Chamber no.1 full and chamber no.2 full!

hey folks

hello from dublin ireland!

my double chamber compost toilet is ready to be emptied. i want to empty chamber no.1
i plan on putting down a layer of cardboard(lots of scutch grass on the land) and then the contents of chamber no.1
an cover it with plastic until early spring next year before putting it around my apple trees.

is this what people do??

That would depend on what type of composting toilet, and how long the first chamber has been sitting.

You might find precise answers to what you're looking for if you look at the results from a Google search for humanure.

What I think is best is to understand the hows and the whys of it, and to have a system that you stick with.

Some people advocate sealing the waste in barrels for a couple of years. Others will tell you that a hot compost is preferable, or that it is the only way to kill the pathogens. I have even seen some systems that have drying contributions collect on a grate above a pit, where they dessicate.

My personal favourite idea involves the use of black soldier fly larvae as a first step, then red worms, and then surface application to an area where I might grow green manure and mulch crops that are then chopped, collected, and used as mulch wherever necessary. This could include application to a woodlot or fibre crop, where wood could be used as fuel, or biochar could be produced, or non-woody biomass, like hemp, for instance, could be turned into paper or textiles, with the non-fibrous components being pelletized for fuel. I think the more different species of organism that consume and break down the poop in consecutive stages, the safer the resultant compost will be.

But let's take your poop-to-apple trees situation. I think what I would do, bare bones, is perhaps lift the sod where you want to dump your chamber and set it aside along with eight inches or so of topsoil and mineral soil, if you have it. I would put down a thick layer of cardboard in the resultant hole, and pile any brown biomass down there, including any stage of decomposing wood and/or leaf litter. Atop this, I would put straw. If you have access to rectangular bales, you could enclose the hole with a perimeter of straw bales and add a thick layer of brown biomass to the centre. Atop this, I would add the contents of the first chamber, and more straw or other brown biomass to that, followed by the mineral soil, topsoil, and sod, roots down.

This would result in a hot compost down below, with a "cap" of living soil to deal with issues of smell and unsightliness, all the while promoting a healthy-soil environment to essentially eat all the poop pathogens.

Please be aware, even this is a somewhat simplified explanation. I would also treat the pile with compost extracts and fungal slurries to ensure the right kind of soil life thrives. But what do you think your apple trees would do if you grew, I don't know, a great mulch plant like comfrey on the poop mound, or a variety of such, and then chopped them regularly to mulch the apple trees?

Let us know what you decide, Stan, and good luck.

-CK

That sounds like a great plan!

We have double-chamber compost toilets at our school, and we made a three-foot-deep trench outside the manure door, so in spring or when chamber 2 is full, we empty chamber 1 into the trench and leave it for a few months or a year until we need it somewhere. I think the secondary composting after mixing with itself and with air is beneficial.