Composting Toilets - for when nature calls and the well is dry/not working

Going Poop When The Well Goes Dry

The Problem: No Water in the Toilet

We live out side of town just far enough that we have a well for our water and septic tank for our black water (hope to separate out our gray water someday, it's a tricky retrofit.) That being said there are those times when the well has had problems of one sort or another (power outages, clogged pipe, etc.) when that happens flushing a toilet becomes a problem. Our family consists of 2 males and 7 females (currently) so when water flow fails and the plumbers or well repair guys are not readily available we rapidly have a serious problem. The last thing we want to have to do is use all our stored fresh water for flushing our toilets 3 gallons at a time.

The Solution: Composting Toilets

Composting toilets abound the world over, us Americans are just so civilized that they are not as commonly familiar to us. If you are a camper you may have heard of the "
Luggable Loo" I purchased one of these some years back and used some orange chemical which did a great job of keeping the whole thing quite odder free. There are many videos on YouTube you can search up on the topic of Humanure and Composting Toilets. These are a great solution for camping, off grid living, or emergency's. The time of our pioneer for fathers that could just step off the trail and go behind a bush when nature called are long gone. An open pond is not exactly a desirable yard feature in today's real estate market.

Mind you your system can get as elaborate and expensive as you like, there are many systems out there for you to chose from. you can use that Google search on this page to find: composting toilets. My thinking is keep it simple. I have a
Luggable Loo for camping which could easily be brought into the house in case of an emergency then flush it's contents when the water begins to flow again, or taken on a camping trip, if there was a need to evacuate our home for an extended period of time (think emergency here, not just camping) we could have our needs taken care of very effectively for quite some time.

I especially like this fellows concept called the Lovable Loo a good bit sturdier, durable, and more comfortable than the simple luggable type. I looks simple enough that someone with some basic wood working tools and skills could build one in an afternoon and set it in a back yard shed for when the need arises.

How It Works: The Basics of Human Waste Composting

These are just the basics,  all that are required of course is a bucket and sawdust. Most folks are going to want to move a couple steps beyond this with a larger bucket/barrel, some sort of a privacy structure (i.e. out house), you can even get a
Privacy Shelter
 used for camp showers and toileting. (See images of Composting Toilets) so what you do is a use the loo, then sprinkal a little saw dust over the top of what's now in the bottom of your bucket. Once you have filled your bucket to a point your comfortable with you add a little good old garden compost to the bucket and cap it, set it aside for about a year or so while the contents continue the composting process. When it's all done add your wonderful oderless compost to your flower beds. I'll show you mine once I've built it. Hope this bit of info proves useful to you.