Many people are turning to composting toilets as an eco-friendlier alternative method of waste disposal. Shows on HGTV and elsewhere have highlighted this movement away from more conventional sewage disposal methods, fueling and driving the craze for it. But while a composting toilet does have some advantages that are hard to argue with, such as easy access to toilet facilities while camping or RVing, providing a ready source of plant fertilizer, saving about 30% of your household water bill every month, and no plumbing and therefore no need for plumbers, it might not be the right solution for your family.
A composting toilet works much like a small-scale septic tank. The solid waste settles to the bottom, while the liquid floats on top. In many models, a hand crank allows you to turn a wheel that rotates the solid waste, creating nitrogen-rich compost which makes an unbelievably effective fertilizer. If you think this is a new idea, think again: Asian countries such as China, Laos, and Cambodia, all of which are major rice producers, have utilized human and animal waste to fertilize their fields and enrich the soil for thousands of years!
No plumbing and hence no plumbers may sound like a win, but composting toilets are very labor-intensive and require constant monitoring to prevent overfilling and unpleasant or unhealthy household conditions. A properly monitored and maintained composting toilet that’s emptied at regular intervals should smell like fresh-turned soil, but if the contents aren’t rotated regularly, the bacterial balance in the tank gets out of whack, or the tank is overfilled, it will quickly begin to build up a funk that could clear a room! Not the safest or most sanitary conditions to live in.
So before you flush your conventional toilet in favor of a composting toilet, ask yourself if you have the time, energy, and attention span needed to use a composting toilet properly. If the answer is “no,” you’re probably better off sticking with your old reliable throne, knowing you can readily call a plumber if something goes wrong without having to deal with the mess yourself!
