Starbucks composting toilet

[Zephod_beeblebrox2]

HolyBus... You make me think of food workers that don't wash their hands after going to the toilet.

[HolyBus]

Yep, same concept. Flies don't wash their feet ever. The fungus issues they must have. Yuck. Try to keep flies out if possible.

[Zephod_beeblebrox2]

Not only that but they spit on food to dissolve it to liquid and drink the result.

[jazty]

Originally Posted by ElizaHasAPlan

I'm going to be going with a bucket as well. It's cheaper, lighter, greener, and saves water.

As far as humanure goes though, I don't think you should spread it directly in the garden. It needs to cook in a compost bin for a couple of years, along with all of the other things you would compost. I wouldn't put any animal poop directly on my garden either, but plenty of the food we get from the grocery store is grown that way.

Yep, spreading it directly is a sure way to burn the plants. The only poop I know of so far that can be directly spread onto a garden is alpaca feces.. Perhaps if you followed an alpaca diet strictly you could spread your own immediately as well!

[Stu & Filo. T]

Spread it & work into the ground before planting, Growing up my dad would make us clean out the septic tank with 5gal buckets on a rope & we spread it on the garden, side note Condoms dont break down in a septic tank

[jazty]

Originally Posted by allwthrrider

Spread it & work into the ground before planting, Growing up my dad would make us clean out the septic tank with 5gal buckets on a rope & we spread it on the garden, side note Condoms dont break down in a septic tank

Though perhaps you don't know it, what you're actually saying is, "don't spread it immediately. Let it decompose for a year or more."

Septic tanks are something akin to a composting pile. You put the crap in and bacteria decomposes it. After the bacteria deals with the liquid, the liquid spreads into the septic field (underground). The solids go to the bottom of the tank where bacteria deal with them as well.

Nonetheless, I would NEVER spread wet, sloppy septic gunk directly onto the ground. The wet environment means that there could be unwanted pathogens still existing in the matter. Spreading directly is inviting the pathogens that you're body expelled (think an intestinal affliction, or the flu) back into the open where small hands can pick it up and bring it back into a body. If it's going directly into the ground, make sure that area is fenced off for quite some time. In my opinion, spreading directly is just bad practice.

In larger quantities our waste IS biohazardous waste.

[Zephod_beeblebrox2]

Buried is the best way to deal with poo. Just dig a hole, tip it in, cover over and in a few months it'll just be fertile soil.

[jazty]

Originally Posted by Zephod_beeblebrox2

Buried is the best way to deal with poo. Just dig a hole, tip it in, cover over and in a few months it'll just be fertile soil.

Agreed. If you don't care about spreading it, then burying is the best (far away from a water supply!). As an alternative to spreading manure, you can rotate a garden over top of the buried fertilizer in due time.

[HolyBus]

Used to be a business in Orlando that was treating human waste with worms. They were thin dark red worms. The worm excrement was then sold as fertilizer. That was probably 20 years ago. I remember when they started up because I called and they gave me a small bucket of the worms. I thought I had a great idea. I poured some into my septic and the rest over my drain field area. Big mistake. The excrement and worms clogged the drain field. I later had to have another put in because even having it pressure washed out from the inside didn't clear the perferations in the pipes. Doh! Expensive lesson learned. "when you think you have the answer, maybe there is a reason it is not done that way already"

[jazty]

Ah yes.. The red wriggler (eisenia fetida), probably. They make quick work of processing compost (biologically speaking. it still takes months).
We use them for a composting worm bin indoors. I haven't looked into it, but I wonder if they could be introduced to an open, outdoor poop compost pile...

[HolyBus]

Originally Posted by jazty

I wonder if they could be introduced to an open, outdoor poop compost pile...

That is what the business had. It was a large slab where a warehouse used to be. They had piles of waste in different stages of decomposition.

[jazty]

Originally Posted by HolyBus

That is what the business had. It was a large slab where a warehouse used to be. They had piles of waste in different stages of decomposition.

Sorry, I omitted a pertinent piece of information. What I meant was, "I wonder if they could be introduced to an open, outdoor poop compost pile in Canada". Compost produces plenty of heat, but I wonder if it could stave off the winter cold.

I think I'll give it a go, anyhow. If I build an enclosed box and use the leftover 2" rigid foam I have lying around it might do the job.

[rvingoffgrid]

depending on where you live , let the sun do your drying, i know of many who use coffee grounds but i don't drink coffee so i use tea grounds. the sun will dry them fast and free.

[Zephod_beeblebrox2]

Just a thought... If you use a metal pail for your toilet then put a sheet of glass over it with a small hole for evaporation, the sun should desiccate the fruits of your labors making them smaller and easier to store until disposal.

[EastCoastCB]

[crazycal]

Why won't this thread DIE!!!
It is leaving me verklempt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDXEgBh0TF0

[Scooternj]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs

[taw9]

Hola, Well, I guess I will just have to introduce myself on the toilet thread; been watching for a year or two, but after returning from Mexico and a new computer, had to redo my password. I applaud all the entries on this thread, for you are writing about poop in a land which tries to avoid the topic, much less have to deal with their own poop. (Forty percent of the household water use is flushed down the toilet in the US.) When i am in Mexico, I live offgrid, rain catchment, solar power and dry banyo. Sawdust is free, and I bag it into feed bags for a large supply ahead. I use macetas or large ceramic planters, the height of a toilet seat, inside put a plastic bucket with a handle, and atop it all, place a toilet seat. The advantage of this is you can put macetas all over and change those places depending on seasons and shade ; one inside , one outside in the garden. My neighbor has three such macetas on her property. With covering every use with sawdust, there is little odor. It is the pee, ironically, which causes the odor. I dump the bucket every three days or so, rinse it out and place a few scoops of sawdust in the new bucket going into the maceta. That bucket is dumped into a large wire enclosure, which gets covered with not only sawdust but also weeds, grasses, so it is covered with plant matter to compost. The rule of thumb is not to use it for seven years on food growing plants. There is a book called The Humanure Book which goes into the details of temperature, how-to ,etc. The glass is an interesting idea to try, probably resulting in a freeze dried result like the fancy separating toilets accomplish. It is amazing how something so simple can result in a product which costs so much once a way is figured how to make money off it.

[EastCoastCB]

[nat_ster]

The fact of how much fresh water is flushed into the toilet every year is completely wrong in every way.

IMO

This thread needs to continue. This is a really really important topic involved in bus life.

The members that want to clutter up this thread please take that to a different thread.

Maybe start a thread called "Pictures I make in all my free time". lol

Nat