Composting Toilets Not Allowed In Marina.

[haggis]

Our pump out loo only needs emptying every six weeks or so so not much difference. Some people who install what they call composting poos (which do not compost) say they do it to save pump out costs. How much do suitable poly bags cost, bearing in mind that the stuff has to be double binned? 

 

haggis

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, haggis said:

Our pump out loo only needs emptying every six weeks or so so not much difference. Some people who install what they call composting poos (which do not compost) say they do it to save pump out costs. How much do suitable poly bags cost, bearing in mind that the stuff has to be double binned? 

 

haggis

I got my composting bags from Amazon - it cost around a tenner for 40 bags. I didn't get a composting bog to save on pump out costs, I got it because pump out and elsan points are rare and as someone who used to have a pump out toilet and often struggled to get it emptied, it became a hassle. As a liveaboard, this is far, far easier than any other toilet type. If I was a leisure boater/weekend warrior, I'd probably have stuck with the pump out.

[frangar]

1 minute ago, NB Caelmiri said:

I got my composting bags from Amazon - it cost around a tenner for 40 bags. I didn't get a composting bog to save on pump out costs, I got it because pump out and elsan points are rare and as someone who used to have a pump out toilet and often struggled to get it emptied, it became a hassle. As a liveaboard, this is far, far easier than any other toilet type. If I was a leisure boater/weekend warrior, I'd probably have stuck with the pump out.

Elsans rare?? Where do you boat? I’ve never found them tricky to find and I’m a liveaboard. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, frangar said:

Elsans rare?? Where do you boat? I’ve never found them tricky to find and I’m a liveaboard. 

I boat all over! Actually, to be fair I don't notice elsans that much because I've never had a cassette toilet so never had to deal with one. But I can't think of, off the top of my head, anywhere to empty a cassette toilet in Leeds between Leeds Dock and Aperley Bridge. I assume there's an elsan point at Aperley Bridge marina and I'm pretty sure there's a pump out near Leeds dock but certainly between those two points I'm unaware of anything else. And I have absolutely no desire to wander up and down the towpath with a poo filled cassette either. So I'll be sticking with my composting toilet for the foreseeable future!

[Bargebuilder]

10 minutes ago, frangar said:

So it’s crapping into a bag...I repeat ..why not use a proper toilet? I’m also surprised they are encouraging it....hardly green if more plastic is used to contain it.....

You don't put your rubbish into the C&RT bins in a plastic bag then; messy! 

One additional plastic toilet bag even two or three months inside the plastic bag that you anyway dump every few days is hardly a major issue.

 

Why not use a proper toilet indeed? Because:

 

They can be very expensive to buy, install and maintain.

Their production consumes valuable resources and energy - ceramic bowl, electric motors, plastic tank etc.

They will eventually become unpleasantly smelly.

They unnecessarily waste the world's most valuable resource, drinking water. 

Pump outs are expensive and not always available, especially in the winter.

Cassette toilets are very heavy to lug any distance and very unpleasant to empty; a relentlessly frequent process.

The need to store hundreds of litres of human slurry on board.

Blockages and jams at the most inconvenient times.

 

 

[tree monkey]

Compost bogs are great if you have the time and space to actually compost and use the waste for all of the reasons previously posted...

If you have none of the space or time and are dumping in a bin all you are doing is helping to fill fairly limited landfill space.

[Guest]

42 minutes ago, frangar said:

So it’s crapping into a bag...I repeat ..why not use a proper toilet? I’m also surprised they are encouraging it....hardly green if more plastic is used to contain it.....

The bags aren't plastic bags, they're made of corn starch which is biodegradable and compostable.

1 minute ago, tree monkey said:

Compost bogs are great if you have the time and space to actually compost and use the waste for all of the reasons previously posted...

If you have none of the space or time and are dumping in a bin all you are doing is helping to fill fairly limited landfill space.

I'm not a cow. How much room do you think my waste takes up? Besides, I only use my toilet when I have to, I use other facilities on a general basis. I might use my toilet 5 times a week.

[Jerra]

5 minutes ago, NB Caelmiri said:

The bags aren't plastic bags, they're made of corn starch which is biodegradable and compostable.

That would suggest to me that no attempt was being made to compost the material before disposing of it, as surely the corn starch would be degrading as well.

 

What am I missing?

[tree monkey]

13 minutes ago, NB Caelmiri said:

The bags aren't plastic bags, they're made of corn starch which is biodegradable and compostable.

I'm not a cow. How much room do you think my waste takes up? Besides, I only use my toilet when I have to, I use other facilities on a general basis. I might use my toilet 5 times a week.

Did I say you was? 

 

It's still dumping uncomposted waste in a hole in the ground, as an aside which will degrade anaerobicly which then releases methane, which needs venting, hopefully to be burnt but not always

[dmr]

As the wonderful EEC is going to force us to use white diesel the fuel boats will find it hard to survive as they can't compete with the prices of supermarket petrol stations. They could be repurposed to travel round the canals collecting bags of shit from boaters and then dropping it off on farmers fields. I intend to patent this idea but I suspect some historian will tell me that its all been done before .

 

...............Dave

[frahkn]

On 18/05/2018 at 17:22, captain flint said:

Boats I have been on with a well-installed and used separating toilet don't seem to smell at all, and don't need emptying that often. Doesn't seem a bad option

 

My composting toilet was installed in February, I promised at the time to report on it and will when it's a year old. Meanwhile I am keeping good records of my experiences.

 

I will just say that to date nothing whatsoever has gone into a waste bin (of any sort).

 

I don't live aboard but do spend six months of the year out and about on the boat.

[tree monkey]

4 minutes ago, frahkn said:

 

My composting toilet was installed in February, I promised at the time to report on it and will when it's a year old. Meanwhile I am keeping good records of my experiences.

 

I will just say that to date nothing whatsoever has gone into a waste bin (of any sort).

 

I don't live aboard but do spend six months of the year out and about on the boat.

I would be Interested to read your experience,  I am not anti compost bog at all, hope it works out

[Alan de Enfield]

2 hours ago, Bargebuilder said:

How many litres of liquid slurry would the C&RT need to deal with from the same boat if they had been using a pump-out loo and at what cost?

Considering a typical pump-out costs the boater £20 I imagine that the pump-out providers are actually making a profit even after they have paid a tanker to pump it out of their 'tank' or paid the sewage component of the water rates.

[Bargebuilder]

Yet another reason to store your waste dry, unless you look forward to the expensive and unpleasant process.

[sirweste]

Personally I would love to use a composting bog. But I can't see it drying out very well boxed up on the boat. My current set-up is a pump out which is fine, pumping out every 6 to 8 weeks. Sometimes bit of a faff finding a pump out when it lights up as full (which gives about 6 more flushes), but pretty easy. If composting gets easier I'd be well up for it

[Alan de Enfield]

2 minutes ago, sirweste said:

If composting gets easier I'd be well up for it

 Can it get much easier than crapping into a plastic bag and putting it into a bin ?

[tree monkey]

12 minutes ago, sirweste said:

Personally I would love to use a composting bog. But I can't see it drying out very well boxed up on the boat. My current set-up is a pump out which is fine, pumping out every 6 to 8 weeks. Sometimes bit of a faff finding a pump out when it lights up as full (which gives about 6 more flushes), but pretty easy. If composting gets easier I'd be well up for it

Composting bogs on a boat are really dessicating bogs and fairly simple to use as I understand it

 

What's more difficult is actually composting the product, I know some who actually manage it on the boat but it does take some time and a certain amount of dedication.

 

If you have access to a land base it is fairly easy to have a compost bin again it takes a bit of effort to get a proper hot compost going but it is fairly straightforward.

 

It's disposing of the end product that is the issue, access to a veg garden makes that easy but going to all that effort to just dump it in a bin seems pointless and in my opinion antisocial.

[peterboat]

I was throwing some veg matter in my composting bin today, its level is going down not up! it sits in the sun to help warm it up and I would say its the best part of a quarter full after a year! I put grass in it, leaves in it in fact anything I think will rot down, and it does along with the poo.

I can honestly say there is no smell whatsoever from it, so for me its the perfk solution and I would not go back to pump outs or cassettes if you paid me!

[sirweste]

28 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

 

What's more difficult is actually composting the product, I know some who actually manage it on the boat but it does take some time and a certain amount of dedication.

 

Yer, this is my point. Not sure how feasible that is with my current layout

[Alan de Enfield]

11 minutes ago, peterboat said:

I was throwing some veg matter in my composting bin today, its level is going down not up! it sits in the sun to help warm it up and I would say its the best part of a quarter full after a year! I put grass in it, leaves in it in fact anything I think will rot down, and it does along with the poo.

I can honestly say there is no smell whatsoever from it, so for me its the perfk solution and I would not go back to pump outs or cassettes if you paid me!

The difference being yours is not on a boat.

[peterboat]

2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

The difference being yours is not on a boat.

It would be if I was on a cruise for 6-9 months in the better months, It would then go in the composting bin when I got back!

[ditchcrawler]

11 hours ago, frangar said:

Some people refuse to believe that a composting toilet on a boat is simply shitting into a bag and throwing it away.....

I was reading the article in Canal Boat Times from a company called "Compoost Loos" who actually boast that their toilet intended to be lined with a bag so the full bag can be removed and disposed of in line with current guidelines

[tree monkey]

3 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I was reading the article in Canal Boat Times from a company called "Compoost Loos" who actually boast that their toilet intended to be lined with a bag so the full bag can be removed and disposed of in line with current guidelines

I suspect that bag isn't biodegradable 

[LadyG]

On 20/04/2018 at 11:56, PaulJ said:

Thats been ongoing for a while- I had to look at a boats toilet system and clarify that it did discharge into holding tanks many months ago.

I am not sure about the 'illegal' bit though as sea toilets are allowed on the River Great Ouse. Certainly I agree it is not a very good idea for many static boats to be discharging into a marina though.

I had no idea about the composting loo's though.Interesting as I fitted one a while ago- surely they can only insist you dispose of waste elsewhere?

@peterboat has his very own compost bin, he accepts other compostables, please post all waste in a plain brown envelope

Edited August 13, 2019 by LadyG
no crap in marina, fgs

[Chewbacka]

4 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I was reading the article in Canal Boat Times from a company called "Compoost Loos" who actually boast that their toilet intended to be lined with a bag so the full bag can be removed and disposed of in line with current guidelines

Back in the 70s went on a holiday boat and the toilet was a bucket with a seat and lid.  Must have cost all of £10.  Looks like we have gone full circle, only now it’s a posh wooden bucket that costs £1k.  Progress?