Toilet Composting with Worms? Vermicomposting

[Rogue 1]

Has anyone tried this or considered this?

I’m strongly leaning this way, but it would be nice to know if anyone else has done this successfully while being mobile with your bus.

Like all things, there are challenges as well as benefits.

The expected benefits.
- much faster composting times-
- they will consume most organic things, exclusions: (animal proteins, dairy, citrus and limit the amount of urine they get)
-a great fertilizer-
- low to no smell- (hopefully)

The challenges.
-Keeping the temperature range right or else they’ll die.- (45 to 85 optimal)
- they need some monitoring, to be sure they can thrive-
- building a system that is easy to maintain and Empty-

 

[turf]

So cool we now have a thanks button!

 

[Setsu-P]

I hadn't considered worms, but I am thinking of getting one of those small size composting bins, just because I'm in the habit of composting green from the kitchen when I cook (or expired dairy and eggshells), and want to be able to grow greens and nip for the cats.

I'd say don't go with a standard plastic storage bin - that's what I have now, and the heat of the compost process warps it like crazy.

 

[PNW_Steve]

I ran across a lady, over on Permits.com, who did what you are describing.

It's been a while since I read about it. I do remember that she built two managably sized compost bins with the idea that when one filled up she could swap bins.

In practice, after many months of use, the first bin had not filled up yet.

IIRC: she use "redworms"

 

[Rogue 1]

Thanks Steve,
That’s good to know it has been done before successfully.
I’ll check out Permits.com to.

 

[PNW_Steve]

Darn auto-correct.

Www.permies.com

Not permits....

 

[warewolff]

I'm currently running a Nature's Head composting toilet on the bus ... I upgraded the fan so I don't get any backdraft driving down the road but other than that it's stock. Additionally, I run a separate vermicompost bin in the kitchen. I've never mixed the two but I would have tried it already if my fiance wasn't so adamaently against it. Something about pooping on top of a thousand worms freaks her out.

The cool thing about raising worms is that they'll breed in just a few months time and produce worm babies that are more suited to the environment. Survival of the fittest and all. So you can breed worms that can survive a lot of abuse. I know it's weird, but you might try using a compost toilet for awhile and testing the pH after it's nearly full to see if your waste acidity is neutral for the worms. Take a handful out of your composting bin, mix it with a little bit of water, and use a pool strip or an electronic pH tester. It would depend on your diet, I guess, but I've found the red wigglers in particular prefer a pretty neutral pH. I sometimes have problems when I add a lot of tomatoes, peppers, or coffee grinds to my vermicompost bin. I combat this by saving all of my egg shells (I go through easily 10 or 15 eggs a week), pulverize them and sprinkle the dust in every other feeding. We've probably got two or three thousand worms as of now. So ... if your waste is a little on the acidic side, consider saving eggshells to naturally add a little calcium or maybe even add a little lime every now and then. Also make sure you're diverting your urine completely as the little guys need oxygen to breathe.

Worms love ****. You just have to make sure you are providing the right
environment. (Think: am I comfortable at this temperature? Is my **** so acidic that it would burn my eyes? If you answered yes to either of those questions, your worms are uncomfortable.)

Hope I helped and vermicompost on.

To answer your question, it absolutely CAN be done. There are experimental vermicompost septic systems that you can view on Youtube, and EVERYTHING goes through there. Excrement, urine, soap, you name it. They survive.

 

[PNW_Steve]

Not entirely on point but some relevant info: https://www.wormfarm.com.au/septic-tank-worms/

 

[Rogue 1]

warewolf, Thanks or the great information.

A question for you.
1)What are you using for a worm bin?

2)Does it have bottom drainage for the so called “worm tea”

 

[warewolff]

warewolf, Thanks or the great information.

A question for you.
1)What are you using for a worm bin?

2)Does it have bottom drainage for the so called “worm tea”

Currently have a Nature's Footprint Wormbin 360. It's a little on the expensive side but doesn't look too shabby in the kitchen. Yes, there is a drain at the bottom for "worm tea" but I rarely need to use it. In fact, I've only used it once when I added too much juicy fruit. You shouldn't need to use it unless your medium is over watered.

 

[Rogue 1]

For anyone that may be interested in my vermicomposting toilet pre plan.

I will start with a large cooler. It gets a false bottom installed for drainage. It has holes through it with plastic screen glued over this bottom piece. This will be to keep the compost from becoming to water logged.

A ventilation system that blows air into a cut hole in the cooler.
- a small fan with on/ off switch
- fan housing and tubing to a cooler hole I cut.
-inside small pipe to direct air flow to both the top area and the below drainage space.
- an air vent hole at a high point in the cooler wall, on the back, routed to a small

exterior bus wall hole.

Divider
The cooler Interior will be divided in half with a ridged plastic wall.
- this wall will have some holes cut through it.
-The wall also has a pull up removable sliding section that keeps the holes closed up most of the time.
(this type of wall set up is to help the worms self separate over to the other half when the first half is full).

(( please read more about vericomposting from another source if further questions on how this self separating works))

Two toilet seats
- Seats have air tight seal (to keep smells down)
- the 2nd seat has a urine diverting set up with it
- the diverting set up can be easily taken out and put in place with the other toilet seat(swapped over)
- urine goes into a tube to an under the bus jug / small tank

Cover material container
Some type of way to hold a large amount of saw dust or shreded paper or shreded dry leaves or your choice of composting cover material.

A water jug
For quick Rinsing of the urine system and to wet down compost side when it is getting to dry

: note- ventilation system cooling-
I’d like to figure out a way to include an evaporation cooler into the air inlet piping. Aka: swamp cooler
This will hopefully keep the worms from dying when temps are above the worms limits.

Hopping this is clear enough for others to understand. ( I dis-like all typing/ writing)

 

[simonsteve]

This is an awesome idea. One thought I had is, could you make it so you could rotate the cooler when one half is full and finished composting? Then you wouldn't need two toilet seats or to move the urine diverter.

 

[Rogue 1]

Simon S.

Thanks, I’m glad you like the idea. Yes, one seat would be simpler. What trips me up is trying to include a urine diverter and a worm seat side all in one. I have very limited knowledge of urine diverters at this time.

I’ll probably start out with something less complicated in order to get some experience vermicomposting. We all know how plans that we think are well thought out end up turning out a bit less than hoped for.

 

[MottledMutt]

Hi, I'm completely new to skoolie.net but I do have a lotta experience with vermicomposting. And your post was the first one to catch my eye.

I think it's an awesome idea, and figured I'd offer my experience so far. Feel free to call me captain obvious too.

The red wiggler composting worms (eisenia fetida) are pretty hearty. They can withstand a massive temperature range, as long as they aren't frozen solid or cooked. Same with moisture--often I find worms in the drainage system (for me it's rocks beneath landscaping fabric). If you're comfortable in your bus, they're probably comfortable too.

Another bit of anecdotal kinda stuff is anything wood takes forever to breakdown. When I first started I used hay and sawdust as the "living material" for the worms; 3 bins, one all hay, one all sawdust, one a mixture. The sawdust took an extra 8 months to fully break down compared to the hay. That was fine for me, I planned on using it to start seedlings the following year, on a bus I could see that becoming a bit of a storage issue.


Another thing to think about is how much poop the worms can process in a day. I've never added manure to my bins, but the worm "smoothies" I add, (about 48 ounces) take between 3 days and a week to disappear depending on the ingredients (squash rinds, bean pods, old broccoli and tomato stalks, all take much longer than leafy greens, rotten fruit), and depending on the maturity of the bin (newer bins seem to take a little longer to get rolling).

The "rule of thumb" is worms can process their body weight in added material in a day. I can't give you any insight into whether that is true or not, I've never weighed my worms.

And lastly, smell can occasionally become an issue. From what I can tell it's mostly from adding new food scraps that are a little too far gone by, and not from the living material the worms are in going anaerobic. I've been experimenting now with adding crushed charcoal to the bins as I add those worm smoothies. That would also help bring the bin to a more neutral pH.

Good luck! And I look forward to hearing your experience