Closing the Poop Loop: DIY Humanure Toilet

11 by LiveOAK Staff on July 23, 2009

DIY Humanure Toilet from Homegrown Evolution

When you're going green you can't be afraid to talk a little trash or to talk sh!t, so lets get to it. The conventional toilet is not very environmentally friendly. New low flow toilets, dual flush toilets and grey water systems can help reduce water waste but there's another kind of waste happening when you flush the toilet... you are wasting valuable human waste!

Not exactly, but you can with a humanure toilet!

Through composting this nitrogen rich refuse can be turned from sewage into a great fertilizer. The solution is a humanure dry toilet which can easily be made at home from a 5 gallon bucket, a milk crate and an old toilet seat. Basically, after you do you business you cover it up with a layer of non-toxic sawdust. Once the bucket is full you dump it into your (hopefully outdoor) humanure pile and compost at high temps for a year. You end up with a great fertilizer so you can shout "from whence you came" as you fertilize your garden.

The good folks over at Homegrown Evolution provide a great tutorial on building your own humanure toilet. They acknowldege that composting your own feces is still a controversial topic that understandably makes people a little queasy, but point out this can also be a great solution for a camping toilet. So whether you are ready to take the plunge and go hardcore green, or you need an emergency toilet for your remote wilderness cabin check out this cool tutorial.

You may also want to read up on Humanure and Composting Toilets over at the Humanure Handbook.

http://www.mybuildingmaterials.net Carol

I guess that kind of makes sense..
http://www.paystolivegreen.com Patrick

HAHA. Great picture. This is a very touchy topic though and it’s not always easy to make you own compost out of human waste. It’s easier to allow a company that can better control the human waste compost than doing it on your own.

David

I disagree. If you have access to any amount of yard space, then it is incredibly easy. I’ve been composting this way for four years without any difficulty at all. It takes maybe 10 minutes once a week to add to the pile and to wash the buckets. I have a small yard and my compost piles are less than 5 feet from my neighbor’s yard and 10 feet feet from a sidewalk. I have not had a single complaint about any smells.
In other words, this is very easy.

Danny

This is an outstanding concept for a portable toilet for like a camping trip. Although this is a great idea and in theory makes sense, fecal matter contains all kinds of things besides nitrogen-rich material, urea, water. All dandy as it sounds to put nitrogen and nutrients back into the soil by way of the nitrogen cycle, feces can also contain bacteria, pathogens, blood, and a plethora of hazardous material; material that could be foreign to your local environment (your backyard).

David

Your comment indicates your lack of familiarity with the subject. The heat and duration of the composting process eliminates risk of anything contained in the feces. Bacteria and other pathogens are destroyed, and blood and other hazardous materials are broken down.

David

A flat surfaced container would work better than that milk crate. There are too many surfaces to clean on that milk crate, making it impractical for a toilet frame.
Atbean

The hole should definitely be dug deeper to prevent disease– there was a big public health push back at the turn of the century to get everyone to dig outhouse pits at least 6 feet deep to prevent hook worm from spreading. (Gets in through bare feet on soil).
http://dprgram.net pete

on bill mollison’s global gardener video, it shows a big container collecting all the manure, and then they connected a pipe to run all their gas needs! I was so excited to see this, because even though it creates heaps of free methane gas, it does not take away from the fertilizer use of the manure! Its amazing how useful poo can be!
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