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Construction Tips For Beginners

Choosing A Composting Toilet

by Dawn Henry

About 27 percent of the average household's water usage is the result of flushing the toilet alone. Using water to flush human waste not only uses water, but wastes waste. Human waste can be used as a compost when you use a composting toilet. One of the challenges of owning a composting toilet in your bathroom is that it is more work to maintain one. But maintaining one can be easier if you choose the right type.

How a Composting Toilet Works

Compost toilets store human waste. The toilet destroys pathogens that could be harmful to humans. It also provides a place where harmless pathogens can slowly break down human waste so that the nutrients can then be released. The resultant compost can be used in gardening.

Types of Composting Toilets

You can choose between an active or passive composting toilet. Passive toilets are like compost heaps that break down waste over a longer period. For a larger family or for a toilet in a smaller home, though, the waste might not be broken down fast enough.

Actively Breaking Down Human Waste

For the composting toilet to achieve its goal, it needs heat, which could result simply from the microbes themselves. If not, you may need an electrical heater to keep the compost warm. Your waste needs to be properly aerated by turning it with a tumbling drum or with an automatic mixer. You may need to test for moisture levels because too much moisture can cause anaerobic decomposition, which produces unpleasant odors. The moisture results from urine and the excrement.

If you add worms to the compost, you can compost your waste more rapidly. Only use red worms or red wigglers.

How To Use Sawdust To Reduce Odors

Use sawdust to control how your toilet smells. Add enough sawdust to cover the composting material. If it smells very bad, simply add more sawdust. Keep a brush by the toilet so you can brush stray sawdust particles into the toilet.

Further Improving The Odor

Composting toilets do not smell bad. However, you can make your toilet smell great by adding coffee grinds to the compost.

Using The Toilet

If you do not like the idea of sitting over poop when defecating, covering your feces with sawdust can help. But there are also composting toilets that come with a lid that retracts, shielding you from the excrement below until you are finished. Composting toilets might seem like a very different concept, but once you get used to it, you will reduce your impact on the environment.