Composting Toilet - Nature's Head

[BobnCamie]

That is correct. But, one really has to be not thinking about it to place toilet compost in a pile thinking they would someday eat the food from it. I cannot say it would be bad, as growing up and then farming for almost 30 yrs of my life, we always put animal waste on the garden and nothing much happened to us, unless you consider the arm growing out of our backs. But still, I would not do that, as it would be much more concentrated as fertilizer.
But as for depositing compost in water, I do not see the real problem, except the water cops and the tree hungers. I have read from those same bunny hungers that a single walleye deposits 1/4 of its weight a day into the water as feces. 6 lb. walleye, over 1 lb of waste? We don't have near as much impact as the "greenies" want us to think. Over an estimated 5.5 million walleye in Lake of the Woods alone, that is a LOT of poop!. I know we don't need to add more, but still, as with most things, everything in moderation.
I know this will stir the pot

[BobnCamie]

By the way, Mike, I was thinking of using my wood pellets that are left over from winter(if it ever ends)for the head. A person can keep dry in a 5 gal. Pail until needed. I have noticed that the bags I sometimes carry-over to the next year are very crumbly. Seems even humidity will soften them up. But I don't know about using them. Fairly sure they would work, but a pain to store in the bag. Water intrusion would be bad as bags have breather holes in them, so would be bad on boat. A 5 gal. Bucket and about a lb coffer can to start. Our 40 lb bags are 4.75 ea. so figuring a lb to start and another can half way through, 20 months of compost. Even cutting that in half would be a workable idea, I would think. Believe I will try this route this summer. Couple of 5 gal buckets that seal might be the ticket.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by Dulcesuenos

How messy is it to empty the compost and how often for full time liveaboard?

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

Depends what you eat. Live on Scotch - no problem - AND you don't care.

We emptied on 2-week intervals traveling in the North Channel. Small spade and bury in the woods, refill with dry leaves. We could have stretched it longer but ran out of scotch.

[BobnCamie]

Ran out of scotch!!! I am a tequila drinker myself, or rum, run out of booze? How can this happen? As you stated, who needs food. Anything past a loaf of bread and p.b. AND jelly is a waste. Good idea,though, the leaves. Plenty around the northland. And moisture already there. Any problems to address? By the way, the bread line of thought is mine, wife I am sure will have different ideas

[clockwork orange]

Originally Posted by EighthWonder

As a word of caution if anyone is interested: If you are putting composted human waste from your marine toilet into a composter at home, that compost is no longer fit for using on any sort of vegetable garden. Many studies show and verify that that compost is unsafe to use as fertilizer for food that you will consume once composted human waste has been introduced. It can and should only be used for flower gardens, trees, lawns land fill or anything that you won't be growing for human consumption. Hope that helps.

Im not a gardener but I hate throwing my veggie scraps in the garbage so essentially I will just be making dirt by composting. Im not convinced though that its not safe for gardening when fully composted, I too grew up on a farm in the 50s, we had an outhouse and it got dug into the veggie garden, no composting, straight into the garden, just like all the other farmers, i never heard of anyone getting sick from it, still if I take up gardening i will buy compost from the citys yard waste facility since its just down the road.

Steve.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by BobnCamie

By the way, Mike, I was thinking of using my wood pellets that are left over from winter(if it ever ends)for the head. A person can keep dry in a 5 gal. Pail until needed. I have noticed that the bags I sometimes carry-over to the next year are very crumbly. Seems even humidity will soften them up. But I don't know about using them. Fairly sure they would work, but a pain to store in the bag. Water intrusion would be bad as bags have breather holes in them, so would be bad on boat. A 5 gal. Bucket and about a lb coffer can to start. Our 40 lb bags are 4.75 ea. so figuring a lb to start and another can half way through, 20 months of compost. Even cutting that in half would be a workable idea, I would think. Believe I will try this route this summer. Couple of 5 gal buckets that seal might be the ticket.

As I say, I've heard of people using sawdust, so I think your ideas is definitely worth a try. I'd think the sawdust would be denser than the coir or peat moss most people use, so you'd want it to start very dry. Perhaps you could mix it with dried leaves or something else to give it more air-space. Just a thought...

I'll be very interested in hearing how it works for you. It would seem very economical to use the pellets -- if it works OK.

[EighthWonder]

Originally Posted by clockwork orange

Im not a gardener but I hate throwing my veggie scraps in the garbage so essentially I will just be making dirt by composting. Im not convinced though that its not safe for gardening when fully composted, I too grew up on a farm in the 50s, we had an outhouse and it got dug into the veggie garden, no composting, straight into the garden, just like all the other farmers, i never heard of anyone getting sick from it, still if I take up gardening i will buy compost from the citys yard waste facility since its just down the road.

Steve.

I'm not referring to composted veggies, fish poo or grass grazing cattle manure....
I believe in them and have used such compost on vegetable gardens for years.
I'm referring to disease riddled human excrement that has nothing positive about it but illness. Very different composting material. I'll bow out of this one...research is plain on it. As I said...just a friendly word of warning.
Do as you will. ;-)

Eighth Wonder

[Steve Bean]

I'm just wondering how "disease-riddled" is the excrement from healthy humans? I don't think we're all carrying a zoo of pathogenic bacteria or viruses in our insides. If nobody within a hundred miles is infected with cholera or typhus or polio or whatever, what's the big danger of burying the toilet contents in a garden compost heap?

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Steve Bean

I'm just wondering how "disease-riddled" is the excrement from healthy humans? I don't think we're all carrying a zoo of pathogenic bacteria or viruses in our insides. If nobody within a hundred miles is infected with cholera or typhus or polio or whatever, what's the big danger of burying the toilet contents in a garden compost heap?

Googling was interesting...

Most of the hits I saw where positive on human waste composting. What I expected to find was the documentation I read 15+ years ago about the problems with using human manure. I find the different search results interesting.

The reason I looked this up years ago was because we were looking to buy land in the country and one parcel had spread treated human waste on the fields. This is and was a VERY controversial practice due to antibiotics in waste, possible germs/viruses, and heavy metals. The later is what worries me the most.

If one searches for extension office and composting, the links will tell you to not compost human or pet waste.

I would not compost human waste for food production. Why take the risk? What are you really saving and for what possible cost? You are not going to get that much compost for a decent sized garden and there are safer ways to enrich your garden soil. Why risk getting sick or putting the heavy metals into the garden?

We pump our septic tank every four years. We use the US presidential elections as a reminder to get the tank pumped. The solids in our septic tank is no more than 6-12 inches thick. Most of what is pumped out is black water and TP. I would not expect the amount of solids in the tank after four years would compost into much material.

We have worked long and hard to build up our garden soil. Our area is famous for making bricks and pottery. Why? Because the soil is rock held together by clay. We brought in some top soil to start the garden and then mulched, mulched, and added more mulch. Not rocket science and pretty clean soil as a result. The only manure we added was some very rich worm poo which did wonders and added huge worms to the garden soil. At the moment, our small chicken flock is in the garden doing what chickens do and they will be moved out in a few months for spring planting. The chickens poo is the only manure real manure we have added and we know that the chickens are eating very good and healthy food.

Later,
Dan

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by BobnCamie

That is correct. But, one really has to be not thinking about it to place toilet compost in a pile thinking they would someday eat the food from it. I cannot say it would be bad, as growing up and then farming for almost 30 yrs of my life, we always put animal waste on the garden and nothing much happened to us, unless you consider the arm growing out of our backs. But still, I would not do that, as it would be much more concentrated as fertilizer.
But as for depositing compost in water, I do not see the real problem, except the water cops and the tree hungers. I have read from those same bunny hungers that a single walleye deposits 1/4 of its weight a day into the water as feces. 6 lb. walleye, over 1 lb of waste? We don't have near as much impact as the "greenies" want us to think. Over an estimated 5.5 million walleye in Lake of the Woods alone, that is a LOT of poop!. I know we don't need to add more, but still, as with most things, everything in moderation.
I know this will stir the pot

Its not the same culture of microbes. Human poo comes with some stuff that can make you really ill. Ever picked up food borne revenge at the salad bar? usually from somebody who did not wash hands. (and the food is normaly out a long time and never hot enough to kill the bugs.) The Grand Canyon tour folks, Park Service, tell customers to pee in the river as that waste is sterile but you must dig a trench away from the water and bury it. We discretely dump the urine form our Airhead but the solids all get buried. Also, it is well known that farmers tend to have a much higher tolerance for lots of bugs than most of us. Most of us, however, are not farmers.

[clockwork orange]

I agree, i wouldn't use my own composted waste for a veggie garden if I had one, and I may actually start one this summer but the city has a yard waste facility just down the road from me where they sell compost so I will use that. Good point about farmers being more resistant to catching things, as a child I did not need to be vacinated against TB as I had a natural resistance from being exposed to bovine TB on the farm.

Steve.

[BobnCamie]

I would not say composted human waste would be bad, or good. We too used the outhouse "droppings" often on the garden. Only reason I would not use is the "mad cow" scenario. I really believe there is something to the use-reuse of a product.
How did this get this far from the original question?

[virginia boy]

Human feces - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[valhalla360]

I probably wouldn't do it because it seems nasty and the amount isn't really worth the trouble but assuming an otherwise healthy crew, that's likely the bulk of the issue.

For the most part nasty bugs need a host to survive. The composting process kills them off.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by clockwork orange

I agree, i wouldn't use my own composted waste for a veggie garden if I had one, and I may actually start one this summer but the city has a yard waste facility just down the road from me where they sell compost so I will use that. Good point about farmers being more resistant to catching things, as a child I did not need to be vacinated against TB as I had a natural resistance from being exposed to bovine TB on the farm.

Steve.

If the city sells compost, it goes on someone else's veggies?