Indoor non electric compost toilet

HOWDY! so years ago I ripped out my flush toilet and began a bucket system composting of human waste. My system was pee indoors, poops outdoors in a telephone booth size outhouse. Both buckets empty into a composting pile. I've done this for at least 20 years with no problems on the coast of Maine. Now I am considering a composting toilet for indoors for the whole shebang, but would like the simplest one. I've read that non electric can be smelly and that is not acceptable. The reason I'm considering this is that I'm concerned about not slipping on snow or ice if I'm in  a hurry to get outdoors to the poop shack. Maybe just doing all  the business in one bucket isn't such a big deal? I can still safely empty my bucket into the compost daily if needed. I don't want to put out the expense for an indoor composting toilet if they are more trouble than they appear to be in their advertising. Gimme some feedback here please!

Tess Daniels wrote:Maybe just doing all  the business in one bucket isn't such a big deal?

This is exaclty what Jenkins advocates for in his humanure book:
https://humanurehandbook.com/


Also when you use his system (you cover everything with sawdust) you can just close the bucket and store it indoors until the weather allows you to go outside to empty the bucket.


Also i personally do not believe in the "Composting toilets" that compost in place... a compost pile should be big(>1m³) and have contact to the ground.

The purchased indoor systems are extremely expensive for what they are.  They may be worth it in certain situations (like when they are code approved) but…

I have one and it’s in storage and am currently using a bucket system. We use two buckets, one for just pee and one for poo (and the pee from those times).  It is not for smell management ( Joe is right about cover material) but for weight management and end use. We use the pee for fertilizer and biochar. A full wet bucket just gets too heavy to handle “neatly”

Guess I'm leaning towards continued use of my trusty buckets. I have never had a smell issue with them and have used a variety of cover materials. My gardens have been happy with the results. I just had been wondering  if while I wasn't looking some newer happier version of a composting toilet had sprung up that didn't need a fundraiser to buy.

I used the Jenkins bucket method for a couple years and had no issues.  It just smelled like sawdust.  I only used one bucket with no separation.  As R Scott mentioned though gets pretty heavy if you wait until it is nearly full.  If you just get in the habit of emptying it more often, it's fine.

I also employ the Jenkins method - but with a few small provisos.  Because much of my property is slightly sloped with a tiny, seasonal creek at the bottom, creating a sizable humanure pile on bare ground could, potentially, initiate legal issues. So I don't.  Instead, I built and use a small, insulated shack to store and bio-age my fresh deposits.... via 5 gallon containers.

Hey all! Thanks for all the input because it 's really helped me make up my mind! I'm sticking with my 5 gal. bucket system .

Thanks for this, just starting down the composting toilet road so this info is quite helpful!