• Operating a Composting Toilet
• Pilot Project

Composting toilets will probably never be as easy to use and as aesthetically pleasing as flush toilets, at least not at first glance. But today’s best composting toilets do work, and when you raise your gaze to see the larger picture, they’re also one of the best ways to keep cottage country clean, green and pristine.

Operating a Composting Toilet

• It takes more skill to operate a composting toilet than it does a conventional flush model, and the trick is mostly about moisture management.
• Composting toilets need a certain amount of moisture to operate. Too dry is bad, but too wet is no good either. This is especially true with self contained models that have no drain and include a relatively small mass of composting material.
• Successful composting toilet management depends on adjusting the output of the internal heating coil (on electric models), adjusting ventilation fan speed, and controlling how much moisture enters the system in the first place.
• Some models include a built-in, visual moisture gauge that allows you to assess the situation more easily than just guessing.
• The carbon/nitrogen ratio inside the toilet is also key to successful operation. For decomposition to occur properly, without odour, there needs to be a balance of these two key elements. Human waste is high in nitrogen, which needs to be balanced by the addition of high carbon compost starter, peat moss or other woody material. Too much nitrogen causes odours, while too much carbon brings the decomposition process to a halt.

Pilot Project

Since 1908, rural residents around Lake Skaneateles in the Finger Lakes region of New York State enjoyed weekly visits by municipal workers. These workers came to collect five gallon pails of privy sewage from outhouses around the lake as part of a century-old campaign to preserve water quality. Lake Skaneateles is the main source of drinking water for the city of Syracuse, and one of the few remaining unfiltered sources of municipal water in the entire continent. This is why conventional pit privies and other onsite sewage systems have been severely restricted since the late 1890s. It was all part of a successful effort to maintain high water quality in the lake, and it worked. But door-to-door honey bucket service is expensive and risky, and that’s why authorities opted to try a pilot project in 1998.

Homeowners were encouraged to replace honey bucket pick-up with composting toilets. One of two models of Sunmar toilets were chosen for this pilot project involving almost 100 households, and the results were highly successful. Although the toilets were provided free, they yielded a payback period to the local government of less than 18 months. But more important than finances, the security of lake water quality has been enhanced as the risk of sewage spills and disposal has been eliminated. More than a few gardens are blooming brighter as nutrients otherwise lost are put to good use, too.

Tags

Rating

Average (0 Votes)