Will it smell? Can I save money? And will it create fertilizer?
Flushing our waste down the toilet is not the ideal way of utilising our precious and very limited water sources here in the Middle East. Moreover, the pollution that we are causing to our rivers and seas is becoming an increasing concern. Like the Jordan River nearly dead from human waste. What was once seen as a hygienic method of dealing with our waste has now been proven to be a dirty problem that needs solving. One possible answer is to replace your flusher with an independent compost toilet. There are many advantages to this change you can make to your life. Here are just a few.
1. You gain independence! Because you no longer need to be connected to the sewage system, you can build your toilet anywhere you like. This could be at the back of your garden, or perhaps another part of your flat, allowing you renovation flexibility.
2. Moreover, your water costs will be reduced. In fact this change in combination with other minor water changes that you make in your household can reduce water costs to up to 60%.
3. You can also recycle much of your household wastes via a composting toilet. Food scraps, paper, lawn clippings and grease from your grease traps and greywater systems can be composted back through the toilet.
4. Additionally, while only small in amount, the solid end product is a valuable human made fertiliser that can be utilised around trees and gardens. Some say that it can even be nutritious for your vegetable patch, although this is debatable and depends on a lot of factors.
If you are not knowledgeable or not interested in composting, don’t let this stop you. Once your new compost toilet is properly installed, you can regularly remove your waste to a bin outside or on your balcony and have the waste picked up and composted by the main initiators in Israel- The Way of Nature:
All is what you need to do to keep out bad smells, is throw sawdust on the opening after each visit to the loo.
There are lots of great reasons for making the change but the main one is environmentalism. By disposing of your own waste in a responsible manner you are thinking of your planet, inspiring others around you to do the same and protecting our future.
Read more on greening your home:
A Green Guide to Home Cleaning Products
GreenGuide: The Bedroom
Green Guide: The Kitchen
Green Guide: The Living Room
Image via Faircompanies
Author: Rebecca Wosner
From the heart of urban Jewish Melbourne life, Rebecca moved to rural Israel. Her daily concerns suddenly turned from what coffee she would be ordering, to the pesticide spraying in her neighbouring fields and the wellbeing of her goats, horses, chickens and family. She started to search out ways that she as an individual could make the world a greener place and inspire others in the process. As an eco-beginner, she shares her thoughts, research and journey and offers basic ideas and steps to help us make changes in our daily lives and better the world.
We’re looking for suppliers in UAE for composting toilets, chemical portable toilets (as used on boats, for example) for eco-campsites. any references would be most welcome and appreciated.
thank you.
Awesome feedback Christian. Thanks for the tips.
It works great, but I have to tell you 2 years ago I would have been completely APPALLED at the thought, but now, it is second nature…been using this system for 6 months (getting ready to build a nice outhouse/outdoor bathhouse in the middle of the woods)…you should separate urine from feces as fresh urine in a 1 part to 9 parts water makes an unbelievable fantastic fertilizer for the veggies (and is sanitary if used immediately and not left to sit and build bacteria). Be sure you keep a 1/9 ratio to avoid salt buildup in your soil.
One of the best things about composting human waste is that it keeps deer, coyotes, raccoon and rabbits AWAY from your veggies, plants and gardens (think of it as marking your territory people pay big big bucks for ‘wolf urine’ etc when you could just walk outside and mark your territory yourself [?]). It is not going to keep out a starving animal, but why would you want to…if something is starving, it should be allowed to eat the produce of your field (don’t be so stingy).
I have a number of compost piles around the perimeter of my farm and I rotate the humanmanure into them (letting them sit for a minimum of 2 years at the right temp – read the humanmanure handbook for free online!)…my soil is amazing and so prosperous, so perfect, I can grow anything and I practically never think about drought. I compost heavily with green manures, humanmanure, straw, wood chips, cooking waste, paper products, cardboard, so the amount of actual humanmanure is minimal and the soil building properties are astonishing…I have never seen such fat, happy and plentiful worms in my life.
You should know that it doesn’t smell enough to be detected by humans because I am generous with the wood shavings (although wildlife isn’t a huge fan of humanmanure – I actually have no fences and my neighbors who are plagued by all manner of critters can’t believe that I have no problems haha). Just one FYI…I am a vegetarian so that might have a bit to do with a lack of really ‘bad’ smells too (no rotten meat products in my gut).
I have no lack of water where I live…but I just couldn’t bring myself to take a dump and contaminate 6-10 gallons of fresh water when there are people in the world without access to clean water for drinking or cooking or bathing (there is just something completely mentally ill about shitting in clean water). I think I also read somewhere that the amount of iodine in human waste can help cut radioactive soil conditions (just and FYI not 100% sure that its true). Anyway, happy composting!!
Its a brilliant idea. Its a must for the townships and squatercamps as this will also enable them to have a fair income as well by selling to fertiliser companies
It will stop all excretement being done in bushes and fields and in this manner build up the sanitary levels of the less fortunate and improve health and eco situations