First year with a composting toilet

[mrsmelly]

Just now, droshky said:

We live in London but the boat doesn’t 

Sensible boat ?

[OldGoat]

5 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Sensible boat ?

D'accord

 

I'm most concerned about the total lack of facilities for disposing of the dry / nearly dry / could be dry next week matter.

Seeing what some people do to pumpout / elsan disposal points ordinarily, I 've no confidence that composters will behave much better.

There's a tendency to say 'they' should provide the facilities and 'not my job' attitudes.

 

 

[frahkn]

25 minutes ago, OldGoat said:

D'accord

 

I'm most concerned about the total lack of facilities for disposing of the dry / nearly dry / could be dry next week matter.

Seeing what some people do to pumpout / elsan disposal points ordinarily, I 've no confidence that composters will behave much better.

There's a tendency to say 'they' should provide the facilities and 'not my job' attitudes.

 

 

You put it on a garden - if you don't have access to a composting site then a composting loo is not for you.

[tree monkey]

4 minutes ago, frahkn said:

You put it on a garden - if you don't have access to a composting site then a composting loo is not for you.

This sums up my opinion 

[peterboat]

I have an allotment and thats where it goes, the system works. when out and about I have room to store it on the boat as its a widebeam with a humungous space where the engine used to be no issues at all, wee just goes on the grass where it promotes growth

[OldGoat]

53 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

1 hour ago, frahkn said:

You put it on a garden - if you don't have access to a composting site then a composting loo is not for you.

 

Exactly

Many / most on here are continuously cruising / continuously mooring / in a marina

 

It's not unreasonable to assume - Nay, I will assert that there are NO official  sites where boaters can dispose of their compost.

Seeing how some people deal with their rubbish and Elsan type waste, I blench at the thought of how folks would treat an official site anyway..

 

[Alan de Enfield]

19 minutes ago, OldGoat said:

Exactly

Many / most on here are continuously cruising / continuously mooring / in a marina

 

It's not unreasonable to assume - Nay, I will assert that there are NO official  sites where boaters can dispose of their compost.

Seeing how some people deal with their rubbish and Elsan type waste, I blench at the thought of how folks would treat an official site anyway..

 

Ans some Marinas have actually refused to let boats with Composting toilets into their marina.

[madsunday]

can you not bag it and dispose in normal bins? I thought id read somewhere that was the done thing?

[tree monkey]

3 minutes ago, madsunday said:

can you not bag it and dispose in normal bins? I thought id read somewhere that was the done thing?

It is done, there is an argument about how appropriate it is when...

 

some poor sod might end up dealing with it during waste transfer.

 

waste in the bins goes to landfill and there's limited landfill space and because landfill is anaerobic it doesn't compost nicely.

 

There is a perfectly adequate human waste disposal system that does recycle the waste

[Alan de Enfield]

9 minutes ago, madsunday said:

can you not bag it and dispose in normal bins? I thought id read somewhere that was the done thing?

 

Some say put it in the bin IF IT IS PROPERLY COMPOSTED but not a 3 month old bag of shitty-sludge

[madsunday]

Dont want to do this but asking the question incase anyone can find info on it, is it possible to burn the dried "compost"  in a stove? 

 

 

[tree monkey]

1 minute ago, madsunday said:

Dont want to do this but asking the question incase anyone can find info on it, is it possible to burn the dried "compost"  in a stove? 

 

 

Yes, believe it or not I've seen a post on FB about someone making brickettes out of it.

 

I wouldn't want to be down wind

[frahkn]

3 hours ago, madsunday said:

Dont want to do this but asking the question incase anyone can find info on it, is it possible to burn the dried "compost"  in a stove? 

 

 

The "compost" is fairly dry but quite powdery and would not make very firm bricks.

 

I may try to burn a little as an experiment, if I do I'll report back.

[cuthound]

12 hours ago, madsunday said:

Dont want to do this but asking the question incase anyone can find info on it, is it possible to burn the dried "compost"  in a stove? 

 

 

 

You can buy incinerating toilets for RV's and boats. Cost about £3.5k plus a gas bottle every so many incinerations. Apparently they work well if you can afford the initial outlay and running costs.

 

https://www.cinderellaeco.com/gb-en/products/76/cinderella-gas

[David Mack]

6 minutes ago, cuthound said:

 

You can buy incinerating toilets for RV's and boats. Cost about £3.5k plus a gas bottle every so many incinerations. Apparently they work well if you can afford the initial outlay and running costs.

 

https://www.cinderellaeco.com/gb-en/products/76/cinderella-gas

But they dry and then burn wet toilet waste. That's rather different from allowing the waste to dry and degrade naturally before burning it.

 

On that website it says " As with all Cinderella Eco Group toilets, Cinderella Gas doesn’t require water or sewage..."

 

Well if it doesn't require sewage, what is the point of it?

 

 

Edited June 26, 2020 by David Mack

[peterboat]

6 minutes ago, cuthound said:

 

You can buy incinerating toilets for RV's and boats. Cost about £3.5k plus a gas bottle every so many incinerations. Apparently they work well if you can afford the initial outlay and running costs.

 

https://www.cinderellaeco.com/gb-en/products/76/cinderella-gas

Ouch! I will stick with the composting loo I have ta very much

[Alan de Enfield]

49 minutes ago, peterboat said:

Ouch! I will stick with the composting loo I have ta very much

 

You have land to dispose of your output !

Many (most ?) don't.

 

You are doing it correctly,and for you it us a good system, but for those with no disposal facilities apart from 'under the bed for 6 months' and then tip it down the Elsan, or, give up waiting and just tip it down the elsan (or put the 'sloppy mixture' in the general waste bins) the systems benefits are more questionable.

[madsunday]

12 hours ago, frahkn said:

The "compost" is fairly dry but quite powdery and would not make very firm bricks.

 

I may try to burn a little as an experiment, if I do I'll report back.

never been curious about another person burning their poop before. I definitely am now though!

 

 

[Clodi]

We used to burn ours in the Rayburn on the smallholding but it had a tall chimney and no near neighbours so I can't tell you how its smoke smelt 

[Alan de Enfield]

Dried Camel droppings are use in the Desert for fuel.

Dried Horse droppings are used 'by poor people' for fuel

 

I've never heard of People-Poo being used.

 

For me the difference is between Herbivores and Carnivores, its like Dog Poop and Horse Poop totally different constituents and consistency.

[mrsmelly]

17 hours ago, madsunday said:

can you not bag it and dispose in normal bins? I thought id read somewhere that was the done thing?

What's the point of that? Far easier to have a cassette and dispose of it properly at thousands of locations specifically designed for it. 

[tree monkey]

59 minutes ago, madsunday said:

never been curious about another person burning their poop before. I definitely am now though!

 

 

I think it was mixed with other err, stuff, maybe sawdust to bind it together, it certainly seemed a faff for no real purpose 

[Alan de Enfield]

9 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

I think it was mixed with other err, stuff, maybe sawdust to bind it together, it certainly seemed a faff for no real purpose 

A bit similar to the 80's 'fad' of making fire 'logs' by soaking a newspaper and then putting it in a 'simple' machine and forming 'logs'.

I don't know anyone who actually bothered to do it more than once.

[tree monkey]

56 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

A bit similar to the 80's 'fad' of making fire 'logs' by soaking a newspaper and then putting it in a 'simple' machine and forming 'logs'.

I don't know anyone who actually bothered to do it more than once.

Yeah, I tried it once, hours of dirty wet smelly labour for half a dozen wet bricks that took months to dry out just so they could smoulder on the fire

[nb_kizzy]

Thank you, frahkn, for a really informative initial post. For me it's an ideological issue. I don't have my boat yet but am thinking about how I want to live on it, and I would love to have a compost toilet rather than a pump out (sh!t under the bed? yuk) or cassettes. Human 'waste' is organic matter surely no different from manure, and could be a valuable resource if saved and processed properly. We have all sadly been conditioned to think that what comes out of us is disgusting, yet those of us who are used to a water sewage system are only a small fraction of the world's population, and it would be unsustainable if everyone on the planet had a poop and flush system. I for one would like to live a greener lifestyle on my boat than I do currently on land, and I would like to be able to conserve the contents of my compost toilet, somehow, for gardening on my boat.