Allotments 4 All
Allotment Stuff => The Basics => Topic started by: Nathan on September 29, 2005, 20:27:31
-
I would like to hear from anyone who has experience of composting toilets as we are thinking of getting one.
Advice or reccomendations would be appreciated
-
Erm....didn't think toilets composted....... ;) Sorry, Nathan, nope, haven't tried one, but someone's bound to have done! Good luck. Lottie
PS I've heard that milk can help.......Not sure which type though........ ;D
-
I never knew there was such a thing, must keep up to date ... ???
We use as much 'household activator' on the compost heap as we can, ferried down to the plot in coke bottles from home 8) or discreetly 'filled' in the shrubbery on the plot. My gran had an earth closet years ago, which had a wooden seat with a hole in it and a very long drop (long silence .... longer silence ..... splat) :P I don't think she ever excavated it for the compost and it never seemed to fill up ... ::) When I was about 12, I remember my Dad explaining EXACTLY how dried sludge was made :P, he covered his veg patch in it and we enjoyed the veg anyway ;D so it must be good stuff!
-
Try googling eco friendly sites there should be some info on there. :)
-
Nathan, this subject was raised under Ecological Toilets (in the Shed) way back in May 2004 and a post from (the missing) Gavin might be helpful
Re:"ecological" toilet
« Reply #15 on: May 16, 2004, 08:47:42 »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resurrecting (probably too late? - sorry, I only just found this on another board) - a link with some cheap and simple ideas. http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/sawdustoilet.html
And very generously, they offer a link to the on-line version of the Humanure Handbook at the bottom of the page - http://www.weblife.org/humanure/default.html
All best - Gavin
On that thread I said we had just had a very expensive composting toilet installed on our site (by the Council) but had not used it myself - still haven't and on checkign the other day I see it is very cobwebby so not many others can be using it either :-\
-
Nathe Have a look on here re toilets as there is an awful lot of info posted :)
-
Read somewhere that in China they used to call the human waste "night soil" and grew everything with it!!
-
Where I live (not china :)) we had a night soil collection via a tramline which went round the model village and a night soil man who's job it was to collect it
-
Night soil is definitely the UNcomposted 'waste' - which they use on arable land in China and have epidemics of disease related to it...
Composting human waste is well-covered here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0964425890/qid=1128103039/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_10_1/026-9907007-0654026
-
:o :o :o
Eeeeeek!!!!!! Wasnt suggesting actually using it!!!! Just one of those useless facts that may win me a pub quiz one day!!
;D
-
No experience of these but there is a good diagram in the book "Self Sufficiency" by John Seymour (latest edition) if you want to build your own in an outhouse.
-
Thanks all. Much useful stuff in the links.
-
My lotty neighbour has just emptied her little shed and suggests my husband turn it into a composting lav. It all sounds pretty straightforward but I think peeing into a hay bail via a toilet pan etc is a waste of compost activator ;D
-
I was thinking about getting one of those myself...I would love to have a toilet at my allotment! Any toilet! Don't care what its like or if its full of cobwebs! Oh the hours I have held on until I got home! Not really any discreet places for a lady to go! Think I might construct a very big compost bin and go there. ;)
-
If you have a shed, it's worth thnking about one of the old-fashioned chemical toilets; I've got two, and one day I'll get things civilised enough to use them. They're just a seat and a container, which you put a bit if Jeye's fluid into to stop the smell. At the moment I pee in a bucket.
-
RB I have studied lavs on allotments in great detail ;D This is in the course of research for our communal plot and not because I have a fixation you understand :) We pooh pooed (sorry) the idea of caravan loos because of the chemicals which have to be used in conjunction with them. There is a fanastic toilet available from the US which is a complete job but costs about £800 but looks the business (sorry, again) this uses as 12 v battery to drive a turbine which sits on the toilet or shed roof which drives a fan which eliminates smell by drawing them up a pipe into the fresh air. All the waste is contained in the base of the toilet unit and apparently it only needs emptying once a year. It had riddles in the base to stop things clogging up. The one we favoured was the willow bog which I have posted details on here (If I remember rightly). Jug in the shed to pee in and then chuck it on the compost heap is my preferred option and costs nothing :)
-
:'( We're not allowed sheds. Not allowed a lot now I think about it!
-
We built a compost loo at a friends house at the weekend in an old coal shed.
All we used was a pallet, an off cut of marine ply, plastic bucket with lid, plastic container, hose pipe, fixings and an old tree branch for handles.
It works really well, and it was really simple to build! People are often put off by them because of the smell but the general advise is if it smells than you are doing something wrong!
Our next build will be the lottie!
-
Well done you :) Is your shed raised up off the ground so there is a "fall" for the effluent before it hits the floor or hay bale?
-
No - it was a small outhouse with a concrete floor so we had to go up :-) Basically we raised the level of the seat so that there was enough height to fit the containers in underneath. There's still enough head height and we made a step up - there was a great view... until we put the door back on LOL
-
I thought the idea of the composting bog was to have the waste not going into a container, other than just a hay bale for the urine, and solid waste hitting the earth. The sides were hay bales surrounded by chicken wire to keep out rats and then the whole thing was planted with willow (special kind) to suck up any excess liquid. The willows got hacked down once a year.
What sort of containers have you got? Is the wee separated from the solids? Sorry, I'm not being nosy I just like to know these things :)
-
and i thought that you douse a container,every time you go(wee or poo!)you sprinkle the 'deposit' with shavings and that helps it stay sweet and breaks it down quicker.
wardy-you and i will get a reputation about this!i find it gripping and my o/h cantunderstand my interest!
i didnt get round to making a bog this year-but i will next year.
luv
the bog fairy
-
Tee hee Kits :) My old man is into composting bogs as well but that;s not extended as far as doing anything about it - the same with the comfrey pipe! Tis footy season though so that takes priority :)
You're right about putting sawdust or some such thing on your deposit or after it. You can make a wee hole with a funnel arrangement so that goes straight onto a barley straw bale. I've been invited to have a look at a willow bog in Baaarnsley. I know how to have a good time ;D That one is quite famous and loads of folks go to see it (and use it no doubt). The lady who runs it ( :)) says because they have loads of folks on the communal plot using it (as many as 25 a day) it does get smelly at times but for such as us only using it occasionally it would be absolutely fine. You can't use the finished result on your crops though!
-
We have a local scrap store where local businesses give the store loads of bits and bobs. We got food grade containers with lids about the size of a fermenting bin. The poo goes into there, and the wee is allowed to escape through tiny little drill holes into another container. The wee container is at an angle slightly and the wee is directed into a hose pipe which is connected to an old bucket buried in the ground outside. We even made a flower shape for the toilet seat and it works really well, the petals and if you stay sitting for too long you get a lovely flower pattern on ya bum - as my other half told me!
Come on peeps lets start a compost loo revolution!!
-
Come on peeps lets start a compost loo revolution!!
How uncivilised! We humans are clever enough to defecate into a few gallons of drinking water and flush it all away into the sea where, of course, it magically disappears...
(Seriously though, sign me up for your revolution!)
-
i think everyone should be made to swim (or paddle)in the sea at least once a year to enjoy the ..ahem!-interesting sea life floating past.......
more compodst toilets!
more recycling!
more composting!
-
Exactly! I have written an on line message to our council leader asking why we have not yet introduced green bins for garden waste as part of our kerb side recycling. They say it will take a year from pilot study to get it introduced, that is if the pilot study suggests it's a good thing. I think we should have a recycling facility for council officials with feet of clay. A shredder would do nicely >:(
All the dosh for the kerb side composting scheme has been spent on rebranding the council. They sure know where their priorities lay >:(
-
i think re-branding of councils is a good idea....
a nice HOT branding iron tho-plenty of sizzle and crackle- ;D
i want it to be mandatory for people to br FINED if they dont compost household compostables....and if they dont sort recycelables...
our council does their near best-ahhhhh!bless'em!-but see m unable to take cardboard and paper for recycling-i would have thought that was the easiest...
i spendmany a pleasant our folding me cardboard into triangle logs for the open fire-saves chopping decent stuff for kindling and keeps me busy when i watch midsomer murders.
well..theres not too difficult a plot and the devil makes work for idle paws you know! ;)
-
I'm with you Kits. Midsomer Murders means I get time to whittle me sticks into sharp pointy objects for doing unspeakable things to folks who don't do their recycling (Witch-like cackle)
I agree about the not-too difficult plots making it easy for the likes of us to suss who done it without too much effort so's to free our minds and hands up for more pressing work :o
-
;D
-
We have nearly finished building a composting toilet on our allotment.
We applied for and received a grant to do this. It is in working order now but I don't know if anybody has used it yet. I know that we have to plant comfrey and willow to help with the leaching, and it is not supposed to smell. We have two compartments, one in use and the other presumably will be allowed to compost down. I will let you know later if this is a success.
Rosemary
-
Cool :) Let us know how you get on with it ;D Aren't you have a grand opening? :)
-
Aren't you have a grand opening?
yeah...its called 'the door!'
a grant?????
where'd you get that then?(please!)
and which part of the country are you in?
-
I mean a scissors and brass band job ;D You can get grants for these lavs if they're part of a communal exercise but not for private individuals.
Only trouble is with these grants is that the council kind of want to get involved and that's where it can all start going horribly wrong. Planners!!!! When I do my composting bog I aint telling :-X
-
Thanks again all.
Rosemary, could you post or send me any more details, like plans or supplier? Would apprecite it.
-
ah.we are of the same opinion wardy-once 'they' get hold of you!!.....
we have never had any funding or grants for our business-just expanded as and when money became available....i get no end of students coming in wanting to know how they can start-what funding they should apply for-where they can get a grant etc!
they cant beleive we started with 4/6d
there was a scheme for free broadband for businesses in our area-they wanted to know yer inside leg measurement and colour of drawers,so ....... >:(
aha!sooooooo-a SECRET bogatarium!
wardys MI5 restroom!
very sensible too! ;D
-
We got a grant for gardening tools for when the kiddiwinks come planting with us and turned up with nowt but Persil scoops ;D We only got £1400 about two years ago but we get innundated with forms to fill in every quarter, about 14 pages worth everyt time and it's sending me barmy. So unless you want £3 million it's not worth the hassle :)
So my willow bog will really be a privvy and cunningly disguised as a shed so no-one will suspect. Hope it doesn't honk though or that'll give the game away :)
-
p-e-r-e-e-e-ecisely!
i sometimes think government deprtments actually enjoy peper shuffling!
it'd drive me bonkers!
well..if you dont want your privvy privvy to honkeroo steer clear of the brassicas luv! ;)
OUR privvy will smell of violets and roses of course! ;D
-
Sorry folks, I have just seen this post.I will get on to our secretary and ask her where she got the grant. I know there are all sort of grants to be had for allotments, we even had one for garden equipment ie. Petrol strimmer, and lawn mower. I think the grant was in the region of £600.
Will try to get all info and come back to you
Rosemary
-
Sorry Kitty, Halifax, but I don't think it matters where you are.
Wardy - our secretary is very persistant, and I know the Council wallys are a nuisance, but £600 has provided us with a shed 8'x6', and all the materials. We also have a great chap who does most of the work, and he is just putting the sink in and painting the toilet so it is easier to clean, we have lino down as well. We don't want water provided by the water board as they would charge the earth in water rates, so we are relying on rain water for the sink.
We don't have anything to hide so we don't mind the council looking around. We are self governed or whatever you call it, so they are quite good with us and don't interfer at all.
Rosemary
-
No, it's not the council who get on yer wick with the paper work it's the funding bodies. We've got a grant for our communal plot too for the shed etc but the quarterly returns are mind boggling as we have to go into the numbers and types of peeps (broken down into ages, ethnicities, disabilities etc) who have used the lotty in the past however many months. Groan .............. So if you want a grant go for a big one and make it worth the while filling the forms in :)
We wanted a loo for our group's plot but we're not doing it because of the red tape and we feel that a composting one would just be a bridge too far for our planning dept etc. So any composting bog will be on my plot nearby but which is a secret so ssshhh ;D
Kitty don't forget in your eco bog you have to use the correct loo roll. No, not dock leaves ;D