/watsonwick.htm

More info:

https://www.engineeringforchange.org/solutions/product/tiger-toilet/ https://www.tbfenvironmental.in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OYktvbdRto

I see there are lots of options out there for compostable plastic bags but I think not all will compost well in a smaller scale pile. Has anyone found one that works well?

I have thus far been using buckets without liners but the cleaning is laborious and I am willing to spend some money to cut down on the amount of chore time.

Thanks :)

I’m looking for better cover material options for my toilet. I haven’t found sawdust in my area (coastal NC). I’ve used peat moss but I think it’s super dense - now my pile sits barely warm enough. I used shavings initially as it was all I had - pile got hot - but I’ve heard these don’t break down well. I did see super fine shavings wood (?pine) for animal bedding. I think it’s kiln dried but I will be peeing on it & live in a pretty humid, decently rainy area. For the pile, I’ve been using up the leaf mould mixed with fresher leaves on my wooded property. The struggle is not getting too many sticks in the pile. Any alternatives that worked well for you?

I'm thinking about starting to shit in buckets :). But, I'm worried that when I build a pile, pests could get in it and spread disease. E.g. flies could fly from pile and onto food when eating outdoors. Or a mouse, lizard or whatever may go from pile and get caught by a cat, etc. Do pests typically get in these piles? Are there good, practical ways to keep pests out?

I live in a somewhat suburban area on a 3/4 acre lot, and can maybe build a pile ~75ft away from my house.

Hi all

We just moved into our new house and we want to build our own compost toilet. However, I've been looking around for affordable bulking materials, and I'm a bit shocked how expensive they are. I inquired at the local sawmill, but they don't separate treated from untreated wood. Only alternative, so it seems, are shops for pet supplies. But there, bags of wood shavings or hemp husks cost like 20-30 EUR for a couple of weeks of pooping, which would amount to a pretty high cost per year. However, we do have a large garden that could give us a steady supply of trimmings of all sorts, and small branches that we can shred. Most of it coniferous for now, but we will gradually transition to more broadleaf species in the years to come. It would be a bit of a challenge to dry this material in rainy Belgium, but I think I could find a way. Do you think I could use this as a (partial) substitute for the more expensive bulking materials?

Hi all! (asking in Tiny Houses subreddit too; please suggest others)

I'm optimizing my greywater system so looking for recommendations for a pump system as I don't have enough slope for passive flow. I have a greywater outlet pipe on the back of the house & currently have an RV sewage line running to a hose to a drainage site in the woods (basic filter inline). It's not ideal & with too little grade I have to actively mess with the line to ensure drainage and prevent water from being stalled in the hose. I am very careful with what goes in the drain.

I'm making a planter box for the greywater - modeled in the Humanure book & other sites. I need a way to actively pump the greywater from the outlet to the planter on demand. One idea is a sump pump in a collection tank with a float switch, ideally would run with batteries/solar as I don't have an outdoor outlet. I looked at ram pumps but those need continuous flow.

Any experience/recommendations?

Thanks!

Hi folks - my wife moved to the farm 2 years ago, and uses the compost toilets here, but is definitely not sold on them. We have one DIY one, and one bought one.

We are renovating a cottage on the property for our forever home, and toilet choice is a problem. Too far out to connect to sewerage, and too low for septic tank - there was a septic tank there previously, but it never worked well, because there is no fall.

Any recommendations for wife/critic friendly compost toilets? preferably run without electricity. bonus points if available in europe. thanks!