Benefits Of Composting Toilets

By Scott Rodgers

With the use of the biological methods the composting toilets deal with the disposal and processing of the human excrement into useful organic compost substance. Normally there are two kinds of compost toilet; the first that complete the composting process and the other that are vacated to different compost pile apart from the toilet itself.

The methods of transforming human excrement into safe and helpful compost stuff can take at least 3 months to few years relying on reasons like the climate, temperature and other such factors, and within 4-6 years it will convert into highly mineralized soil.

Some composting toilet models are concomitantly turning urine into an odor-free, pathogen-free organic liquid fertilizer.

Human faeces can be very risky if you come in contact because of improper or incomplete compost as it may contain bacteria and other pathogens that are linked with the human disease. Due to this factor, human waste should not be considered as a fertilizer until and unless it is not composted properly.

A composting toilet made for home use collects both solids and liquids in the same compartment underneath the toilet. The liquid and solid waste products are mixed with peat moss, and, over time, decompose. Due to the large quantity of liquids relative to the solid waste, the tank on the typical home composting toilet is quite large.

There are also some composting toilets where electricity is used. Due to electricity, fans are used to drain the air and improve the microbial activity. Where as other systems need the user to spin the composting drum or in other way blend the human waste in a regular basis.

Many composting toilets need a relatively large space under the toilet; some are not that large as compared to the traditional toilet. Those having small systems do not end up in composting on-site rather they compost the human waste in some other place.

All composting toilets eventually need some end product removal. A full size composting toilet does not need to have solids removed for several decades if the active tank volume is at least three times the yearly addition. This is due to the dramatic reduction in volume over time, after around 5 years only 1-2% of the original volume remains. It is then a mineralized soil which will not decompose any further.