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Composting toilet- 10 month review


Leemc

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59 minutes ago, wandering snail said:

Think how much saving there would be on sewage going straight in to water courses if all householders, let alone boaters, were encouraged to use separating loos instead of Victorian style flush, with the infrastructure in place to collect it for compost. Time for a total rethink on how we manage our human waste? 

 

If only. This country is full of the most selfish so and sos.  Most people are not even willing to not to flush every single wee. Imagine how much water would be saved by 2 per flush?

 

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After pondering for months about switching to a waterless toilet we decided to buy one during the first lockdown. I can honestly say we have zero regrets.

we switched from a dump through pump out toilet which was fine with not too much odour but a total pain when there wasn’t a working pump out facility near by.

we have a hot bin composter on our mooring which is a wonderful thing. All our kitchen waste goes in with the solids and is fully composted within 3 months. It then  gets transferred into a black dustbin and left to further compost down. It takes probably no more than an hours work each week. It’s not. for everyone but it works for us. There’s a lot of misunderstanding around the subject of waterless toilets.

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8 minutes ago, Leemc said:

 

If only. This country is full of the most selfish so and sos.  Most people are not even willing to not to flush every single wee. Imagine how much water would be saved by 2 per flush?

 

 

Ah but if they don't flush their plastic wet wipes away we wouldn't be getting the extra islands forming in the Thames ...

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6 hours ago, Leemc said:

We replaced our sealand maserating ( cassette) with a composting one in January and thought it would be helpful to let people know our thoughts so far.

There's been quite a lot posted on this topic since I joined the forum, including lots of overly harsh negative comments. I'm not doing this to attract the same. 

To start with we are 100% happy with everything about the system. It is superbly simple to operate and manage and there is no way we would want to change back.

The smell- unbelievably there is absolute no smell at all. You can( if you want) stick your head in the solids bucket and there is absolutely no odour at all. Obviously, the liquids and solids cannot meet, but that has not happened with us.

 

The solid waste- this is probably the big issue for some. The key is the time these are allowed to dry out. Our system( I think most do) has a fan that draws moisture away. The image many may have, is a big bucket of pooey sludge. This is not the case. After a couple of weeks you're left with dried out lumps that rattle when put in a bucket. We currently take ours home and put in a garden compost bin. But I cannot see why these can't go in normal waste. They are not offensive, they are hard odourless lumps. You can simply pick them out of the bucket, obviously with a glove. When you consider local authorities handle bin loads of repulsive wet dog poo bags in their millions everyday, a few bags of dried out human waste should not be an issue. I would've posted pictures but not sure they would be wanted.

For families, I suppose the waste wouldn't have enough time to dry out properly before the bucket needs changing.

 

We must have saved hundreds of litres of water and used absolutely no toilet chemicals this year. We also haven't needed to set foot in any Elsan facility. If we'd had a pumpout system, we'd have saved money on that.

 

This system works for us and we are delighted with what it's been like this year. I know others disagree quite strongly, but once you see how it actually works on a day to day basis, you can't fail to be impressed.

 

 

My questions would be, how many people is this for, and what type of use does the boat have?

A liveaboard tribe, would have different requirements, to a couple, who only use the boat for odd days out.

 

Bod

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1 hour ago, Foggy66 said:

 There’s a lot of misunderstanding around the subject of waterless toilets.

Great that we are getting real world reports from people that are using COMPOSTING toilets as they should be, in various ways.

 

But there is NO misunderstanding that the majority of Vlogg following new CCing boaters fitted these so they could just chuck bags full of shit into CRT bins every couple of days.

There is also NO misunderstanding that CRT said that this was OK until earlier this year but have now been forced to change this.

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1 hour ago, Bod said:

My questions would be, how many people is this for, and what type of use does the boat have?

A liveaboard tribe, would have different requirements, to a couple, who only use the boat for odd days out.

 

Bod

There are just 2 of us most of the time. We have spent up to 2 weeks on board this year but do intend to  live aboard for extended periods next year. The liquids need emptying everyday and the the dried up solids are easily stored in a lidded plastic bucket- similar to those 20 litre paint pots. The longer you leave the solids the harder and drier they become, you only need take out those and leave the loose coconut coir behind. For more people on board it would take more effort, but we are sure we can make it work.

The benefits of no smells, no leaks, no chemicals, saving water and money far out weigh what we have to do.

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2 minutes ago, matty40s said:

But there is NO misunderstanding that the majority of Vlogg following new CCing boaters fitted these so they could just chuck bags full of shit into CRT bins every couple of days.

 

That is a massive misunderstanding.

 

Every month whether it needs emptying or not is about right for 2 and a half liveaboards, but without adding silly amounts of sawdust/shavings/coir every time it's used.

 

We fitted ours in 2015, so it's not a vlog following thing.  They are just better for boats or caravans or bothies.  I agree that if CRT want to stop people putting poo in their bins they are allowed - or indeed legally obliged - to do so, but the waste stream issue is AFAIK due to people emptying buckets straight into the bins.  Dirty buggers!

 

The flip side of this is that I have never yet seen a CRT recyclables only bin that I haven't removed several black bags of non-recyclables from and put in the general waste bin next to it as a point of principle.  Boaters are people, and people are stupid!

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5 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Great that we are getting real world reports from people that are using COMPOSTING toilets as they should be, in various ways.

 

But there is NO misunderstanding that the majority of Vlogg following new CCing boaters fitted these so they could just chuck bags full of shit into CRT bins every couple of days.

There is also NO misunderstanding that CRT said that this was OK until earlier this year but have now been forced to change this.

Matty, if you leave the solids long enough they do shrink right down and you only have to remove those every couple of weeks, for us it's been even longer. What gets taken out really isn't what you would imagine. Granted it is still shit, but without the moisture, it's strangely inoffensive, and easy to deal with- far far less gagging than a cassette.

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14 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

That is a massive misunderstanding.

 

Every month whether it needs emptying or not is about right for 2 and a half liveaboards, but without adding silly amounts of sawdust/shavings/coir every time it's used.

 

No, it's not. It might not be from your perspective, but there is a mass of new CC  boaters brought along by YouTube vloggers who think bag it and bin it applies to toilet, and this was almost encouraged by CRT until this year. 

 I have seen two couples move onto boats in the last 12 months, and heard of plenty more, that do just as I have described.

One of the boats who watch every vlog going

.."composting loo best thing since sliced bread..." were emptying bags of shit into our bins every couple of days.

The other couple  moaned that they werent allowed to come back from their 2nd local mooring at the nearby water point and empty their poo sacks in our bins saying they didnt know where the next bins were.(1/4 mile further on)

 

 

24 minutes ago, Leemc said:

Matty, if you leave the solids long enough they do shrink right down and you only have to remove those every couple of weeks, for us it's been even longer.

I know that, you know that and you do it properly, but there is mass of new liveaboard CC boaters that DONT do it that way.

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42 minutes ago, matty40s said:

No, it's not. It might not be from your perspective, but there is a mass of new CC  boaters brought along by YouTube vloggers who think bag it and bin it applies to toilet, and this was almost encouraged by CRT until this year. 

 I have seen two couples move onto boats in the last 12 months, and heard of plenty more, that do just as I have described.

One of the boats who watch every vlog going

.."composting loo best thing since sliced bread..." were emptying bags of shit into our bins every couple of days.

The other couple  moaned that they werent allowed to come back from their 2nd local mooring at the nearby water point and empty their poo sacks in our bins saying they didnt know where the next bins were.(1/4 mile further on)

 

 

I know that, you know that and you do it properly, but there is mass of new liveaboard CC boaters that DONT do it that way.

Ahhh the curse of the boat vloggers 🙈

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1 hour ago, Leemc said:

Matty, if you leave the solids long enough they do shrink right down and you only have to remove those every couple of weeks, for us it's been even longer. What gets taken out really isn't what you would imagine. Granted it is still shit, but without the moisture, it's strangely inoffensive, and easy to deal with- far far less gagging than a cassette.

So it looks like these solids would look and sound like a tin of biscuits being shaken about! So a serious question here - could you throw these little nuggets in the log burner like the Masai do with cattle dung? Could be a massive bonus all round if this was deemed acceptable 👍🤩

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55 minutes ago, Ducgas said:

So a serious question here - could you throw these little nuggets in the log burner like the Masai do with cattle dung?

 

Many of the London boaters are already doing so - and it still smells better than the holiday boaters throwing plastic on the fire ...

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10 hours ago, Ducgas said:

So it looks like these solids would look and sound like a tin of biscuits being shaken about! So a serious question here - could you throw these little nuggets in the log burner like the Masai do with cattle dung? Could be a massive bonus all round if this was deemed acceptable 👍🤩

Really don't know. The used paper already does, if the fires hot enough and solids dry enough suppose it's possible👍

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1 hour ago, Leemc said:

Really don't know. The used paper already does, if the fires hot enough and solids dry enough suppose it's possible👍

 

There is also an emerging trend for having incinerating toilets on boats. There have been a few threads over the past few years.

 

I can envisage a convergence of technologies. A stove and toilet combined, in the corner of the saloon.....

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From the OP's description I don't think it is a composting toilet, It sounds like a desiccating toilet with the composting eventually done away from the boat. What I am interested in is what happens to those nuggets when they eventually get mixed with the damp/wet compost materials. Do they rehydrate?

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13 hours ago, Leemc said:

Matty, if you leave the solids long enough they do shrink right down and you only have to remove those every couple of weeks, for us it's been even longer. What gets taken out really isn't what you would imagine. Granted it is still shit, but without the moisture, it's strangely inoffensive, and easy to deal with- far far less gagging than a cassette.

The last few words sum it up for me. After over 30 years of emptying cassettes usualy 3 a week all over the country, I dont/didnt find it gagging. It takes a few seconds, all gone, job done. I spose some peeps are of a less hardy disposition? Yes sometimes the elsan points are bad, but not so often and its literaly seconds to dispose of the contents. Cassette bogs dont smell if maintained and good old PROPER blue with formaldehyde is used ;)

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1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:

From the OP's description I don't think it is a composting toilet, It sounds like a desiccating toilet with the composting eventually done away from the boat. What I am interested in is what happens to those nuggets when they eventually get mixed with the damp/wet compost materials. Do they rehydrate?

A bit like packet soup? Mmmm...

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2 hours ago, MtB said:

 

There is also an emerging trend for having incinerating toilets on boats. There have been a few threads over the past few years.

 

I can envisage a convergence of technologies. A stove and toilet combined, in the corner of the saloon.....

Just remember not to sit on the stove as it won't end well......

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4 hours ago, robtheplod said:

Just remember not to sit on the stove as it won't end well......

 

Ah, the smell of singed buttock.

 

I don't have a problem emptying the cassette but I baulk at clearing up after the dog, so we haven't got one. Different people different tolerances I suppose.

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Well...

Two people on board for two weeks a year are bound to be able to use a Seperator (not Composting) loo successfully with no real issues as they happily take their dried turds home to compost for the next 12 months.

 

What I would like to see is a report from a CCing family on a boat. How do they get on with the amount of solid waste generated and where do they store it for the 'up to 12 months' it needs to become compost.

That is the real issue with seperator loos and the main reason why many of us genuine CCers are under the impression we cannot consider them viable.

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6 minutes ago, MarkH2159 said:

What I would like to see is a report from a CCing family on a boat. How do they get on with the amount of solid waste generated and where do they store it for the 'up to 12 months' it needs to become compost.

That is the real issue with seperator loos and the main reason why many of us genuine CCers are under the impression we cannot consider them viable.


I would too.

 

My boat had a compost toilet fitted when I bought it and we decided to try it as a family of 4. All was ok initially. With 4 people the liquid container was filled every 24 hrs and was actually quite foul smelling when emptied. The solids container was ok for 5 days then it got swampy and started to smell.....it couldn't dry quickly enough with 4 people using it and this was in August, so I had to empty it. The conclusion was there was no advantage over a cassette toilet, and come the end of the year when you can't use CRT bins, a real disadvantage compared to a cassette. 

I removed it from the boat and gave it a good clean and put it on ebay, where a vanlife guy gave me £500 for it. It totally paid for the brand new cassette toilet!

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On 03/11/2021 at 13:55, Leemc said:

The smell- unbelievably there is absolute no smell at all. You can( if you want) stick your head in the solids bucket and there is absolutely no odour at all. 

 

Yes I agree, that is unbelievable and in my experience of composting toilets it's unlikely. All the composting toilets I've been near have a musty smell at the very least. None have been odourless as you say. It might not smell like shit but it's not exactly pleasant. It's seems that many people with various types of toilets are unable to smell (or admit they can smell) their own shit. 

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As an old hippy type that likes to attempt growing things, I'm quite interested in the idea of having a composting loo on a boat. I can see that it would work fine when part time boating with access to a land based compost bin, and I'll probably give it a try. Which toilet system do you have? Not a basic Floozy type as you mentioned that it has a fan. Does it use much electric?

 

When CCing the composting part of the process would need a good bit more thought, and a bit of space, and probably require sterilising I should think?

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On 04/11/2021 at 11:35, mrsmelly said:

The last few words sum it up for me. After over 30 years of emptying cassettes usualy 3 a week all over the country, I dont/didnt find it gagging. It takes a few seconds, all gone, job done. I spose some peeps are of a less hardy disposition? Yes sometimes the elsan points are bad, but not so often and its literaly seconds to dispose of the contents. Cassette bogs dont smell if maintained and good old PROPER blue with formaldehyde is used ;)

I don't use the formaldehyde stuff but have never had a cassette toilet smell.

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