'nuther question for the poo-bucket (sawdust toilet) crowd.

We buried the contents of the sawdust bucket until we had the composter ready (we had some trenches that needed filling anyway). It worked fine as long as the trenches lasted. If you have a low place that needs filling, dig a bid hole or trench in that area, pour in the contents of the sawdust bucket and fill over with dirt each time. By the time the hole/trench is filled, the area will be built up to a higher level and you will still have a layer of topsoil on top. Obviously, watch out for erosion problems and be sure to bury with several inches or so of soil to keep animals from digging in it.

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Dispatches From The Conservative Underground

my brother sent this to me just yesterday:

So, sawdust toilets just might be a lifesaver!

Sorry for the quirky thread drift, but there seemed a need for some comic relief. Now, back to your regularly scheduled program...

--sgl

I for one...choose death.
Seriously though, can't they just have given her some really active yogurt?

Not that much different from feeding one goat's cud to another so that you restore balance in the rumen. :baby04:

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

I just have to weigh in, having finally made my way to the bottom of the thread, and having (sadly) missed most of the posts by the ignorant fecaphobic newbie from TX, lol.

First, a disclaimer. Not bragging, just explaining why I consider myself to be better informed than most on the subject: I have a BS in Microbiology, and a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine. I have had an entire semester-long course in microbiology of water and sewage. And many courses in bacteriology of pathogens. So you might say I know my poop and poop processing techniques.

I have read The Humanure Handbook and I wholeheartedly approve of the entire thing without reservation. It is based on sound principles. If I lived on my own piece of land, I would use a composting sawdust bucket toilet myself and consider it my civic duty to do so. Pooping and peeing into precious, ever-scarcer drinking water is environmentally irresponsible and socially unconscionable. It saddens me to have to do it, but I live in the City of Lost Angeles in an apartment, and a sawdust bucket toilet would be great but I have NOWHERE to dump it.

To those of you who are already doing this, THANK YOU!!!

Just be sure to compost every last bit of it for a minimum of one year if putting it on landscaping or tree crops, and two years for vegetables. Pathogens cannot survive these lengths of time in compost - the good bacteria and fungi and tiny critters make lunch out of them.

To the Texas freak: go take a valium and if you can't be bothered to read The Humanure Handbook, go suck an egg.

I think that sucking raw eggs is considered a health hazard.

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If anyone's interested in incorporating a more permanent sawdust toilet, John Seymour's "Thunder Box" is detailed in "The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It." It's a separate room on an outside wall of the house. There are two large three-sided concrete chambers under the floor (the toilet seat is all you see) and the outside wall is comprised of tongue and groove to allow excess liquids to drain out. There's a vent stack for each chamber. One chamber is used at a time for a year or more and the other one is sealed shut, either composting the waste or waiting for the next load. When composting is done, you remove the tongue and groove from the outside wall, get your compost, and replace the wood wall. You add a small handful of browns to each "deposit" you make, and you can plant or place pots of ornamentals at the base of the chamber to soak up any excess moisture. The nice thing about this setup is that because the smell is contained and ventilation is controlled, you can compost household waste, floor swepings, shredded paper, etc. in the chamber as well, reducing your household's total output.

That was an *awesome* post!!!

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hello CF.. I,m wondering about the toxins (chemicals) if any,that are in the finished product. I know my ex mother in law used sludge from the sewage treatment plant but she would only put them on her flowers. She had beautiful gardens. We have just installed the septic tank at our new place and I have told the wife, " No chemicals in the toilet,sinks or drains". Its my understanding that chemicals destroy the good bacteria in a tank. Up til now, we have used the outhouse but its getting a bit chilly, hence, the use of the new plumbing. We still fill the toilet tank by hand, as I can,t get the well to clear enuf for the household stuff, laundry, dishes, showers. Thanx

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Gord in Ontario

Nah, but the book's the best $40 you'll ever spend.

You can buy it used cheap here:
http://product.half.ebay.com/The-Sel...42576QQtgZinfo

There's only a 2 page spread in the book about the Thunder Box, but it's more than sufficient to explain construction/maintenance.

I don't know if this is the same type of Thunder Box but here's a set of plans on pdf.


http://www.mvc.on.ca/img/thunderbox.pdf

That's a decent book. I borrowed it from our local library a couple of years ago. Maybe yours has one you could take out...

as soon as i read this post i went to the link and read the entire book, this is a solution to some major road blocks in the building of my new house which will now not have a septic system, i will use this no matter how discusting some might think it is, i talked to my woman and told her i would put in a regular flushing toilet if she had any rervations about the sawdust one(you know for company or whatever), basically she said to hell with that, so now i get ot save about $5k on the septic, get to live greener, save more money on "soil enrichment" otherwise known as "crap" and grow my food organically, i win all the way around.

as far as people who dont understand this concept or refuse to even learn about it before they run there mouth, i say "what a load of soil enrichment", these are the same kind of people who eat beef and have no idea you have to kill it in the process of getting it to your table, when people buy fertilizer do they have any idea they are buying "crap", some would be very surprised how crops in the central valley of california, you know the worlds leading supplier of produce, (incidently is where i grew up on a farm) are fertilized, most of it comes from the dairy farms that surround the entire area, its big business.

get over it

I didn't realize so many people on here were using the sawdust toilet. We have used our sawdust toilet since 2003 and love it. Before we built this, we had a Sun Mar Composting toilet and comparing the two, the sawdust toilet is just so much simpler and easier to use. Plus the fact that it had a step up that our elderly parents had trouble using.

We have used the sawdust, but now use composted compost. Composted horse manure being the main ingredient mixed with the shavings that they have for bedding and old hay left in their stalls. Works just fine. Then we bury it in the present composting manure pile when the toilet is emptied. We empty our toilet about every 2-3 days, as there is only 2 of us here.

Our composting pile has steam coming from it all winter. I am not sure of how hot it does get, but it is not frozen all winter no matter the temperature. We have three composting piles, the one we are adding compost to, the one we that is resting and the one that we have been using for our garden beds.

I have never had any one have a problem with us having one. My house does not have indoor plumbing and does have a outhouse, so we turned the downstairs bedroom into a bathroom, with the sawdust toilet and a big claw foot bathtub.

katlupe

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Reflections of katlupe

I agree...the expensive systems seem too labor intensive to me, and too costly. When you have to clean and empty the chambers, it's a pain. I have a hard time believing they are composting with enough heat to be safe too, when they aren't out in the open for good air flow and you may not be layering enough carbon material in it.

I'd be concerned that you aren't getting enough carbon and oxygen in the mix this way...both essential ingredients in a good thermophylic process. You should have dry lofty material that traps air in between your bucket layers...like dried leaves, hay, or straw. You can have a steaming compost that still is not hot enough. Does anyone use a thermometer in their pile to make sure it's hot enough? I've been looking for one, but will have to order it on-line.

Of course, if you aren't sure you can let it sit an extra year, but even waiting two years for a pile of compost seems like forever...I'd rather not have to wait three years. I just started my system last Feb and I still have too long to wait. I can't believe I lived for so long letting all that wonderful fuel for compost go down into a septic tank. I was horrified when my septic tank died, because I couldn't afford to replace it, but now I'm so glad it happened...my gardens and lawn will be so much richer for it. I do have goat and chicken manure too, but I don't think you can ever have enough. And I have a lot of rocky ground that needs to be built up with good soil to be able to use it for anything productive. I just wish I'd been doing this since I've lived here.

Now here's something of interest I read today:

"EPA-funded tests in Florida demonstrated that worms destroy human pathogens as well as does thermophillic composting (Eastman et al., 2000)."

Whole PDF on vermicomposting and vermiculture here:

http://tinyurl.com/32sqh9

Pony!

Will local building codes and inspectors allow new construction without a conventional toilet?

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

Not in our county. And they are VERY strict about the type of septic that is acceptable. We had to go with alternative septic - drip system. We were advised to get it on the records as soon as we had the perk completed, because the county was considering even stricter standards - and that equates to more expensive alternative system solutions. As it was, it cost us plenty. We would not have passed our building inspection without complying.

However, we have a cabin on our property that was built in 1907. It has no running water - and we use a home made toilet with kitty litter. After this thread, we'll be switching to mulch that my husband makes. We have several friends that stay there during hunting season - and a few that visit throughout the year.

Penny

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My water company doesn't alow composting toilets of any kind. They said it was because they wouldn't make any money if I didn't flush the toilet. No joke.

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Dang! I'm sorry I missed out on the abused-from-early-childhood troll!

I wonder what sparked THAT???? Forced hand toilet cleaning as a child? Sad, really.

I know I wouldn't have been objective about this as a child. But now? Yeah.

Anyway. I had to go and BUY buckets from the local Rural King (most other buckets are now 4 gallon) for this "experiment."

I have long-standing plans to build a small off-grid cabin at the back of my 25 wooded acres for weekend get-away rental and was struggling with how to deal with a toilet. Now? I can "do" this.

My house septic is a short-field under special exception from the local county. THEN the previous owner planted trees on top of the field. *groan* Yep, the septic works for me and my soon-to-be-home son? Not much more. It overloads because it's REALLY messed up. AND the well is within 60' of the field. Yuk. So this may be the best of both worlds! Very cool idea. So this sawdust-ier experiment will go out in the garage for the trial run and then I'll make one for the barn and one for the cabin. Thanks!

Oh, and my well has a 5 gallon a minute restriction too. And really not even THAT much most of the time. So I'm all about saving water!!!

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