Humanure - Should we? Could we? Would we? MERGED
Moderator: Peak Moderation
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emordnilap
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woodburner
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Right, got the seat. OK, so I'm fussy, could have used a cheapo plastic one, but this cost £15 + VAT from Plumb Center. Described as "Ash seat", there's a choice of pine, mahogany,or oak. So I picked the oak one as that was nearest. Surprise, surprise, it's ash. I think they are all ash, and there's a choice of stains. Anyway they're solid wood, with properly keyed joints between the strips, so they should last a while.
Next is the bucket. As is usual in the UK, we seem to have the lowest quality at the highest price. These are what I'd like to get, these are the usual style (note: "economy") in the UK and priced in the States at less than $3.50. This is what's offered over here. Too high spec as I doubt I need "food" grade. I did see some of the "economy" style here for around £3.80, which is irritating when they are available in the States for that in dollars, I suppose thats about the norm.
Does anyone have a link to the well engineered ones at a reasonable price in the UK?
Update: Seems suppliers generally sting you for the lid at additional cost.
Next is the bucket. As is usual in the UK, we seem to have the lowest quality at the highest price. These are what I'd like to get, these are the usual style (note: "economy") in the UK and priced in the States at less than $3.50. This is what's offered over here. Too high spec as I doubt I need "food" grade. I did see some of the "economy" style here for around £3.80, which is irritating when they are available in the States for that in dollars, I suppose thats about the norm.
Does anyone have a link to the well engineered ones at a reasonable price in the UK?
Update: Seems suppliers generally sting you for the lid at additional cost.
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woodburner
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emordnilap
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Go for the 'economy' ones, woodburner.
We happened to have a bucket with the handle attached 10 or 12 cms down from the top, so it doesn't interfere with the hole in the box, which yours might, going by that picture, woodburner. The hole was cut exactly to size so the bucket lip protrudes (I typed proturds first) and the toilet seat sits precisely on the bucket rim while still using the plastic bumpers.
Quite pleased with it really, it feels as solid as a properly-fitted ceramic job.
I've seen the same buckets in our local farm wares shop containing tractor oil. I'm trying to find out who buys that brand to get her/his cast-offs.
We happened to have a bucket with the handle attached 10 or 12 cms down from the top, so it doesn't interfere with the hole in the box, which yours might, going by that picture, woodburner. The hole was cut exactly to size so the bucket lip protrudes (I typed proturds first) and the toilet seat sits precisely on the bucket rim while still using the plastic bumpers.
Quite pleased with it really, it feels as solid as a properly-fitted ceramic job.
I've seen the same buckets in our local farm wares shop containing tractor oil. I'm trying to find out who buys that brand to get her/his cast-offs.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
Apparently they are standard American 5 US gallon pails. They were used for potassium permanganate. I don't know why the lids were lost - I think they were chucked on opening!woodburner wrote:Cast offs sounds just right. What were they originally used for?
The potassium permanganate was used for odour control for sewage sludge. Apparently it was supplied to the water service in the buckets and the buckets were returned.
And then we got them as OH works for the supplying company. Not sure many come through the system though.
We have about 6 in total.
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biffvernon
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woodburner
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woodburner
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Trouble is I can't find the type with the low set handle, and I can't wait much longer, I'll just have to use the WC again.emordnilap wrote:Go for the 'economy' ones, woodburner.
We happened to have a bucket with the handle attached 10 or 12 cms down from the top, so it doesn't interfere with the hole in the box, which yours might,
I've seen the same buckets in our local farm wares shop containing tractor oil. I'm trying to find out who buys that brand to get her/his cast-offs.
Entertaining discussion in the Grauniad:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... ments=true
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... ments=true
It's made Time Magazine now!
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... 64,00.htmlFor a well over a decade, 57-year-old roofer and writer Joseph Jenkins has been advocating that we flush our toilets down the drain and put a bucket in the bathroom instead. When each bucket in his five bathrooms is full, he empties it in the compost pile in his backyard in rural Pennsylvania. Eventually he takes the resulting soil and spreads it over his vegetable garden as fertilizer.
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emordnilap
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Humanure production, alive and kicking in Haiti
Think of the amount of water and electricity saved during those ten years.
The mission of Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL) is to promote dignity, health, and sustainable livelihoods through the transformation of wastes into resources.
BTW, our humanure system will have been in use (or, will have been evolving to its present ease of use) in ten years come next June. Some visitors have specifically asked to use it, others wouldn't go near it.SOIL primarily focuses on promoting the use of ecological sanitation (EcoSan), a process by which human wastes are converted into valuable compost.
Think of the amount of water and electricity saved during those ten years.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
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emordnilap
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Humanure again: a user's verdict.
About 15 years ago, maybe more, Renewable Candy created a post called something like "Humanure - Could we? Should we?" I can't find it now but the answer to their question is, emphatically, a big fat yes. NOTE BY ADMIN, I HAVE LOCATED THE OLD TOPIC AND MERGED THE NEWER CONTENT WITH IT.
Obviously, such an answer to this sensitive subject would raise more objections than support but it's more a matter of mindset, education and, of course, peoples' expectations of having every last thing done for them. We've used a compost toilet since 2008 and wish we'd done it sooner. I prefer 'going' at home than elsewhere with a flush toilet, because I'm wasting resources.
Results: money saved on electricity, plumbing, maintenance, and less 'import' of garden nutrients. Plus a sense of simple achievement and normality. And, as I like to remind people, in a power cut you still shit and piss.
We separate urine by either pissing in the garden (random pissing has very little effect on anything growing) or peeing in a funnel (he-wee and she-wee) into 5-litre plastic bottles (it stinks by the time it's full but pouring a little vegetable oil into a new bottle holds down most of the smell; that's the way 'waterless' urinals work apparently.
) Large amounts of wee will suppress any growing thing, even scutch grass, but actually not for long.
Without the urine, buckets of shit (with lids and cover material such as leaves, sawdust, shredded paper, grass clippings) will stand for months, so you can maximise the interval between hauling buckets to a general heap. We have 7 large buckets that take around 12 weeks to fill with two of us. Emptying and cleaning them takes less than an hour and the buckets are pretty light without the liquid piss.
As a rule, we use sawmill sawdust, which has enough moisture not to be dusty. Workshop sawdust is awful to deal with but I can mix it with sawmill dust.
We've refined our system to make it as simple and labour-saving as possible, as I'm into my high decades. I've started a small Facebook group for like-minded people in Ireland and have met people who call me 'Mr Compost Toilet Man' or 'Mr Humanure Man'.
Obviously, such an answer to this sensitive subject would raise more objections than support but it's more a matter of mindset, education and, of course, peoples' expectations of having every last thing done for them. We've used a compost toilet since 2008 and wish we'd done it sooner. I prefer 'going' at home than elsewhere with a flush toilet, because I'm wasting resources.
Results: money saved on electricity, plumbing, maintenance, and less 'import' of garden nutrients. Plus a sense of simple achievement and normality. And, as I like to remind people, in a power cut you still shit and piss.
We separate urine by either pissing in the garden (random pissing has very little effect on anything growing) or peeing in a funnel (he-wee and she-wee) into 5-litre plastic bottles (it stinks by the time it's full but pouring a little vegetable oil into a new bottle holds down most of the smell; that's the way 'waterless' urinals work apparently.
) Large amounts of wee will suppress any growing thing, even scutch grass, but actually not for long.Without the urine, buckets of shit (with lids and cover material such as leaves, sawdust, shredded paper, grass clippings) will stand for months, so you can maximise the interval between hauling buckets to a general heap. We have 7 large buckets that take around 12 weeks to fill with two of us. Emptying and cleaning them takes less than an hour and the buckets are pretty light without the liquid piss.
As a rule, we use sawmill sawdust, which has enough moisture not to be dusty. Workshop sawdust is awful to deal with but I can mix it with sawmill dust.
We've refined our system to make it as simple and labour-saving as possible, as I'm into my high decades. I've started a small Facebook group for like-minded people in Ireland and have met people who call me 'Mr Compost Toilet Man' or 'Mr Humanure Man'.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
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northernmonkey
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- Joined: 14 Aug 2023, 20:58
Re: Humanure again: a user's verdict.
I am hugely admiring of you Emordnilap and it's my intention to set myself up with a humanure toilet once the purchase of the land behind our house is completed sometime this Spring.