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Green Loos

Most of us are connected to mains sewage, a convenient way for us to separate from our own waste. Let’s face it, we rarely give our poo a second thought once we flush it out of our lives. But someone has to, and this is the job of large-scale water treatment plants who are the happy recipients of all our personal waste. Sewage has to undergo filtering and chemical treatment before it is pumped back to our houses to supply us with our next cuppa.

It makes much more green sense to deal with our waste on site where it is produced. A lot of people feel vaguely uncomfortable about dealing with their own poo, but it's time to get over the embarrassment and reap the benefits of your own personal compost.

Compost Loos = Save Money
Compost loos save on all the energy required to treat the sewage you produce. They can save you about 30% on water usage and you end up with some free compost into the bargain. It is a good solution if you don’t live near mains sewage or you just like to be self-sufficient anyway.

Composting loos don’t use any water. In essence, you simply place your toilet over a compost heap. Although this sounds like a cruddy ‘long drop’ pit it is quite different. You can create something or buy a pre-made loo that feels a deal more plush than that and doesn’t smell either.

Seperate the Wee
To get down to the nitty gritty, the key thing is to separate urine from solids. Urine degrades into ammonia, which can make the whole heap really smelly, more like a simple pit. Urine can be disposed of in your grey water, or used as a fertiliser on non-food plants, if mixed 10 parts water to 1 part urine. Another option, is to pee onto the end of straw bale. The urine composts the middle of the bale in a few months. Though the bale method is not particularly practical method for the girls amongst us!

Solid wastes should go onto a compost heap, with a bit of sawdust, straw or earth thrown on top. Compost loos require a fair bit of space, as the compost is best left for up to two years to fully decompose.

The simplest version of this type of loo is a bucket that is emptied into a compost bin. However, there are much more sophisticated versions that are exactly like the flushing loos we have all come to know and love. Some people use a dual loo chamber that removes the need to handle raw sewage. The compost sits directly under the loo bowls. One chamber is in use for a year and the second chamber for the next year. By this time, compost from the first loo is ready and is much more pleasant to handle in this state than when it is fresh. It is best to use compost from your own personal waste on non-food crops.

Find out more
NatSol
www.natsol.co.uk

Elemental Solutions
www.elementalsolutions.co.uk