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OK, so I've been hearing/reading a lot about some composting toilets being legal, and in my business, I've never heard of this being the case... not 'all the way'.
Let me explain and share with you what I just learned through the Health Department, (waste division, Dane in Kona).
All the way = For a full residential project.
Certain types of composting toilets are 'legal' as long as they are NSF approved. (there will be a stamp on the unit showing approval).
HOWEVER. You still have to find a wastewater system that will adhere to the rules for all other disposed water in the house, i.e., sinks, showers, dishwashers, washing machines. This would need to be an engineered system. You CAN NOT just run a gray water system out onto the ground and expect it to be sufficient. According to code.
So, you spend $1000 on an approved composting toilet system, plus shipping, plus installation. You spend another bundle on engineering an approved gray water system and installing all of that. In the end, I think you'll find, you just doubled your cost of a typical cesspool installation that takes care of all of that in one fell swoop.
Melissa Fletcher
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"Make yurts, not war" Bill Coperthwaite, 1973
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I think the thing to do is to bite the bullet and put in the approved waste disposal system, then essentially build either an outhouse or (my recommendation) a simple sawdust toilet as per The Humanure Handbook. What you are losing is any savings you might have had by not putting in a conventional waste system but it seems like you are stuck with that cost no matter what.
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If you ask the county to bless your sawdust toilet in a 5 gallon bucket they will say no. If you live on the land without any official waste system you are pretty much challenging them, should anyone ever bother to push the issue. If however you have an approved system I doubt that anyone would ever bother you pretty much no matter what you did. Instead of buying the $1,000 approved composting toilet in addition to the cesspool I would buy the $100 conventiional toilet and some buckets to put out in the shed.
I can tell you from experience that if you have some nice mulch/sawdust, you empty the bucket before the mulch gets sodden, and you cover each "contribution" sufficiently, it is completely oderless. My sister-in-law challanged this because she had been somewhere where lots of people used a communal sawdust toilet and it smelled. I guarantee you that the material was allowed to get too wet. It really is amazing how satisfactorily a simple bucket can work as long as sufficient attention is paid to certain rules. To be fair, you can screw it up and make it not work. Don't screw up is all.
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And what do you do with the Bucket full of poop
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You sell it at the farmer's market as a rich natural exfoliant*.
Living on the side of creation.
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Down here, where an aerobic system = $20K, a composting toilet we found, with a 3 bedroom capacity, at $2500 shipped to my door, plus the stamps required and grey water wastewater, is still cheaper than $20K. So it does make sense down here.
Also our current Planning director would love if we all had composting instead of any other systems by the tide pools.
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Grey water systems are a great idea in general. Why mix a gallon of sewage with a 100 of soapy water and then try to separate again
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Composting Toilet Indian Style
I spent several months traveling in India. I took a break by staying a few weeks in Goa. We stayed with a family in a really nice house, it just didn't have indoor plumbing. Water was obtained by throwing a bucket on a rope into a well and using a roller to bring it up.
The outhouse was raised about 4 feet off the ground. A ramp allowed you to reach it. The first morning I had to use it, a large pig greeted me at the back door almost like a friendly dog would. Only he didn't come right up to me, instead he ran under the outhouse. I told him that that was a really bad location to be in. Then I realized that he was the "composting toilet". I don't know what they did with his poop, but there was no odor in the yard at all. Like many of the people in Goa, they were Catholic and ate pork, but I made sure I didn't eat any pork when I was there.
I doubt this kind of toilet would be allowed on the Big Island, but it sure seems to work fine in India.
-Veritas odium parit”(Terence 195–159 BC))-"Truth begets hatred".
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Oh wow... Ewww.... Thank you Cagary, if I ever go to India I will keep that in mind.
In tidal areas I can see how that would a wonderful solution. But in most other areas, if it is cheaper to put in a septic or cesspool anyway, then why come back and add a composting toilet later?
Melissa Fletcher
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You add the contents of the bucket to a compost heap, making sure you cover it well. If it is a hot compost heap and you are careful to bury the stuff in the center then really after a few days the germs to be concerned with are all gone. Most people maintain a separate heap just for this purpose and then let the mature heap age for a year after the last addition of waste. After that, between the heat and the separation from people for 1 to 2 years, all human pathogens have been killed or just died out from lack of suitable living conditions and hosts. I do acknowlege that there are ways to screw this up such as not providing enough cover materials. Even how you tip the bucket as you empty it can affect the perceived success of the process. Many people would not have the patience for it and there would certainly be a learning curve for anyone new such as guests.
