Comments on: Humanure Composting

By: Bluedog

Bluedog — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 04:25:45 +0000

Somehow, with all my internet researching of humanure composting toilets, I lucked onto this site. Awesome! I’m about to build my “solar composting outhouse” and have been wondering about the use of worms. Good to know that I can use them if I am not able to get the composting hot enough. I also LOVE the idea of using dried coffee grounds as one of my cover materials. Thanks for the intelligent thread.

By: Mario

Mario — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:45:41 +0000

I finished reading Jenkin’s Humanure Handbook a few days ago and in my opinion it is one of the better books of its kind if not the best. I`ve learned a lot and I am much more aware of our environment than before.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 07:26:56 +0000

Dried coffee grounds is a great idea! I have like 7-8 bags from Starbucks. I have too much food for my worms already. But maybe I can use the grounds for this little humanure experiment.

By: Stan

Stan — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 11:28:40 +0000

Most of those really stupid, intrusive laws are local, or written into restrictive covenants by homeowners associations. That means organizing against them is easier and more effective. Municipalities all over the country are passing ordinances to allow backyard chickens, eg, with local folks organizing and making it happen. HOAs can be changed, too. You just gotta get some neighbors organized. The meetings might invite 3000 people, and 50 show up.

By: Susan/catlady

Susan/catlady — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 07:55:20 +0000

many coffee shops in Portland, including Starbucks, give away their used coffee grounds to anyone who wants them.

By: DeAnander

DeAnander — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 05:18:26 +0000

interesting article about guerrilla composters in Chicago.

Here we get back to Orlov’s comments on the pressing need to change the rules:

The Tribune article notes that 22 families in several Chicago neighborhoods are taking part in Klehm’s program, replacing their flush toilets with “composting toilets” – five-gallon buckets, with snap-on seats, filled with sawdust that breaks down the waste and controls odor. The waste is collected and transferred in 32-gallon drums to a “secret location” somewhere outside the city for composting. The secrecy is necessary because the process violates various municipal ordinances.

“Secrecy is necessary” because there are laws against doing this simple, sensible thing to build topsoil. Just like there are laws that effectively prohibit you from building a straw bale home, or (in many communities) any home that is not rectangular; in the town where I used to live, you could not add a room onto your home unless you also added an off-street parking space to go with it (so you had to pave over the front yard if you wanted to add an extra room for a grown child or an ageing parent). There are communities with laws against drying your laundry on the line in the back yard. As Stan found out, there are communities with laws against growing vegetables in the front yard. Laws against keeping bees or chickens. These are laws, codes, and rules that have to change, and quickly: they outlaw the very bricolage and subsistence activities that we most urgently need to relearn and practise…

Anyway, these guerrilla composters in Chi-town are using exactly the system I was using (described in this feature article which seems a long time ago now) on a small individual scale.

@Chris, I used various “carbon” materials: pet bedding made of recycled newspaper was OK, but pricey and too coarse a grain for a good cover. The best ever was coir brick (compressed coconut dust and fibre) available from various garden supply places. It is shipped in pressed bricks which you soak in water to reconstitute. The grain is fine — a little coarser than coffee grounds (and btw, dried coffee or chai grounds would make the most perfect, wonderful composting loo “sawdust” imaginable). It composts beautifully and the redworms seemed to like it as bedding.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 15:40:54 +0000

Wow, I’m a little overloaded with information after reading the entry and all the comments.

1. I agree with pre-composting the contents of the humanure bucket before feeding to the worms. In that case, maybe it’s okay to put urine in the same bucket for moisture. The ammonia would be gone by the time the worms are introduced. In this case, maybe I’d need 3-4 buckets: 1 active, 1 (or 2) in pre-composting and 1 (or 2) in active vermi composting.

2. Sawdust is not easy to come by here. Has anyone tried using shredded newspaper in lieu of sawdust? To prevent poo from leaving marks on the bucket, perhaps newspaper can be used to line the sides of the pail before it’s used.

3. I haven’t tried humanure composting but it’s very tempting. Now if I can only keep it a secret…

By: Holli Smith

Holli Smith — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 00:09:49 +0000

Why are you separating the urine from the solids? The solids need the liquid, otherwise water would have to be added. Crazy… & we’ve never had a problem with smell. If smell is a problem add more sawdust. I like to add a little scoop of dirt & hopefully catch a angle worm for the bottom of the bucket in addition to the sawdust, although seems to work just fine just with the sawdust, too. We’ve been experimenting with our bucket sawdust composters now for our second year. We have 5 of them going. One in the shop, one in our mini cabin by the river, one for the boat, one for the camper, and one our home. We live in a small cabin and we couldn’t find a suitable spot for the composter, however a corner of the shower works great. It is so easy, way easier than kitchen compost. (We got the bucket/toilet seat from Cabella’s for $15 or so) When the bucket is full simply let it sit in sun or warm place. I’m finding a year is not necessary, a few months in the summer works great. We live in bear country and the bears have not tried to get into the buckets like they did the kitchen compost buckets. At first I emptied the compost into a compost pile when I decided that was too much work. From the bucket put it right into the garden bedding. Then I cover the beds with wood chips for the winter. I’m in love with these toilets. I’m thinking alot of you are making it too difficult!

By: Tub Chair

Tub Chair — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:52:12 +0000

my hubby always love small gardens and zen gardens, he always decorate it with new stuffs he buys online”-.

By: Dwight

Dwight — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 03:09:29 +0000

I am building a compost bin (4-feet x 4-feet x 4-feet), have already stocked up on sawdust, and next will probably order a Loveable Loo. My plan is to only use the humanure method if I have to “go off the grid.” The houses are close together and we all have small back yards, which is where my compost bin will be. I will store straw (4 bales) on a wooden pallets 15 feet from the compost bin. I know that if for whatever reason (economic meltdown, terrorist attack, or whatever) I must go off the grid, my neighbors will want to know what I am dumping into the compost bin once or twice a week. I suppose they will want to dump their waste into my bin also, but it would too soon fill up. I heard the other day that only 7 percent of Americans are preparing for any type of disaster where they will be off water, natural gas, electricity, food in the grocery stores, and a working sewage system for any significant length of time. That percentage is pathetic. I wish there was a way to get the humanure system more publicized so that the “average Joe” will start thinking seriously how he will dispose of human waste if he has to “go off the grid” for a long length of time. Anyway, I want to thank all who have offered their experiences and advice. I am not a “save the environment” kind of person, but I am a practical person; and that means preparing for disasters before they happen. Does anyone have experience with the Loveable Loo? What other (hopefully less expensive) toilet methods are out there that I can buy without having to build something…I have no tools and can’t drive a nail in straight if my life depended on it? Thanks…this is a great blog.