I hope the following information will assist & inspire you in making the decision to try the compost/dry toilet method. Included below is the information I found re: legal issues in our area & other useful information on different styles to choose from.
On a personal note, I think for myself, implementing a compost toilet is something I want to do, even regardless of getting permits from my city. For one reason, as we are already doing it. We have a very large garden, caring for ~1 acre of land. It's easy to discreetly collect urine--most members of our household are willing (or happy) to go outside & pee. We then dilute the pee & watch the plants respond with delight to the extra nitrogen. We also have a collection for humanure. It's collected into 5 gallon buckets, which when full can then sealed with a tight-fitting lid & stored for a long time, ~6-12 months.
Difference between Dry vs. Compost Toilet Styles:
In a dry toilet ash or lime mixed with dry soil are added to create a dehydrating environment for breakdown and die off of pathogens. Dry toilets are often used in arid, dry climates where lime and ash are more available than sawdust. Toilet paper can not be added to a dry toilet, it is usually burned or buried. Pathogens typically die off more quickly in the dry, high pH environment of a dry toilet. The finished product can be used as a soil amendment and resembles instant coffee.
Video tour of a dry toilet: (youtube source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3cO7-_7KDM)
Pee Diverters:
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| Pee Diverter, by Artist Christina Bertea |
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| separated collection |
In a composting system, diverting pee is optional, but there are some benefits to account for. All dry toilets must separate the urine from catchment.
PROS:
- Reduces the volume of feces to be composted.
- Reduces the amount of sawdust needed.
- Enables the collection of urine fertilizer, a nitrogen rich, easily usable product.
- Can “fix” a poorly functioning composting toilet by removing the liquid portion. Some toilets don’t manage liquids well.
CONS:
- Requires two collection chambers to manage (one for urine and one for feces), or a place to soak away the urine.
- Using a urine diverting toilet takes practice. New users are likely to clog the urine diverter which makes the toilet unusable until it is cleaned.
- The compost from the feces is less nutrient-rich than in a toilet without urine diversion.
Pee-Pee Ponics:
For use in the garden, you can either add urine to your compost pile & let is rot or you can collect & dilute the urine, about 5-6 parts water to one part urine & use on your plants. They usually respond happily for the extra shot of nitrogen/
Pee is usually sterile. There are a few pathogens that can exit body through urine, but are usually present in tropical areas. As long as you are healthy & no one from these areas is using your toilet, urine should be safe to use.
So what about pharmaceuticals & hormones? Is that safe in the garden? This is what Greywater Action has to say:
Pharmaceuticals are being found at an increasing rate in fresh water, including the drinking water of many major cities. The following is an excerpt from the report: Urine Diversion: One Step Towards Sustainable Sanitationby EcoSanRes.
There are research projects going on to investigate the environmental effect of pharmaceuticals in urine. By far the majority of all pharmaceutical substances are derived from nature, even if many are synthetically produced, and they are thus found and degraded in natural environments with a diverse microbial activity. This has been verified in ordinary wastewater treatment plants, where the degradation of pharmaceutical substances improved when the retention time was prolonged from a number of hours to a number of days. Urine and faecal fertilizers are mixed into the active topsoil, which has a microbial community just as diverse and active as that in wastewater treatment plants, and the substances are retained for months in the topsoil. This means that there is plenty of time for the microbes to degrade any pharmaceutical substances and that risks associated with them are small.
Concerning both hormones and pharmaceutical substances, it thus seems far better to recycle urine and faeces to arable land than to flush them into recipient waters. Since the aquatic systems have never before been exposed to mammal hormones in large quantities, it is not surprising that the sex development of fish and reptiles is disturbed when they are exposed to wastewater effluent. Furthermore, the retention time of the wastewater in the treatment plants is far too short for many pharmaceutical substances to degrade and recipient waters are also usually connected to water sources.
There are many indications that the possible risk from pharmaceutical substances in the agricultural system is small and far smaller than the risks associated with the present system. One such indication is that in many countries the human consumption of pharmaceuticals is small compared to that by domestic animals, as in most countries most commercial feeds contain antibiotic substances, added as growth promoters. Furthermore, the human use of pharmaceutical substances is small compared to the amount of pesticides (insecticides, fungicides, bactericides and herbicides) used in agriculture, which are just as biologically active as pharmaceutical substances."
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/04/05/urine-crops-fertilizer.aspx
http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/the-power-of-pee/
http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/compost-toilet-ze0z1209zhar.aspx#axzz395FILEfH
Legal Issues:
Though I have yet to hear back from city officials*, in researching this project, I learned that building a compost toilet, is more than likely legal in your area.
*I have put a call into the Berkeley building code department & left a message, but have yet to hear back. I will place an update when I hear back. UPDATE, response posted to bottom of page.
According to Greywater Action's FAQ, this is their response: the legality of a compost toilet will depend, situation 1: for those seeking to build a new home & 2: for those who already living in a building with an existing toilet. For the first group, some states have codes regarding composting toilets, though California doesn't appear on the list. A group that is working in Oregon to recode the state for sustainability practices, has worked on & helped get guidelines for site-built toilets, you can visit their site here: http://www.recodeoregon.org/composting-toilets-in-oregon/. For most of us in the 2nd situation, where a regular toilet hookup already exists, generally we can use a composting toilet without breaking any laws so long as they: 1) Have at least one flush toilet connected to an approved sewer or septic system. 2) Don’t transport the humanure across property lines. 3) Don’t create a public nuisance (odors, etc.)
For their answers to their other FAQs, check out: http://greywateraction.org/faqs/composting-toilets.
Also, if you are interested in learning more, check out the event listing below--it's happening in next week!
The Low Down on Pee and Poo: Composting toilets and urine reuse (Berkeley)
Date: August 7, 2014 - 7:00pm to 8:30pm;
Location: Ecology Center, Berkeley. 2530 San Pablo Ave.
Cost: $5-15, sliding scale. No one turned away for lack of funds.Learn about:
- Types of composting toilets
- Benefits of using urine as a fertilizer
- Maintenance requirements
- Common problems and solutions
- System costs
- Codes and regulations
- Artistic toilet designs
Event link: http://greywateraction.org/workshop/2014/low-down-pee-and-poo-composting-toilets-and-urine
Building A Compost Toilet
There is a plethora of information available online if you are interested in building your own compost toilet. If you are thinking of building a compost toilet, I suggest reading The Humanure Handbook. While I have yet to read it, it is highly praised. See links to useful resources below for a way to read for free online. It is also available via the Berkeley Public Library. Here is a link to an instructional article in Mother Earth Living News:
Another alternative to composting individually could be to handle our human waste in a more collective venture, perhaps putting the scale in a neighborhood, community or cities.
John Todd is one person who's been working in the development of ecological waste treatment systems, using plants, animals & fungi. To read more on his use with constructed wetlands for backwater treatment with "Eco-Machines" go here: http://toddecological.com/eco-machines/
There are current examples today of communities utilizing composting toilets & blackwater treatment through ecosystems. Here is a slideshow of a project one Kibbutz in Southern Israel is using with a straw bale bathroom: https://picasaweb.google.com/ciclotan/CompostToiletsAtKibbutzLotanCenterForCreativeEcologyEcokefEducationPark
Links to Useful Resources Mentioned Above:
The Humanure Handbook, by Joseph Jenkins.
(To read the book online, for free: http://weblife.org/humanure/default.html )
A link to Greywater Action's site & section on composting toilets:
http://greywateraction.org/content/about-composting-toilets
John Todd & Living Machines:
http://toddecological.com
Women Environmental Artists Directory: Christina Bertea, local, designer of diverted toilet featured above in post.
http://weadartists.org/artist/christina-bertea
UPDATE:
A representative from the Building department of Berkeley just called me back. Unfortuantely, as of today, it is her belief there no permits for compost toilets have ever been issued in our state. The protocol for application would be to contact the health department, but so far, they have never approved any applications. She estimates they receive about 1 request per year. She said there was one pilot program she knew of in Sonoma County & suggested I google it for more information. I found the following link talking about the program from 2009: http://www.scwa.ca.gov/lower.php?url=press-releases&article=water-agency-board-approves-composting-toilet-pilot-project-2009-12-15
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