How to Make a Vermicomposting Flush Toilet

It seems I have built at least one "Vermicomposting Flush Toilet" and we have another one that was already in place. Though from monitoring it seems there are at least in one Anoplotrupes stercorosus or alike who take care of cleaning up. We do not put toilette paper or alike inside but in a separate bin. From times living without a toilette in a forest I can remeber, it was not really needed to dug a hole and afterwards cover it, as those friendly beetle tend to sense their primary food source out of quite some distance (they can fly - not that great but much better then walking) and below 24h 100% was already gone. Of course toilet-paper was extra handled.  Without those beetles composting would perhaps take long time on an acid forest soil?

I had never really thought how nature solved the problem with all those excrement in a forest, as I had never seen some, only toilet paper. One great thing about those toilets is, they do not smell, never get full, thus needing very little to zero attention. That is what I dislike very much about compost toilets, even if it doesn't smell that much, one has to empty them sooner or later, better frequently, which is a pita to me.

Based off of this design i have started to build my own vermicomposting flush toilet in Australia. We have extrem temp fluctuations.
I'm documenting the build and will continue with updates once completed to see how it goes over time.
You can see the build in the link.
https://youtu.be/wH-jB-k3v3Q
Any comments or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Mike Homest:

Can you share some pictures or other design specification on your beetle toilet? I am highly interested!
Where about are you located?

I have always thought of vermicomposting as an end-stage of such a process.

I think mine will start with a greywater-supplied low-flow toilet, to minimise unnecessary liquid additions. I think if I had a need for it, I would run that slurry through a methane digester.

I want to dewater after that point. Ideally, I would pass the black water through a sand-filter raised bed, fitted with a cold-frame during the cold months and situated in a hoop house or lean-to greenhouse that would be open/vented during the hot months.

The filter bed would be planted in heavy-feeding perennials and self-seeding annuals, though I don't know that I would necessarily want edibles growing out of it. I would probably set it up to grow chicken forage and pollinator food and habitat. It would also be treated regularly with oxygenated compost extract and fungal slurry.

There would be a drain at the bottom of the opposite end of the bed, and that would take the filtered effluent to a swale running on-contour above heavy-feeding tree species downslope of it. The leaf mulch provided by the trees would make leaf litter, leaf mould, and carbonaceous materials for composting.

As to the remaining solids, I would first use a Black Soldier Fly Larvae decomposition process, as they seek out feces on their own, and more readily than composting worms. Moreover, while red worms don't like the enzymes that black soldier fly larvae produce, once those enzymes have dried, the worms love the BSFLs leavings.

The BSFL bin, to which the solids would be transferred, would have a larvae chute leading to a central "sacrificial" compost feeding area, where the chooks would gorge on the larvae.

I would move the solids left over from the BSFL process into a raised bed, perhaps even the same one that contains the sand/fungal/bacterial filter, or one like it in the same greenhouse.

When the worms were done with it, I would be fine topdressing food crops with the worm castings.

-CK

Wow! That is very cool! Too bad it’s in NZ..

Rebecca Norman wrote:

We used a metal mesh, maybe low grade steel, with about 1 inch gaps. I'm sure it'll rust out, and then we'll find out if the wood chips can work without a mesh. Or we'll put in a plastic crate as the next mesh, since it will be protected from sun so it should be long lasting, I hope.

Just checking in 4 years later... how is the matrix holding up, Rebecca? Any blockage, or still flowing smoothly?

Wendy Howard wrote:Only just saw this post! The OP is linking to an article I wrote for Permaculture Magazine back in 2014. Since then, the system has performed so well I introduced it to my local municipality here in Portugal. It's now approved for use under the provisions for 'septic tank with drainage', and is being installed by the council where septic tanks have failed or are non-existent. Many people in the area are also adopting it as a solution for their off-grid sanitation. I've open-sourced the system and there's now a website devoted to it. I'm gathering case studies of installations and encourage people to join the forum. The more experience gained, the more potential weaknesses are discovered and ironed out, the better the system becomes.

This is genius! I can’t believe it’s not more common. I’ve been reading about permaculture for years and I’ve always only come across dry method composting. This solves a big problem of ours which is the common use of bidets to wash in toilets in our country (Algeria). Definitely going for one of these inshallah!
I read that the worms are pretty resilient to chemicals. Can we wash our gray water through the worm tank too (mainly Plain soaps for dishes clothes and washing) or will this be too much water passage ? Family of four plus visitors …
In love with the idea and love that it is open source. Your site is gold, God bless you.

Julie Baghaoui wrote:Can we wash our gray water through the worm tank too (mainly Plain soaps for dishes clothes and washing) or will this be too much water passage ? Family of four plus visitors …

Julie, as I've researched this question for my own use I've found that Wendy's vermicompostingtoilets.net and Dean's vermifilter.com open source designs both mention that you can send greywater through.  Having said that, the scientific papers on "vermifilters" show that the effectiveness works fantastic on the scale of flush toilets but starts to drop off as you get larger greywater surges like draining a bath tub.  For example this article indicates performance drops with a Hydraulic Loading Rate greater than 2.5m^3 influent per m^2 surface area of the vermifilter per day.  In light of that it is interesting to note that Wendy's design outputs subsurface but within the top soil (more microbial cleaning that subsoil) while Dean's surface irrigation approach use a series of vermifilters to allow you to clean to whatever level is needed.  Alternatively you can increase the surface area of the vermifilter.

Since our code has less restrictions on the reuse of cleaned greywater our current plan is to run the greywater through a separate vermifilter from the blackwater, and then recirculate it through a secondary vermifilter using one of Dean's designs to achieve the desired level of treatment.  That will allow us to reuse the greywater for surface and subsurface irrigation of animal crops (unrestricted) and crops for people (until 30days prior to harvesting).