Ulysses wrote:
"Scott Willing" wrote in message
....
Most so-called composting toilets, including this one, are actually
evaporating toilets and don't compost per se.

I don't see how ANY of them could actually compost anything when you are
always adding new material. My composting takes place in the compost heap.
That actually works.

As I understand it, composting toilets always have a second compartment
where the final composting takes place before the stuff is removed.

We have shallow groundwater, and an outhouse is an potentially nasty
polluter. Actually septic systems can be just as bad - so many people
manage to pollute their wells with those too. Above-ground aerobic
composting is the way to go IMHO.

Yea. I built a composting toilet and replaced it with a bigger version (30
gallon) of the bucket toilet. I overcame the weight problem by putting a
drain at the bottom that goes into a hole (covered, of course) and I used
weeds chopped with a lawnmower or peat moss when there are no weeds instead
of sawdust. My well is about 300 feet away and down 126 feet. I've given
some thought to having it go into a solar still and then only clean water
would reach the ground. Haven't figured out yet how to clean the solar
still though. Might be ugly and stinky.

You might instead use a solar evaporator so that only vapor escapes.
The fellows doing those earthships (tire houses) did a bit of work on
these things. I found a page of theirs...
http://www.earthship.org/systems/sewage.php

Apparently they prefer to use a solar heated septic tank that drains
into a large outdoor lined planter. Plants do seem to do a good job
at both removing pollutants and evaporating water.

Anthony