Of all the things to get excited about here, the composting toilet and humanure system probably certifies me as crazy.
I’d never used anything but a flush toilet, although I’d heard about alternatives. And much like beekeeping, it retained a place in my mind as intriguing but way beyond my comfort level.
After my first experience with their composting toilet and humanure system, I was pretty impressed. It definitely seemed a more sustainable option. But after getting my hands on Chris’ copy of The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure
The world is divided into two categories: those who shit in drinking
water and those who don’t. We in the Western world are in the former class. We defecate in water, usually purified drinking water. After polluting the water withour body’s excrement, we flush the once pure but now polluted water “away”, meaning we probably don’t know where it goes, nor do we care. – The Humanure Handbook
This paragraph gave me an imagine of a snobbish, over-privileged society opening up a bottle of Perrier to take a piss. Except it’s a 3-7 gallon bottle of Perrier. Yes, this was the paragraph within the two chapters of disturbing and eye-opening citations that clenched it for me: Flush toilets are weird.
On the other hand, the benefits of a composting toilet are amazing. Some of them include:
- No water. Zero. Zilch. When you consider that, at best, you are flushing 3 gallons of clean water down the drain several times per day and when the lack of such sanitary water is attributable to 25 million deaths a year, 60% of whom are children…well, flush toilets seem pretty pompous.
- No smell. Seriously. If done properly, there will be no discernible odor. Which is more than I can say for some flush toilets.
- Less cleaning, which means less harmful chemicals. How many environmentally-conscious people out there still resort to something nasty to clean their stained toilet bowls? Especially if you “let it mellow”, the ring around the toilet can be disgusting to look at and impossible to remove without bleach.
- No splash back. Because could there be anything worse?
- No flush. The composting toilet is quiet when you’re worried about waking a household…or alerting guests as to what you’re doing.
- Compost. After proper, easy composting you’re left with rich humus for the garden.
Why Humanure
The reasons are pretty amazing and cover a broad spectrum. Rather than quote the entire book for you (and oh man, it is good stuff), let me run down a few of the book’s citations:
- We are the only species on Earth to create waste. Other species create resources. Manure – from any creature – is a resource. Would we throw money away? Then why throw away good water and good compost?
- The foods that animals eat help to nourish the land that provided it in the form of manure. Food grows > Food nourishes > Bodily excrements are left behind > Those excrements grow more food. We are the only part of nature that does not work within that cycle of life and growth, choosing instead to create a broken cycle of mostly synthetic inputs and wasting important outputs.
- Half of the 250 million+ tons of waste per year is valuable as an agricultural resource. Instead of composting it ends up in landfills, creating an excess of methane. Landfills are considered “‘among the single greatest contributors of global methane emissions’, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.”
- When considering that 1 in 3 people on every continent do not have access to clean water it makes it utterly ridiculous to crap in ours.
- Composting humanure by impoverished areas gives sparse or stripped land an ability to flourish, thereby feeding and sustaining life.
- Compost, including humanure compost, has the ability to degrade toxic chemicals. The book cites an Austrian farmer who owned the only farm not affected by the radiation from Chernobyl, believed to be due to the abundance of microorganisms in his soil. Also, the Umatilla Army Depot munitions site heavily contaminated with TNT and RDX restored the soil to “a better condition than before it was contaminated” after composting the soil. This also saved approx $2.6 million in incineration costs. (It’s estimated that if all such sites were composted it would save $200 million of taxpayers money. Hmm…) Could compost – something we could potentially have an abundance of, help restore other polluted areas?
But most of all, it’s sustainable. In a world of rising oil prices and depletion, we need to find alternatives to doing the things that simply don’t make sense. As food, sanitation and sewage costs continue to sky-rocket, I foresee more and more of us needing to “return to the land”, grow our own food without endless synthetic inputs and put an end to waste of any kind. Animal and human manure are a valuable resource that we will not be able to afford to lose in the future.
What About Germs?
We’re probably hard-wired to be disgusted by human waste. This mechanism helps keep us away from harmful pathogens and stay healthy. Not necessarily a bad thing. But those of us who wouldn’t bat an eyelash at using composted animal manures would be more than a bit concerned about using composted human manure in the same manner.
Properly composted human manure is free of pathogens or bacteria. It’s a process and not at all difficult, but describing how is worthy of its own book. And thankfully The Humanure Handbook
The Ironwood System
It’s pretty simple: A wooden box with a lid that lifts and a toilet seat on top. Inside is a five gallon bucket. Chris also has a fan installed inside the box that vents outside but we’ve yet to really need it. Beside the composting toilet is a bucket of wood chips. (You can also use straw or sawdust.) When someone uses the bathroom, they simple sprinkle material over the top. When the bucket gets full it is dumped into a humanure composting bin, which sits for a year before use. Chris has been using a composting toilet and humanure for about 8 years without issue. And it’s been feeding his gardens and his family for just as long.
I Won’t Go Back
I’m thankful that in the RV we use a measly cup or two of water to flush. If it’s just for #1 and the water pump is off, we can actually get by without using any water (by opening the hatch while we go, we don’t even need to rinse the bowl). If we had the room and a place to compost it, I’d set up a humanure system in a heartbeat. (I have heard of RVers using composting toilets with a trash bag that can be tied up and dumped normally, as well. It’s really not much worse than throwing away disposable diapers, just in larger quantities.)
But when we settle back into a home, I will not be using a flush toilet. I’m a convert, I love it and I’m not going back.
What about you? Have you used a composting toilet? Or would you try it?
*This is an affiliate link to Amazon. If you are considering buying this book, please consider purchasing it (and any other books) using this link. All earnings go toward supporting our family.
I'm Tara Wagner, life coach and creator of the Digging Deep process, where I coach women out of survival mode to recreate their lives and families.
I had my first encounter with sawdust compost toilets last year when i went and visited a dear friend of mine who had gotten rid of everything he owned, found a camper and moved up to Oregon a few miles away from me to stay on a commune called WolfCreek Sactuary( known as one of the main Radical faerie movement’s domains) I think i remember then saying that after a certain aging period they use the waste as what you called Humanure to grow things in their green house and gardens on the land. brilliant!!!!
They had a few crappers spread around there 100 acre piece of land. I was a lil worried at first but after trying this out and hearing about all the pros of this method, i also wish i could switch over to this method. Its deplorable that we are polluting and wasting water when there is so much death around the world based on dehydration and lack of pure water.
loving your blog and reading your gypsy caravan stories : )
keep on traveling brave souls.
much love!!
-Chelsea Rose
I swear, you are constantly taking things I would have once considered absolutely strange and disgusting and framing them in relate-able layman’s terms and totally opening up my mind to changing opinions and views… This is fantastic.
oh, yes! In GA at the Len Foote Hike Inn http://hike-inn.com/theinn.asp
they have them.
I also suggested one for my friends cabin that does not have plumbing. They loved the idea.
Here at home we have the regular old flush variety though.
@ chelsea, thanks for the comment. flush toilets just stop making sense when you see the alternative first hand.
@jasie, yay! a potty convert!
Several things come to mind… FAQs if you will. What about if a person does have a poor diet? Does that effect (affect?) the quality of their humanure and therefore the compost product?
What if a person is sick? Do they throw up in the compost toilet?
Just wondering…
I may consider using something like this especially if we ever own and/or operate a ranch where we could easily compost it and then use that compost.
Kristin – My family may be weird, but we have always done our sick-time-puking in super huge mixing bowls instead of the toilet (no awful stink in our faces while we do our hurling)… I bet that could work well in this situation. You’d just have to find a place to dump the bowl and then wash it really well…. maybe it’d be totally ok to dumb puke in the compost toilet?? Tara?
@kristin, i’m still pretty new to this, so i asked chris (from ironwood).
he said as long as it is handled properly and not allowed to contaminate the surrounding environment, feces from ill people can be composted. (there may be some extenuating circumstances, but he’s not aware of anything that survives both the heat and time of composting.)
vomit is also okay to compost in a humanure pile – i’m not sure about composting it in a regular pile, since it may not reach the same temps not have the same microorganisms to break it down.
Thanks, Jasie. Ya, I dont know. Altho, I’m sure there is some kind of plant that would just love for you to mix your bowl of puke right into the ground around it.
Sorry, that may be too gross.
Right on! I love this idea and wouldn’t hesitate to use one. We have an old house with cranky plumbling…it would be awesome to replace it with something much more useful.
Oh god Tara! For the love of mother universe WHY? do you write about these things? Not only is it completely weird but you make me think about things I really, really wish I hadn’t. You are an awful social conscience to have, you know? Now I will never get these facts out of my head! and I will consider myself more social irresponsible now with each flush which is just so not good for my ego!
First of all, I have been pissing without water since I was old enough to stand up and take a leak. Of course, at some magical age I was told it was inappropriate and that I should go in to the restroom to do such things. Even to this day I get excited about going camping and getting to just tinkle when I have to, where I want. Even my wife is okay with “copping a squat” and going when she has to. But bring us back to our nice, neat little world and we find it disgusting to do anything alternative. While we have low flow toilets and we often will not flush after just tinkling a little (which does, unfortunately, have a smell unique to itself…without getting disgusting) we are as guilty as the next American for using the restroom on perfectly potable water when friends of ours in several countries routinely go for 2-3 days without potable water.
My concern is our building codes here in the states as well as the state of our child welfare systems. If we were to use an alternative in our home and someone were to report us would we get in trouble with child protective services? I often wonder that.
Whatever the case, I found the post most interesting and am going to consider the book. It would at least be worth the read and the resource.
Glad y’all are having fun and staying safe!
-Drew
A few people we know around here (organic farmers – go figure!
) have composting toilets. You can be as simple or as fancy in the setup as you want, and we have seen some great systems. It is a great thing. The boys loved the composting outhouse at Angelic Organics (farm from The Real Dirt on Farmer John) which has a 2 story gravity system. Wheeee! 
Ah, a family after our own heart
My husband researched composting toilets for a speech credit project (after reading the handbook). The college kiddos thought he was insane, but he would love nothing more than to replace our toilet with a bucket to poop in.
Love it! I have that book in my bathroom reading basket, of all places! It convinced my hubby to take the plunge, so we are going to set up a system soon. If I pick it up to read while using the bathroom, I always feel so bad to be flushing such valuable resources down the toilet!
@barb, just doing my job. at least let it mellow woman!
the book actually has a word for you – it’s called a fecophobe. don’t be afraid, barb. embrace the poop.
@drew, based on the many different composting toilets available and the information out there (particularly in this book) i would doubt it would be an issue. resale value might be another story. in fact this book cites a person who had to deal with building codes and used the book to prove his point.
i think what we’d do – if we buy a house with a flush toilet – is to shut the water off on the regular toilet and setup a composting toilet right next to it.
@miranda, if you set yours up we might have a full blackwater tank for composting when we arrive.
At the campground used by Not Back To School Camp in Vermont, they have composting outhouses (and only composting outhouses, I might add). Before going to camp, I learned of this, and of the fact that the campground (which is also a working farm) uses the “humanure” to fertilize the food they grow. I honestly found the idea disgusting, to start with. But having actually used the things, and learned more about it, I really love it. Even when in outhouse format they’re much less stinky than conventional outhouses, and I imagine would be even better in an inside environment where they’re emptied regularly! It’s the most sustainable way to handle waste that I’ve seen so far, and I love it. Composting toilets definitely factor into my dream truly sustainable co-housing intentional community of the future.
My DH and I have talked about composting toilets on our homestead someday. We’ll be sure to use the link if our homestead comes sooner rather than later.
And I’m happy to know it isn’t as gross as we imagine as “civilized” people.
“embrace the poop.”
LMAO I love you so much.
So here’s my Q.
(I’ll buy the book once we get our house rented)
Can you compost meat eater’s poo?
And no idea if it would really work, but as a renter, my thought was to remove the flushing toilet, “cap” the hole, and put the composting toilet over the top. When we move, we’d put the old toilet back. ‘Course, my landlord gave us free rein over the house, so we could do that without him getting upset.
Living in the boondocks, and having freezes that stop pipes for sometimes days, this idea is something I’ll educate myself about even if just for those instances.
Love it! I’ve been interested in a compost toliet for a while now. There was that “ick” factor initially, but my social conscious won that battle. As soon as we are in the right environment, we’ll definitely be using one.
I should buy the book, but until then, I do have a question. We’re planning to go on the road as soon as my hunny is out of the military. I do know of a few families who use a compost toliet on the road, and like you said, they just trash it when time. Would it be possible to just pull over next to some trees, dig a small hole, dump your bucket, and then refill the hole? Sensible or pollutable? lol.
Hi Tara!
I found your website a few days ago from a comment you left on the Natural Papa’s website! I have read quite a lot of the Organic Sister since then and I love what you write!!!
My boyfriend and I are actually in the plan making stages of building our own outhouse with a composting toilet in the backyard. I can’t wait! Not sure what we’ll do with our regular flush toilet now but I have seen pictures of other people using them as planters for house plants. Very cool! We use a composting toilet when camping on our desert land and are very eager to bring that sustainability to our Austin residence. Keep us posted!
Love it! My next toilet will be a composting toilet (already convinced of this before reading your post).
I’ve been so intrigued and haven’t had the time to research this so I’m really glad to see this post!
I’m curious about carnivore poop too!
Also-
I have a reeeeealllly hard time believing that a 5 gallon bucket of poo doesn’t smell but I’ll give you the benefit of a doubt.
You said he puts it in a pile and it sits for a year- what else is in the pile? And does he have to make a new pile every time? Just trying to figure out how to do this in an urban neighborhood with little extra land.
Definitely going to check out the book!
What about things like C-Diff and MRSA? Maybe it’s cause I work in a hospital and I spend my days surrounded by the worst of the worst ickies but this is just does not sit well with me.
@jenno you’d have to look into the details of each but the internal temps of a humanure pile reach much higher than a regular pile; this means you end up with very specific microorganisms not found in regular compost piles that break down the worse bacteria. also the pile must be aged for at least a year, if not longer which pretty much ensures it will be dead. but again it depends on the specific temps and resiliency of the bacteria outside the body. i’m sure if someone were sick and a person had concerns it would be possible to handle it differently.
@brianna and rachel, carnivore…or more accurately omnivore poop is completely normal and poses no additional risk. again if there is an issue (say with contaminated poop) the heat of the pile and the long aging process take care of anything that may be harmful.
chris puts other things in his pile too. he uses wood chips for the toilet but adds straw to the pile. he also adds any other compostable material (or at least that which the pigs and chickens don’t eat). he uses a large “box” about 4 feet high by 3 feet wide and long. when that box is full it sits for the year.
@meli, i don’t think burying would be wise. i’m sure it can be done but you do run a risk of contamination if it’s not aged/composted. and i’m pretty sure local authorities would frown upon it.
Darn! Thought I was onto something, lol!
There is a composting toilet at a gas station we often stopped at in Middlebury, Vermont. It was the first one I had seen… ever. It was electric of some sort and I’m unsure why. When you pushed the button it sounded like a generator turned on. I imagine since this was an indoor thing, it was somehow pumping the waste somewhere else?
hmmm…you answered my biggest questions about human waste composting. I am intrigued, and open to it.
Okay, you brought me out of the woodwork with this one. We have a composting toilet. I love it. Once I really got the idea of using clean water for waste it bugged me every time I had to flush. The sawdust toilet freaked out my parents, on whose property we live, so we bought a toilet-looking model called Nature’s Head. It separates the liquids from the solids. The liquid is dumped out daily on plants or the regular compost pile, and once a month or so the solids are dumpded outside into a deep hole with a lid. Again, I would have a compost pile for this, but my parents just can’t quite cope. The hole is a compromise.
Funny that this is my first comment, but here ya go! I love your blog and you are really giving me some food for thought about raising and teaching my children. Thanks.
I am loving your blog! I just sent a friend request via facebook. We look forward to a yurt in the woods of southern Missouri someday! Love reading about the compost toilet!
Tara – love that idea of putting it next to an existing one – great way to avoid ignorant city codes enforcers – everybody’s happy this way!
echoing what jasie said – it’s so fascinating to learn of these things which one doesn’t normally come across, but to hear them clearly and simply explained, in a logical fashion, well, it’s hard not to be convinced by the end of reading your post, thank you so much for sharing with us, and educating us all to the alternatives that are out there. It’s not something I’ve particularly considered before, but reading those stats about drinking water and how wasteful (pardon the pun) our flushing toilets are, well, it’s definitely made me think more about the whole issue.
I love the Humanure concept! My husband is still really freaked (grossed) out by it, but I will win him over in time
Well, I’m totally obsessed with sustainable toilet topics right now. I just converted to cloth TP, and have FINALLY put in a half-gallon water bottle to displace some of the water in the tank and save a little water per flush (which only got me realizing how wasteful flushing is!). And of course, we let it mellow.
But…I have been thinking about ways to take it to the next level, and as usual, you are one step ahead of me in the bathroom, blazing a trail! I’m so excited about this. It’s not something I’ll be ready to try just yet, as we have some strict rules in our renter’s contract, but maybe I can talk B into it when we own a home…. I’m just DYING to try this!
Thanks for this information. I would deffinely try it. I’m going to get my husband to read this post.
Hey Tara.
I absolutely *LOVE* that you posted this entry. This time last year, I was knee deep in researching composting toilets. But not just a composting toilet for typical home use. Oh no. I was doing research on how to incorporate a composting toilet system into a mobile home , aka “our converted school bus”. In doing so, I read the entire humanure handbook from front to back and sideways. I even emailed the author of the book to ask more specific questions in regards to motor homes. Of course, his blanket answer was to simply purchase one of the extremely overpriced versions available on the market. But the hubby and I just knew there had to be another way. And, by golly, I do believe we have come up with a way to install a completely functional composting system ON THE BUS. If you want more info, feel free to email me and I’ll do my best to explain our theory to you. And that really is all that it is at the moment, until we design it, implement it, and try it out for a year or so. But we are planning to do it. And if it works we’ll be able to tell others – like you and your family – about it so they can travel and compost at the same time. Unfortunately, no one has even attempted a system like ours. So it’s all experimental for now. But it can be done. I know it can.
hi Lee,
I was wondering how your traveling composting toilet is going. I am very interested in wondering how you set it up and what do you do with the pile up? Thanks.
I am SO glad you posted this! I have been wondering why we can’t compost human waste, and now I know that it is possible. I knew it had to be! It doesn’t make sense that animals can relieve themselves anywhere and it benefits the environment, but we can’t? I mean, obviously the composition of the waste will be different, and I don’t know how things like medications would affect it, but I have seriously wondered about this topic. It also never made sense to me that we can just keep taking nutrients out of the earth without putting them back in. Eventually the soil would just run out of nutrients, right? I love the idea of completely the cycle by returning everything to the earth.
I don’t know if hubby could get on board with this, but maybe some day. I don’t even think I’d be ready to take the plunge just yet, but the way you describe it, it seems rather simple.
I’m so happy to read so many interested comments! I thought for sure I’d be freaking more people out.
For those of you wanting to do something but not sure what, an alternative would be to only use a flush toilet for #2 and save lots of water by using urine in the garden. Urine is 100% sterile and a great source of nitrogen for plants. It’s easy enough to pee into a bucket with a lid and dump it out. And since we pee multiple times throughout the day, you’ll be saving most water doing that.
Tara – You inspired me to write my own post about this subject and I linked over to this post, since you’re always inspiring me, you goof.
I love your last comment about peeing in a bucket and dumping it in the garden! You know… if it weren’t for the fact that our neighbors will be in view at our new house, I’d just send the boys outside to pee right in the dirt. LOL But I have a feeling we’d get some sideways glances and maybe some angry mail.
Hi Tara!
Have a great weekend.
I’ve been keeping up on your adventures and I’m sorry I haven’t commented sooner. I had to on this one though… lol! Ever since you posted about switching to cloth TP, I’ve been inspired. I’ve wanted to make the switch but just haven’t really had the time to sew up some cloth wipes. Believe it or not… sorry for the TMI but we are actually out of TP right now and were using the last of a recycled brand of tissues. HA! I’d like to sew some wipes up very soon. Not sure if it will happen before our next purchase but soon! We already cloth diaper and I really don’t see any difference. This is such an awesome post. I love the last idea too! We usually have my son pee on a tree if were outside…but I really like the idea of having a separate bucket for the adults (the lil potty has one already and I’ve been dumping into the toilet…not anymore!!!!). When I write about making the switch I plan to link up to you! So glad you are enjoying your great adventure… sooooo jealous!!!
P.S.
thx again!
I forgot to mention that we are on septic here (still gross and wasteful)… but after the hub read your post he became quickly inspired to build a composting toilet. Baby steps… !!
@leslie, yay for motivated husbands!!
in regards to cloth toilet paper, a really easy solution would be rags or an old tee shirt cut into squares (the tee won’t fray, either – bonus). that will at least get you through without buying more TP and until you can sew up something nicer.
can’t wait to hear how it all works for you!
I first used a composting toilet in the late 1970′s, at a friend’s house in Glorieta, New Mexico. They used ashes from the fireplace to throw down the hole. It didn’t go into a bucket. It went deeper down, and then was cleaned out from a side door or panel of some sort (didn’t go look). They lived on a hillside.
There are composting toilets at some rest stops in southern New Mexico or southern Arizona (maybe both)–also on a hill, also the poo goes down eight feet or more, and it’s just pulled out the side when it builds up, I guess. Those I don’t think we threw anything over the poop except the paper, which also can compost quickly.
I wouldn’t mind having one. We do have a crawl space under the toilet next to our room. Hmmm…. That’s the only real candidate, I think. Other toilets are on a concrete slab surrounded by rooms, and upstairs.
@Sandra, ew, I hope they didn’t just let it pile up. Uncomposted, it can be pretty bad (to the surrounding environment and the nostrils!). In the book there were tons of different systems and types of toilets. Chris has the most basic and easy to implement system. I think it cost all of $20 to get started!
What an amazing post! My partner and I are planning to settle down in a few years and want a highly sustainable homestead, but I always thought the composting toilets would be a little…much. You have completely revived my interest (and determination) in making as many green options as possible. Thanks for sharing your family’s wonderful journey.
One of our midwives in NY had one, a pre-made one with a hand-crank for post-use mixing. I wanted one immediately but they’re fairly expensive for a toilet. I LOVE this idea much, much more – no moving parts and totally DIY friendly. I will definitely build one of these when we are settled & living somewhere.
question… if a person has a very unhealthy diet (synthetics, junk foods… basically just a bunch of crap…) is it at all harmful to use that stool for composting? is it more beneficial?
@Arthur, I don’t believe so. Broken down, compost is compost. It may be less plentiful in nutrients if the diet was less plentiful but I can’t see how it would be harmful. I would suggest reading some more on the topic to be sure; things like recreational or pharmaceutical drugs may have an impact but from all I’ve read the extremely high temps break that all down too.
just a quick fyi from a former clean freak who now freaks over bleach….that horrible ring around “regular” toilets can be removed usually with a pumice stone (eg the ones you use for your rough feet). Yes, you will have to put your hand in the toilet to use it, but this is the perfect reason to buy only the best all-natural soap with nature’s purifiers in it! lol
Thank you Tara for all your wonderful posts! I am a new reader and have been enjoying your blog for the past 3 hours….I should probably move now since I think my toes are numb from the sittin’
Looking forward to the days to come!
I linked this page, Tara.
http://lostvegan.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/compost-happens/
Thank you for the post! I’ve been trying to decide how to incorporate this into my next step. I will be living in a yurt on my friend’s property, in a residential area of a fairly small city. I’ll essentially be living there to farm his backyard for food. Manure sure would be a useful resource for the farming operation, and it would be easier not to set up plumbing in the yurt. So now I just have to figure out what he thinks of this whole plan (or if he would notice my big humanure compost bin? Ha, I think so). I also have to figure out how I’ll solve the problem of moving on to live on my own land someday, hopefully in a matter of years. Likely moving quite far away. I don’t imagine that someone not enthused about the project is going to be interested in dealing with the compost that has to wait there for a year after I move out. Even though I know it’s compost after a year, I’m pretty sure he’d have a hard time not thinking of it as someone else’s poo. Hmm, have to think about that transition time a bit more. But the compost toilet is totally the way to go, if I can get the community I live with to be on board.
Thanks again!
We use a wheelie bin for composting our poop. Then seal it when it is full and leave it to compost down. Works so far, though we are thinking of setting up a much larger system as there are a few of us in our community. Plus we have a urine separator constructed out of some old pipe and a tuppaware container. Diluted we use this on our garden also. Love the site read the book a while back might pick it up again though to remind myself what it was all about.
And once again a search for “humanure” leads me to another blog that I must add to my reading list. If this keeps up I’ll do nothing but read all day…
I’m so convinced. My partner would not be.
He’s not on board for my “ideas” mostly… but someday! It will happen!
Thank you for writing this in such an excellent way… you’re brilliant. And I adore your blog
I hope you’re enjoying your blog-free-January… we miss ya
We live in the city with a flush toilet that rarely gets used. We keep several buckets of sawdust in a storage area. We use an empty 5 gal. bucket in a cabinet. When it’s full I dump it in the back yard in the compost bin along with the kitchen and yard “waste”. Totally no odor. The neighbors know about it and have never complained. I’ve been doing this for 3 years and have made astoundingly beautiful dirt that I use in the garden. Before I read your book, I made every mistake in the book. Thankyou for helping me out.
Welcome to the fold, my sister. We’ve been doing water-free poops for two years, and luckily, the people we call “friends” think that’s pretty cool.
Roxanne