Composting Human Waste

[Scythe13]

Just a quick question, do you plan on composting human waste post SHTF?

If so, how do you plan on going about it?

[bigpaul]

separate compost bin from "normal" compost, leave it longer to decompose.

[Devonian]

No I won't be composting it, in my case it'll be disposed of the same way as the dog waste.

[bigpaul]

no garden Devonian? if you have its a waste of a resource just dumping it, dumping it will cause environmental problems of its own.

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namely: gastroenteritis, cholera,hepatitis, typhoid and e-coli.

[Steve]

I have a soakaway system, it has been inspected and I have a certificate saying that it's acceptable. As far as I know it has never been and will never need to be emptied. It's at least 100 years old, so there must be quite a lot of something in there by now. We don't use anything that can't rot down and only use "bio-friendly" cleaners, so as not to kill the soakaway and poison our land.

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PS/ The traditional way to start a septic tank was to throw a dead fox in it, I just happen to have one I prepared yesterday if anyone wants it ;-)

[Lightspeed]

No and Yes...

If we have sufficient water, we have a multi-cavity cesspit that has the same mystic properties as the one Steve describes, so in this case no composting necessary.

If water becomes short, or we have a big freeze, we still have the original dry toilet. We will compost along the lines described in the humanure book if this option is used. We do not have a spare compost bin in place for human waste, but have all the materials on site to make one if the need arises

[T-oddity]

Already occasionally use a human manure system won't be much trouble to convert the toilets in the house.

[Geordie_Rob]

I'm planning on setting up a composting loo at the allotment at some point this year. Practice for if we ever need it in the future & handy for the kids too

[TOF]

[Tarrel]

I'm in the process of building a "tree bog" in the woodland right now. Works on the same principle as a composting toilet (i.e. aerobic digestion), only the "stuff" drops onto the ground rather than into a box. Provided there are plenty of trees about, the composting takes place quite quickly (and without odour). Apparently they are a little more tolerant of wee than the normal composting loos.