Composting Toilets - Tell All

[Minggat]

I get my coconut coir delivered. Thank you Amazon

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by morven55

... Although the part about putting it in the sun might be a problem in this part of the world! Maybe I could just set it out on deck for a bit and let the fog/rain/drizzle/humidity/gloom do the hydration?! LOL!

Maybe you could snuggle up with it in bed? ?

Originally Posted by Minggat

I get my coconut coir delivered. Thank you Amazon

Me too. I'm looking forward to them perfecting their drone-drop delivery method. Then they can deliver right to my remote anchorage, and I'll never have to go to a dock .

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Hi Barn, I'll take a quick crack at it. After around five weeks of deposits my compost bin is holding what looks and smells to me like slightly moist soil. Depending on how much desiccation has gone on, it will be damper or dryer, but basically it's like potting soil. There is nothing offensive or ugly about it. And not to raise any ick factors, but I have no problem getting my whole hand and arm in there to clean out the corners (if I'm doing a thorough cleaning).

So far my end "product" has been dumped in forested lands of remote anchorages. One time I dumped into an existing pit-toilet outhouse. When we get out to sea (out of the Great Lakes), I'm sure I'll be dumping over the side.

Many people bag and dump into marina garbage bins. I prefer getting it out into nature, but obviously that's not always an option in urban areas. Given that people dump full diapers and feminine hygiene products into the same dumpsters, I think a bag of semi-composted soil is a pretty minor addition to the garbage stream.

THX! Sounds OK. I will investigate the invento!

b.

[roverhi]

Thought one of he major selling points of a composting toilet is it composts. The end results are just fertilizer and safe to deposit anywhere plants can use the nutrients. No need to schlep it around to your local arboretum or remote woodland.

[Sailing55]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Maybe you could snuggle up with it in bed? ?



Me too. I'm looking forward to them perfecting their drone-drop delivery method. Then they can deliver right to my remote anchorage, and I'll never have to go to a dock .

Actually I take great pains to make sure my bunk is relatively dry during the rain/cold season...maybe the Coir would help?! I could just spread it out under the foam mattress and solve two problems at once!

Brilliant O'Reilly! Simply brilliant!

[SebastianB]

What do you do with the urine? Forgive my ignorance but if it goes into a separate container where do you dump that?

[Sailing55]

Originally Posted by roverhi

Thought one of he major selling points of a composting toilet is it composts. The end results are just fertilizer and safe to deposit anywhere plants can use the nutrients. No need to schlep it around to your local arboretum or remote woodland.

Actually for boat use it would be difficult to turn the "product" into actual compost due to the amount of time involved. However it is generally accepted that human waste is considered inert after about 6[?] hours of desiccation...not quite compost, but non-threatening so to speak. I feel more comfortable depositing it in a pit toilet or burying it in the woods or even in a dumpster rather than throwing it on someones garden. :] Joking about the garden, of course.

[Sailing55]

Originally Posted by SebastianB

What do you do with the urine? Forgive my ignorance but if it goes into a separate container where do you dump that?

Actually, anywhere will do. Urine is virtually sterile and there are no laws regarding the disposal of it in the water even. At least none that I am aware of.
If dumping urine was illegal everyone using a public swimming pool would be a criminal.

[SebastianB]

According to my reading of Marpol it is unlawful to dump ANY untreated sewage into territorial waters (3mile limit). CFR 140.3 defines as sewage as, "human body wastes and the waste from toilet and other receptacles intended to receive or retain body waste. From everything I can read of the CFR it is just as illegal to dump urine as it is to dump feces regardless of the actual ecological impact.

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by roverhi

Thought one of he major selling points of a composting toilet is it composts. The end results are just fertilizer and safe to deposit anywhere plants can use the nutrients. No need to schlep it around to your local arboretum or remote woodland.

I don't feel for me that the compost product is the major selling point. But there are options. Certainly finding plants that would benefit would be one option.

[Mike OReilly]

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to dump urine over the side from a container. It's probably illegal to pee over the side as well. But as morven55 says, urine is sterile. It does not carry any pathogens found in feces.

I dump over the side, unless I'm in a marina, in which case I usually carry the jug to the toilet.

Making compost, or being more environmentally benign, was definitely NOT a significant consideration for me. It's a nice secondary benefit, but my reasons were:

1. To stop being limited by how big my holding tank is.
2. To recover significant storage space.
3. To simplify my boat.
4. To avoid ever having to deal with sewage spills and plugged heads again.
5. To improve the safety by closing up a few holes.

Making compost didn't really enter my equation.

[Ocean Girl]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Me too. I'm looking forward to them perfecting their drone-drop delivery method. Then they can deliver right to my remote anchorage, and I'll never have to go to a dock .

Who are you buying from at Amazon? I use worm factory. I've had zero issues with the coir itself but I do get miffed when I get it in different size bricks, harder to reconstitute. So each time I order I'm not totally sure I'll get the nice 1" bricks.
Thx,
Erika


PS
Still happy with our dry head.

For Internet search criteria , try cruising sailboat, compost head, dry head. Also try image search with same tag, you can see a lot of custom built dry heads.

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by morven55

Great info Mike...I had no idea that it is possible to store six months of "kitty litter" in that small a space. The Peat I use takes up much more space [2.2 cu. ft/62L] and lasts about 2 1/2 months...it might just be practical to have Coir shipped if such a small volume produces a six mo. supply. Maximum use of space is always an issue. Although the part about putting it in the sun might be a problem in this part of the world! Maybe I could just set it out on deck for a bit and let the fog/rain/drizzle/humidity/gloom do the hydration?! LOL!

Just for reference, we get 8+ months out of one of these coir bricks. [US$16 including shipping in the US = ~US$2/month on average for 2 adults full time...]

We have also seen coir in box stores like Home Depot, Wallmart and the like for reasonable prices...

This particular coir is finely chopped and therefore easily converts to peat moss-like consistency when hydrated without much effort. [Vs. longer strands of coconut fiber which are slightly more difficult to break-up and also get wrapped around the agitator rods and increase stirring friction...

Basically... using ~1 cubic foot of storage space on the boat [3 of the above bricks] we can carry enough coconut coir to accommodate 2 adults full time for 2 years at a cost of ~US$50/2 years. Hard to beat. Priceless when you consider I didn't have to empty a holding tank umpteen times [or carry liquid effluvia around with us...] during that same period...

That 1 cu ft of coir will actually last us 3-4 years since we alternate between the Nature's Head and the flush toilet depending upon circumstances and location, and whether we have guests [who so far all prefer the Nature's Head because "...they don't have to pump it..."]

We also have a 2nd head with a Lavac toilet, so we actually go quite a bit longer between recharges on the Nature's Head. [6-12 weeks when it is just the 2 of us- depending circumstances and where we are...] While the Lavac has the traditional holding tank set-up, since we have the Nature's Head, we only use the Lavac when we can discharge overboard, thus eliminating the pump-out sessions...

This particular coir brick is about 1 ft square and is composed of 4- ~1 in thick layers. I separate the 1 in slabs with a small pry bar or kitchen spatula and store them in a waterproof sack. One-half of one of those 1 in slabs is enough to recharge our toilet.

To hydrate, I just drop the half-slab into a large ziplock bag [e.g., 2 gallon bag] and add about 2-3+ quarts of warm water. Within 30-60 mins I can break the remaining clumps up while in the closed bag, add more water [or coir if too wet...] if needed, and then pour it into the recently emptied solids chamber. Done.

With practice, all this takes maybe 15-20 mins of hands-on time, including clean-up and putting things away, and walking the closed bag of effluvia up to the dumpster.

In case this is helpful.

Cheers!

Bill

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

Who are you buying from at Amazon? I use worm factory. I've had zero issues with the coir itself but I do get miffed when I get it in different size bricks, harder to reconstitute. So each time I order I'm not totally sure I'll get the nice 1" bricks.
Thx,
Erika

Glad you're still liking the dry head Erika. I order coir so rarely I had to go looking to see what we have. I think it's from Nature's Footprint. I always order the smaller bricks. I'd hate to try and manage one of the big ones.

[Sailing55]

OK, you guys have convinced me...I'm going to try a block of coco-nuts instead of peat. I'm down to 1/4 bag of peat so now will be a good time to experiment.

Finely chopped Coir is the stuff to get, right?

I followed this thread to offer expert opinion :] and wound up learning something valuable! Doesn't get any better than that!

Edit: I just re-read wakefield post and Beats Peat is the finely chopped stuff. Great!