Annual emptying of the compost toilet

Annual emptying of the toilet chamber into the outside bin. Two alternating chambers means this stuff was standing unused for a year before emptying. Link to an old photo showing my toilet chambers, before we built the stone bins outside https://permies.com/t/41822/give-flush-toilets#1413150

The cover material was sawdust mixed with coffee grounds and crumbled leaves. Pure sawdust that I'd used in previous years came through the 2-year process unscathed, so now I try to mix it with coffee grounds and/or leaves and water the mix to pre-compost before use. (In composting toilet parlance, "cover material" is what you drop down after use).

Last November I dumped some sacks of dry leaves on top before closing the chamber off. This climate is very dry, so every month or two I splashed a couple of buckets of water down, but when I went to empty it this week, the top and all those leaves were still totally dry. So dry leaves, paper and eggshells from the top of the toilet chamber went into the bottom of this bin, under the better compost that was deeper in the chamber.

Then we poured about 10 buckets of water over this and covered it with old greenhouse plastic (UV resistant) to compost a bit more over over the winter.  In spring I'll move it to the garden. There was not a single recognizable desiccated turd or anything, and this turning and further composting process makes it safe to use in the vegetable garden (in my opinion, based on The Humanure Handbook). It'll have been about 18 months since it was last contributed to in the toilet, and that should be plenty long enough for pathogens.

A big benefit over the cow dung I was bringing in earlier at my new location: no weed seeds in this.

If you are dubious about humanure in the vegetable garden, please read The Humanure Handbook.

Bravo Rebecca.  Even in damp cold places humanure composting is not rocket science.  Joe's book is great.  He is on several podcasts too, in case someone wants the gist without reading the book. Cliff notes for composting anyone?

Here is the link to the book review thread. Lots of links to more info.

Rebecca Norman wrote:The cover material was sawdust mixed with coffee grounds and crumbled leaves. Pure sawdust that I'd used in previous years came through the 2-year process unscathed, so now I try to mix it with coffee grounds and/or leaves and water the mix to pre-compost before use.

Rebecca, thanks for sharing! How hot did your pile get when the sawdust came through the heating phase unscathed?

I'm also trying to work through my Joe Jenkins sawdust coming through unscathed.  In rereading Joe's books I realized I was keeping my piles too hot, so I'm now targeting a cooler temperature to promote a wider range of microbes.

If it is an annual event, I feel it deserves it's own holiday! Or perhaps the date could be adjusted slightly and bring a new meaning to the term, Yule Log, lol!

Burton Sparks wrote:
Rebecca, thanks for sharing! How hot did your pile get when the sawdust came through the heating phase unscathed?

I don't know, I don't think the pile was getting hot at all but I wasn't monitoring it those first couple of years.

Jordan Holland wrote:If it is an annual event, I feel it deserves it's own holiday! Or perhaps the date could be adjusted slightly and bring a new meaning to the term, Yule Log, lol!

Haha, great idea! This annual event only takes about 3 or 4 hours, and so far has been celebrated with a luxurious hot shower, that's all.