[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Re: [BULK] Composting toilets

[Lawrence Lile]

When I had a composter, I would invite people to take a deep sniff.
There were two responses:  1. "Well, it smells sort of like a forest or
some leaves." 2. "It STINKS!"  Mostly, the people with the second
response hadn't really taken a sniff, and were still remembering the
last Park Service outhouse they'd been to.  I never really noticed any
aroma unless I actually stuck my nose down into the barrel.  Like Corwyn
says, if you can smell something bad, you probably haven't added enough
sawdust or leaves (both are effective and easy to find).  With Corwin's
5 gallon bucket system, you can always change the bucket.  

I never had any sort of ventilation at all, and had the composter
installed indoors, although in a drafty house. Never had tight fitting
seats either, just stock toilet seats.  If you have your composter near
an outside wall, you can easily add a small muffin fan later if there is
a problem.  I don't plan to do this  with my next installation. 

The biggest problem I had was cleanliness around the composter, people
would spill a little sawdust and not sweep it up.  A whisk broom and a
scoop kept handy will help this problem.  

 
 
Lawrence Lile, P.E., LEED AP


-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Corwyn
Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 8:51 AM
To: Reuben Deumling
Cc: Greenbuilder list
Subject: [BULK] Re: [Greenbuilding] [BULK] Composting toilets
Importance: Low


On Dec 20, 2006, at 00:34, Reuben Deumling wrote:
> I'm also specifically curious how much of an issue smell is with your
> composting toilets--of any variety? I get the idea that with a well 
> designed
> stack and a tight fitting lid/seat it is fairly easy to reduce this to

> a
> minor inconvenience.

Honest assessment time.  My system has neither a stack, nor a tight 
fitting lid.  With the lid down, I detect little to no odor.  With the 
lid up, sometimes it is better than others, usually the smell indicates 
that I am doing some thing wrong (sawdust not fine enough, not enough 
sawdust, etc.).  My sister claims that there is an odor all the time.  
However, one of the comments I often get from people entering the house 
for the first time is how nice it smells (some know about the 
composting toilet, some don't).

Emptying the buckets is an odious chore, make no mistake.  It is 
smelly, messy and unpleasant.  I look forward to the day when the honey 
wagon again roams the street collecting buckets (and bringing me back 
the compost).  Once covered in the compost pile there is usually no 
odor.  Sometimes the smell of the day of dumping lingers for a bit.  
Sometimes the pile smells like decomposing hay (unsurprisingly enough). 
  More hay usually fixes these two problems.

>  I'm not personally offended by the smell of an outhouse.

If your composting system smells like an outhouse, you are doing 
something DRASTICLY wrong.

> But I live in a city on 1/12 of an acre with all sorts of finicky
> visitors and relatives. Turning folks off to the whole idea by 
> confirming
> their misconceptions about the undesirability of such alternatives is 
> not my
> goal. If you can speak to how you've dealt with this I'd be grateful.

My neighbors are over  a rise, so I can't answer to that.

Thank You Kindly,

Corwyn


_______________________________________________
Greenbuilding email list
List info:
http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/greenbuilding_listserv.repp.or
g
List email: Greenbuilding at listserv.repp.org
Managed by BuildingGreen, Inc. http://www.buildinggreen.com
      publisher of Environmental Building News and GreenSpec(r)
Hosted and archived by REPP / CREST http://www.crest.org