Sawdust Loo/Strawbale Urinal

[squidler]

I very much want a composting loo. We already use washable family cloth instead of toilet paper (are a pretty crunchy family in most respects..) and want to take an extra step toward dream of living off grid. But I rent at the moment, so I cant have a traditional interchangable chamber system.

But, having just read Humanure Handbook, I am thinking Sawdust Loo and Strawbale Urinal. I can use a chamber pot for pee, and the boys can use the bale and pot at night.

Anyone got a composting loo, traditional or otherwise?

It is no different to cloth nappies But then I forget how many people get upset at that too.

I don't use cloths myself, but can understand why people do.

Really bemused by some of the comments here....exactly how do you poo to leave so much on yer arses?....the odd streak on a cloth does not equal a washing machine full of poo! Far from it! I've used family cloth on & off over the past year & it's no bother at all. The wet cloths get put in with clothes - no different to washing DSs pants if he has an accident...and the dirty ones get put in with things I wash at 60 like towels and sheets, tea towels etc to kill any bugs. No extra washing as they are so small & as I'm the only woman in the house there aren't that many anyway

Piffle, i find it an odd reaction too. But, when i first heard of it following on from cloth nappy use, I must admit that I was curious/interested/slightly , but never really 'boaky'....

Look - they really look pretty.

with paper if you wish...

and for anyone that wants to read - download lots of pages of poo

It's the special wipes for solids that boggle me!

the rest - meh. Whatever rocks your boat. With IBS I don't fancy it much, tbh.

But... toilet paper can be made to disintegrate virtually as soon as it comes into contact with the liquid that it's wiping off, and certainly as soon as it hits the water in the pan - it can be made flimsy and easy to degrade, can't it? You can't do that with a nappy - all nappies, cloth or paper, have to be made strong enough to be worn by a moving baby. So it makes much more obvious sense to use cloth nappies, where the paper alternative simply can't be made intrinsically more flimsy and easier to degrade when finished with. But with toilet paper the paper version can be made flimsy and so that it falls apart virtually as soon as its used, so it can be dealt with in the water system (I know that doesn't mean it always is - hence horrors like kandoo wipes and super padded paper that takes days to break down - but it can be). It seems much less obvious that it's better to use a cloth alternative there, as your cloth alternative needs all the washing and so on, so what you gain on the swings (keeping stuff out of the water system) you lose on the roundabouts (local cleaning using water resources and so on).

Totally agree that toilet flushing oughtn't to use drinking water and so on, but despite being a happy user of cloth nappies and cloth sanpro I'm not yet convinced that a small amount of recycled, flimsy, quick to break up paper is worse for the environment and a worse use of resources than cloth that needs to be washed. Nappies and sanpro have to be worn and so the paper versions can't be made quick to process afterwards - not the same with loo paper afaics. So whether it's still technically worth using or not (I'm ready to be educated!) cloth toilet paper clearly isn't an exact parallel with cloth nappies or sanpro.

I find that different materials & cloths works better for wees & some work better for poos, and some work better on different types of poo ....paper does such a poor job most of the time so its nice to have something that is actually works.

PS Should say happy past user of cloth nappies as don't at the moment, but that's not due to not being convinced they're good, that's for other reasons.

terramum, what material is best for what ?

squidler We stayed here which had a compost toilet. We were asked to wee outside and just use the compost toilet for poos. My MIL almost passed out when we told her.

It seemed to work pretty well. Friendly guy running the place. Might be worth dropping him an email to to ask more about his system.

I find that toweling (old flannels etc) work best for wees coz of its absorbancy...but its too bulky for properly wiping poos. Thinner cloths (woven cotton, muslin, old t-shirts etc) work best for effective poo cleaning, sometimes damp, sometimes dry and occasionally with some oil (for really stubborn sticky poos!)

dry the cloths in the dryer

errr how environmentally sound is tHAT?

terramum - I have found it very to read your posts and those of others who are interested/non-boaky, especially it seems Stripeymama and winebeforepearls.

I dont usually dry my cloths in the dryer - the site linked is a US site where line drying seems to be very uncommon due to social implications of poverty and I know folks who cant line dry even if they want to because of humidity levels. I dry mine on the line - gardenbunting-style or near the woodburner/on the airer.

There is more than one way to be less impactful on the environment - if you use a sustainable green energy provider and use cloth - even the power/impact that goes into sewing, washing and drying them could be MUCH less than contributing to sending our paper waste overseass to be re-cycled by big dirty factories employing children at a tiny wage to make loo paper. And that is just the recycled paper - i dont even want to think about the notion of actually cutting down trees so i can wipe my bottom on supervelvetysoft paper.....

yurt1 - i had a look at the site and i will be in contact with him. It looks a lovely place too. Thank you.

Like a lot of supergreeny stuff this is fine if you live in your own nice secluded farmhouse, but an environmental health hazard in a populated area. Look at how much trouble some people having managing their farking compost bins - try this trick in terraced housing and you'd have a lovely cholera epidemic within months.

Have you checked out any of these ideas

Sorry about the language. But there are many options, some use electricity and just zaps the poo to ashes.

Thanks squidler. . I am taking notes re composting toilets for when I have the means & space to use one. Our garden doesn't even have room for a compost heap.

We don't own a dryer anymore. Our spare room is half office, half laundry room in the winter...can't wait for the weather to calm down so I can hang my stuff outside without worrying it will take off

madamez - I live in terraced house, albeit a modern one, and have lived in a pre-war mid-terrace in a very poor area & managed to be quite green with no problems at all. It's not the supergreeny stuff that causes the problems it's people not doing them right that does.

At least no one will steal your washing!

We have a composting loo. Happy to share info.

Use loo paper though - shared cloth a step too far!

Is there a problem with living on a houseboat?

Good point about the manufacturing issue (though put rather unnecessarily emotively, perhaps ), although I'd be interested in comparing quantities compared with other paper use. If I decided to stop using as much recycled paper on the basis that there are environmental or ethical issues in its manufacture, would toilet paper be one of the first things I'd give up, or would it be something I'd hang on to till the end (while trying to use as little as possible), because of the hygiene and washing implications? I think for me it would be the latter, because it just doesn't make sense to me to on the one hand be carefully composting/otherwise dealing with the bulk of the poo, and on the other hand taking little bits of it away attached to bits of fabric and washing them off in a washing machine. I think I'd probably rather use leaves or similar and drop them down to be composted as well, or just use water directly, than use fabric I'd then need to wash.

Yes, Sailing, I agree that loo paper might be the last thing I let go, and it can all get a bit hair-splitting trying to work out which is best . But if you're happy to use recycled cloths (old sheets, etc.) and use a green energy provider then I think it works.

It's all hypothetical for us atm no chance of a compost toilet in rented house! but we're trying to buy a smallholding type place, so I'm busy researching this sort of thing.

People have never done this. Before toilet paper, we used leaves, hay, straw, anything we could get out hands on that we could throw away.

I buy cheap toilet paper - because I am tight. Imagine my delight when I was told how much better for the sewerage system it is than Charmin!

Don't forget - I am the composting loo expert!

There was a question in The Saturday Telegraph regarding composting toilets that may be relevant to the OP

www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml?xml=/property/2008/04/05/pclinic105.xml