Composting Toilet for under $25
 

Here is a composting toilet I made for less than $25. Only materials I used were:

Half a sheet of plywood.
5 gallon pail
Cheapest toilet lid I could find
2 2X4's
Some 2" Wood screws

How it works: The trick to getting this to work is that you must not let the contents of the pail get too wet. So you would preferably only #2 into it although an occasional #1 is ok too. Also you must add a dry substance to soak up moisture as well. I read that saw dust works well as it tends to absorb a lot of moisture and smells pretty good. I wasn't sure where to get some so I just used peat moss that I had left over from my garden. The dry matter besides absorbing liquid also provides a barrier to block the smell. I needed 3-4 trowel scoops after each "session" to control odor. Switch buckets when full or if it starts to smell, but this shouldn't happen if you are using it properly.

I put this out in my garage and every time I had to #2, I would go out there. The pail lasted me almost a month before it was full. Odor was minimal. When entering the garage you couldn't tell. Not until you lifted the lid could you smell anything and then it was pretty mild. I figure if you had enough 5 gallon pails you could rotate them and let them "cure" outside for awhile before using the contents for fertilizer. If you wanted to be extra safe you could use it around fruit trees or somewhere you don't use your hands in the dirt. Although you wouldn't have to worry much if the people using it didn't have any dangerous diseases.

Urine can be deposited separately (though I haven't come up with the best way to manage this yet). Diluted in water it can be used to fertilize plants right away and is fairly sterile. Being a guy I just pee in a wide mouth bottle. Have used this on my garden for the last two years and it works great. I usually stop this treatment when my plants start to look over fertilized or about 3 weeks before harvest. I don't use on root vegetables just to be safe, but is probably fine to do so. (hmm..... these carrots taste funny) Urine is very high in Nitrogen so use as you would some other high nitrogen fertilizer like fish emulsion.

This cheap unit I built will work in a SHTF scenario where you don't have running water. I have some ideas about using this on a permanent basis. For example you could build a nice one into an outside bathroom wall and have a door on the outside to swap buckets so you don't have to worry about making a mess in the house. You would probably want some ventilation holes in the door and maybe a small fan. This would help dry it out even faster and keep any odor out of your dwelling.

Have fun!!

Re: Composting Toilet for under $25
 

Nifty.

Of course, in a pinch, you could make a "composting" toilet for the cost of a shovel. ;)

Re: Composting Toilet for under $25
 

very creative and more GIM science at work:adore: who wudda thunk it - outhouses may become popular again. I would sure hate to see the latest generation pass without that wonderful experience:rolleyes:

Re: Composting Toilet for under $25
 

what were the dimensions?

now this is practical WTSHTF info, thanks for sharing.

Re: Composting Toilet for under $25
 

I like it.

Now what are you gonna do about your neighbors feces???

Also, I was taking the garbage out to the street the other day and realized that services like trash-removable will go by the wayside if/when SHTF.

That's a lot of garbage strewn everywhere...:eek:

Re: Composting Toilet for under $25
 

In my heat box (warms the house for free in winter when the sun is out) I have a small solar panel that powers a small fan in one of the pipes and it circulates the heat into the house for free when ever the sun is shinning..... you could install the same small solar panel and fan motor in your #2 box.

I believe that you could also use cat litter to cover your ehemmmmmm, left over?

Re: Composting Toilet for under $25
 

I'll get back to you with the dimensions and maybe some more info. I sort of put it together on the fly without any instructions or anything.

Re: Composting Toilet for under $25
 

All that you have to do is to buy the seat and the bucket and build around it...... easy.

Re: Composting Toilet for under $25
 

Yeah thats how I built it.

Re: Composting Toilet for under $25
 

That is a good design. Yes, not using that fertilizer on anything but the orchard prevents passing the kinds of parasites Mexican salads got infamous for around.

Heat curing (solar box?) is an additional disease control.

We have a potty chair and I installed a 'doggie doolie' that is a mini septic system for dog waste and has a bacterial digester. I got the 2-4 dog size. You bury it, the lip flips up and in goes the solid waste and a sprinkle of digester.

Your system looks great though if ppl do not already have a potty chair we had left over from invalid care.

Sawdust, leaves, grass clippings, anything of that sort will fill that part of the bill.

If the infrastructure goes down sanitation will be very important.

Re: Composting Toilet for under $25
 

Wonderful testing, thank you.

The old outhouse standby was a cup of lime. I don't know why, perhaps because it's a caustic base to counter the acid. It was also used to more rapidly decompose dead bodies.

Give it a try, maybe. I would think that peat and sawdust both would be very rare in a running crisis.

Hydrated Lime (not inert) is also useful for many other things, fertilizer, whitewash (for houses and is sterile for milkhouses, etc), and is the old mortar recipe: 3 water, 2 sand, 1 lime. This is great stuff that can be worked back and forth for a week until it sets up, and only needs to be re-pointed about every 50 years. It doesn't crack off and can be patched unlike portland.

Lime is one of those raw ingredients that you should keep around because raw materials are far more versatile than the finished products. Compare lime and linseed oil with keeping fertilizer, paint, varnish, lamp oil, composter, and a dozen thing I haven't thought of around. But I digress. How unusual.

TS

Re: Composting Toilet for under $25
 

Generally, urine is sterile, but if mixed with sawdust and composted for a bit, it makes wonderfully fertile and fluffy stuff which is great for no-till garden systems (raised beds, etc.)

When you turn over your garden it aerates the soil, but kills many of the beneficial soil bacteria, and helps nutrients to leach out of the soil... hence no dig systems.

Re: Composting Toilet for under $25
 

Sawdust doesn't decompose very fast. In the mountains at Big Bend National Park is a toilet in which users are instructed to trowel in some peat moss, which is provided. Most likely the peat moss decomposes faster.

Sawdust decomposition rates probably vary considerably according to the species of the tree. As I understand it (and may be wrong) oaks and cedars decompose slowly and thus their sawdust would do the same.

Re: Composting Toilet for under $25
 

I find use of poop and pee on gardens to be unpleasant unless it is a garden or field that is out of rotation for the year. I like nature to have a long time to take its course.

There is another use for all that humanure, though, and lots of other wastes, too. You can use it to generate methane which in turn you can use to generate electricity or you can dry it and burn it directly. You can also make blackpowder from it to keep your guns running.

Figuring out how to get waste back into the cycle is the keystone of sustainable living.

Re: Composting Toilet for under $25
 

That's a killer quote....:D

Re: Composting Toilet for under $25
 

Point of adding peat, sawdust etc to human waste or even kitchen scraps is to equalize the nitrogen-carbon balance, if I remember correctly. Generally, any plant matter that is brown, dead and dried will do. My understanding is that not too much in the way of fresh grass clippings should be applied, at risk of turning your compost pile into a slimy blob, rather than well aerated soil. Assuming sawdust or peat moss are unavailable, dry hay and leaves should do fine.