Women: Let's talk about composting toilets & monthlies...

Nov 17, 2013 15:52:21

Warning to guys, I'm speaking very candidly about a woman's MONTHLY PERIOD so if that grosses you out, you might want to hit the "back" button right now...

I'm surprised I haven't seen this anywhere but I figure it's safe to ask here (even if most posters seem to be guys!). We just moved into our offgrid house and we're using a bucket/sawdust toilet.

This morning it occurred to me that I'm not sure if there's any special protocol regarding my monthly which will be here next week. I am using a diva cup, and I'd rather not go back to tampons if I can help it. In case you don't know, the diva cup protocol is basically the cup stays inside and collects the flow, then you just dump it into the toilet and then wash it out, reuse, etc.

I can't imagine BLOOD being any more gross or bacteria-fying than poop when it comes to decomposition/compost but for those of you who have been there, done that, is there an issue with continuing to do the same? I know blood can be considered a contaminant or pathogen, but so does poop and so I can't imagine it would be a problem BUT I'm so new to this I want to make sure

Nov 17, 2013 16:48:51

What about black soldier fly composting? That is supposed to be good for meat and animal parts. My wife wasn't using the diva cup yet when we were off grid, so we didn't have to cross that bridge.

Nov 17, 2013 17:36:38

Never had a problem with it in my bucket system days. Now, I use my blood to feed my houseplants...

Nov 17, 2013 23:53:06

No problem! The blood composts as well as any of the other stuff in there.

We've been using very simple low tech composting toilets here at our school for some 18 years, and every year when we empty the previous year's chamber (which has been standing unused for year), we find lots of pad liners but the cotton has totally disappeared, and I personally know that hundreds of tampons have gone down there, but we've never found so much as a little blue string. Of course blood is high-nitrogen, so a high-carbon covering like sawdust would be ideal, but on the other hand the volume of matter is minor compared to the rest of the compost so it really doesn't matter too much.

Compost away!

Nov 18, 2013 01:52:59

I've always just tipped the cup in with the rest of the humanure and thrown a handful of sawdust over to 'hide' it so as not to gross the boys out.

Of course, that was before things got crazy and I started to lose far too much blood to even think of moon-cups for the first few days. But that's another story that might prove a bit too much even for permies...

Out of interest, I first heard of moon-cups from a UK science forum, inhabited mostly by males. They knew I was a bit on the 'green' side and one of them recommended them to me as he thought I'd appreciate being able to collect and compost the blood.

Dec 17, 2013 10:24:09

Thanks for the post! Good info to know for when I try to convince my wife!

Nov 04, 2014 20:09:47

Two diva cups in my house some of the time and all I notice is that the sawdust is a nice pink colour. Not expecting any problem in the compost, if it will eat fat, bones and meat then blood shouldn't be an issue. I expect that the compost will probably be better for the extra nutrients.

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