Home >
Home And Family >
Home Improvement
A composting toilet is a human waste disposal system that uses little or no water. It treats human waste by means of composting and dehydration to produce a valuable fertilizer.
A composting toilet features a composting reactor connected to a dry or micro-flush toilet, a screened exhaust, a means of ventilation, a method to drain excess liquid and to process controls such as mixers, and an access door for removal of the end-product. These systems may be self-sufficient, in which the toilet seat and a small composting reactor are one unit. They could also be centralized, where the toilet is connected to a composting reactor. Some composting toilets use electricity, and in these systems, fans exhaust air and boost microbial activity; other systems require the user to turn a composting drum or stir the composting product.
Some composting toilets are large, with significant space in the room below the toilet. Others are not much larger than a standard toilet. Those small systems usually do not complete the composting on-site. All composting toilets need to be emptied, although some manufacturers claim that it is necessary to do it as infrequently as twice a year.
The process of converting human waste into compost material can take between a few months to a year, depending on the climate and the kind of composting toilet. Some models are concurrently turning urine into an organic liquid fertilizer. The advantages of composting toilets are many and varied. The suction air flow in most composting toilets gets rid of bathroom odor. Extensive use of composting toilets would be beneficial to the environment as the end product is a rich fertilizer that can be used in gardens.