Morning!
I picked up a copy of bushcraft & survival skills magazine yesterday, and there's a ton of good articles in it for us preppers, anyway there's an article on building a composting toilet using a Swedish composting toilet system called a Separett which looks great.
I don't have access to a scanner until the weekend, but I'll try and scan it in for you lovely lot then!
Composting toilet
Composting toilet
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail - Benjamin Franklin
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lisaloolibell
Re: Composting toilet
Ive had a sawdust toilet at home for years now as emergency backup which is the source of much humour in my family. 
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Carrot Cruncher
Re: Composting toilet
Thanks Scoobie, A compost khazi is on my list of things to learn how to make, would be very useful in a time when water is scarce
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Huorn
Re: Composting toilet
It's something I've been considering at the allotment. More hygienic than weeing in the corner and much better for the missus and kids.
I think the principle is straightforward enough and I seen plans for them before, but would be interested to see others.
H
I think the principle is straightforward enough and I seen plans for them before, but would be interested to see others.
H
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lisaloolibell
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bigpaul
Re: Composting toilet
Good post but OH says the toilet is a bit low, could do with longer legs methinks!!
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lisaloolibell
Re: Composting toilet
yeah i thought that too!bigpaul wrote:Good post but OH says the toilet is a bit low, could do with longer legs methinks!!
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johnpaul
Re: Composting toilet
Having tried out a couple of systems, you might want to consider the following.
Composting toilets can be broadly broken down into two types, wet and dry. You need to put some thought into which one you want to go for as there are other things apart from the obvious practical issues. Do you have a family? you might be happy crapping in a bucket but will they? speaking as a man with two teenage daughter's, there is no way they would use a bucket. You might think that when it comes to TEOTWAWKI then no one will care, but think about the title of this site, you might be preparing for some time to come, want to spend all that time by yourself?
So back to toilets, I have built two systems. The outdoor one is a straight forward dry composting toilet. I use a 60L food transport drum made of polypropylene with a plastic lid fixed in place by a metal clamp. All you do is take off the lid, using a jigsaw cut out the centre, leaving the lip. Glue this to the underside of a standard plastic toilet seat using polyurethane glue and clip back on the barrel, and that's it. I have a lot of woodland so I use leaf mould instead of saw dust and it works a treat, all most no smells and easy to use. Rodents also love to get in there which can be a little bit of a shock when you lift the lid, so either put it somewhere where they can't reach or free standing as they can't get up the sides of a plastic drum. When it is about two thirds full change it for an empty one by un clipping the seat and placing it on the new barrel. Take the drum out somewhere out of direct sunlight, make sure there is ventilation in the lid and throw in some worms, then leave for a year. Things to watch, get the balance right, not enough roughage and it will get smelly. Too much and it will fill to quickly. Worms love poo and will eat whatever they can get but turn the barrell every now and then and dont let it get to warm.
My wet system is an adaptation of all sorts of things I have seen combined together. I use a boat toilet as this has a built in pump system for flushing, it also partially macerates and has a very low flush volume. This empties into two identical plastic tanks, the first is the settling tank, this has baffels in it which give several meters between the inlet and the outlet and allows most of the solids to settle in the bottom. What comes out of the outlet is liquid without solids but clowdy. This goes into the second tank which has layers of sand and leaf mould, separated by filter matt that you can get for filtering ponds. This stops channels forming through the filter medium and makes sure the liquid goes through the full height of filter.
Out of this comes a clear liquid, a little smelly but not much. This goes down a pipe and into a stone trench dug deep into the hill below the house. I intend to build a reed bed to complete the system but this will have to be done in the next summer.
Hope you find this useful
Cheers
Composting toilets can be broadly broken down into two types, wet and dry. You need to put some thought into which one you want to go for as there are other things apart from the obvious practical issues. Do you have a family? you might be happy crapping in a bucket but will they? speaking as a man with two teenage daughter's, there is no way they would use a bucket. You might think that when it comes to TEOTWAWKI then no one will care, but think about the title of this site, you might be preparing for some time to come, want to spend all that time by yourself?
So back to toilets, I have built two systems. The outdoor one is a straight forward dry composting toilet. I use a 60L food transport drum made of polypropylene with a plastic lid fixed in place by a metal clamp. All you do is take off the lid, using a jigsaw cut out the centre, leaving the lip. Glue this to the underside of a standard plastic toilet seat using polyurethane glue and clip back on the barrel, and that's it. I have a lot of woodland so I use leaf mould instead of saw dust and it works a treat, all most no smells and easy to use. Rodents also love to get in there which can be a little bit of a shock when you lift the lid, so either put it somewhere where they can't reach or free standing as they can't get up the sides of a plastic drum. When it is about two thirds full change it for an empty one by un clipping the seat and placing it on the new barrel. Take the drum out somewhere out of direct sunlight, make sure there is ventilation in the lid and throw in some worms, then leave for a year. Things to watch, get the balance right, not enough roughage and it will get smelly. Too much and it will fill to quickly. Worms love poo and will eat whatever they can get but turn the barrell every now and then and dont let it get to warm.
My wet system is an adaptation of all sorts of things I have seen combined together. I use a boat toilet as this has a built in pump system for flushing, it also partially macerates and has a very low flush volume. This empties into two identical plastic tanks, the first is the settling tank, this has baffels in it which give several meters between the inlet and the outlet and allows most of the solids to settle in the bottom. What comes out of the outlet is liquid without solids but clowdy. This goes into the second tank which has layers of sand and leaf mould, separated by filter matt that you can get for filtering ponds. This stops channels forming through the filter medium and makes sure the liquid goes through the full height of filter.
Out of this comes a clear liquid, a little smelly but not much. This goes down a pipe and into a stone trench dug deep into the hill below the house. I intend to build a reed bed to complete the system but this will have to be done in the next summer.
Hope you find this useful
Cheers
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johnpaul
Re: Composting toilet
Hi NorthenRaider,
More than happy for you to use this material, I was actually going to make it longer but I thought I might be going on a bit, so I cut it down. I would suggest that it might be easier to follow if I put together some pictures and diagrams. I have a place up in the mountains where I have built the systems I am writing about, but I am not there full time, so I will write the extra content and get pictures when I visit next?
Cheers
More than happy for you to use this material, I was actually going to make it longer but I thought I might be going on a bit, so I cut it down. I would suggest that it might be easier to follow if I put together some pictures and diagrams. I have a place up in the mountains where I have built the systems I am writing about, but I am not there full time, so I will write the extra content and get pictures when I visit next?
Cheers