Getting down to basics

Eco-design expert and Dumped guru, Rob Holdway, gives you the lowdown on our volunteers, rubbish and waste and Dumped.

Some of the volunteers were horrified by the idea of a composting loo. How do you feel they adapted?

With only 10 volunteers left on the dump it was time to reveal their next challenge. I told the group that I was taking their chemical toilets away. The group would have to make themselves a composting loo.

Aaron’s biggest fear (apart from seagulls) was not having a proper loo. How many days can you go without having a poo? Surely not three weeks? Inevitably they would have to embrace the challenge of constructing a loo from the waste on the dump.

Toilets are hugely wasteful. Flushing litres of drinking water uses lots of energy. Think about the size of the task to update and maintain our aging sewage system and process our faeces.

They embraced the challenge and did a pretty good job of constructing a composting loo. I was impressed - no water, no chemicals, and the by-product is a compost with great properties as a fertilizer.

They built one toilet, nicknamed ‘The Shitter’, from a bucket, tyres and an old loo seat and a urinal, ‘The piss bucket’, from an old bath full of straw. The composter (an old chutney barrel) is where they decanted the compostable material.

Each time one of the group uses it they have to mix the result with straw and put it into the composter. A few months down the line, it's hey presto, compost for vegetables. Their compost was taken away and used by the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales.

Could you have improved upon their loo build?

The Shitter worked well. I suggested some minor changes. At first they didn’t cover the top. This attracts flies. It also becomes anaerobic and starts to smell. They found a loo seat with a cover which solved this problem. I also suggest they put in a soil stack to remove any odours. Any trapped flies get attracted by the light and fly out getting trapped in a gauze put at the top. They used straw as a soak material. They should have also used smaller soak material with the straw, such as sawdust. This becomes part of the compost and helps the poo break down.

Are there any planning issues around composting loos? Can you do this sort of thing at home?

You can build your own composting loo at home. In my town, Brighton City Council allows you to build your loo in your garden as long as it's five metres away from the house and doesn’t take up more than 50% of your garden.

If you want to help your ordinary compost you can always pee on it as the nitrogen in your pee helps it break down. Just make sure the neighbours aren’t watching.

Read Rob’s guide on how to make a composting loo.