Anybody use a bucket toilet?

Ernie, your family is full of sh!t. in a good way

A cubic yard per month?!? THAT IS A LOT OF FERTILIZER!!

Price a yard of composted manure--that would be a noticeable amount in any budget. That $$$ will buy a lot of trees or a LOT of seeds.

Sarah Mae wrote:I think the term *waste* should only be used to indicate inefficient use. Clearly naturally-generated organic matter itself can never be waste, though it is sadly most often wasted in North America...

"Waste" means that you loose it or that it cannot be used efficiently.
It seems that "naturally-generated organic matter" can be a waste, if the transformation does not provide what we want but other side products such as nitrates...
If what is "naturally-generated" is not available to plants or goes into the underground water table, then it is a waste, even if it looks like nice soil.
If some invisible by-products accelerate the decomposition of the organic matter, thus giving the appearance of a big nice boost to the plants, then not only this is a waste, but this is armful.

Xisca Nicolas wrote:"Waste" means that you loose it or that it cannot be used efficiently.
It seems that "naturally-generated organic matter" can be a waste, if the transformation does not provide what we want but other side products such as nitrates...
If what is "naturally-generated" is not available to plants or goes into the underground water table, then it is a waste, even if it looks like nice soil.
If some invisible by-products accelerate the decomposition of the organic matter, thus giving the appearance of a big nice boost to the plants, then not only this is a waste, but this is armful.

Yup. That was my point.

Sarah, I do not know if you also mean that not only water toilet are harmful, but also some ways of using a compost toilet, according to what I read in the link I mentioned eautarcy.com
Some ways might, at a smaller scale, do as bad as pig farms with the liquid manure.
Pigs are natural, and there is a problem with the use of the dejection when they separate urine or get some liquid stuff because of a lack of vegetable/cellulosic matter.

The bucket toilet is what is said to be best, though less handy, as long as you do not separate urine. Also when you respect an aerobic process = dispose of the bucket quickly into the compost pile, with a lot of herbal matter.

The problems seem to arrive when you stock a few buckets before emptying them all at once (if you let them go into uncontrolled fermentation).
I read here about a good fermentation process (so anaerobic), but it may not be good when you just leave the bucket alone.

At the moment I think that using a compost toilet should be a good aerobic process, or a very good anaerobic process (fermentation with added ferments), but not a sort of mix of the 2 processes without knowing what is really happening.

Natural does not mean good! And I hope I will find informations to decide how I do mine...

Well, I agree that there are more and less beneficial ways of dealing with humanure. We used a bucket toilet with everything mixed together for 7 people and then fully composted in piles. It seemed to work just fine. Its not quite as good as being nomadic and spreading it around in little individual piles, but better than some other ways. We do our best. =) Since we are not nomadic, this system seems most beneficial to me for us, although presently we are in town and using a water toilet, which I would absolutely deem a cascade of gratuitous wastage. The worst. For sure.

I wasnt replying directly to your original post, though, so I dont have any contention with the info you shared. I was just joining the discussion with a quip, really. A related thought in support of all of us finding solutions to make the best use of our internally processed food stuffs when they emerge from our part of the cycle. =)

Sarah, I was not responding to you only, but shared a link with info that I am deceived noone seems to go an read!

Gord Baird wrote:We have been on the bucket for seven years, and there is six of us. We have literally never had an issue with smell with either of the two bathrooms in the house. We have compartments that hold two buckets, and when the two buckets become full of both pee and poo (and shavings), then they go outside and are replaced with two more buckets. When I have ten full buckets (once a week) I open the pile and dump them. Here is a link to a video of the dumping

.

We also do a lot of research and policy work around such things, and have been able to legalize the bucket system, and have even built one at a local regional park, where we also service them. Neighbours bring their friends by just to look at the bathroom... and again no smell. The research and analysis on the compost allows us to safely ensure we can use the composted materilas on the food gardens, as well as hen I do a presentation to schoolkids or engineers, I can let them handle and smell the compost.

One key point, if you remove the urine from the bucket, you are removing the nitrogen from the system, and the composting process is less vigorous and the end product is nitrogen deficient (as studied at UBC Choi toilets that do separate). The course we teach on grey water and composting toilets has one common point... if it smells then your doing wrong - neither should ever smell.

In our home we run a 24VDC 50cfm fan which keeps the slightest of air flows through the toilet compartment - this also seconds as the bathroom exhaust fan, as well as services the whole house's demands under the building code to meet the required air changes per hour. Don't be nervous... trust what Joe Jenkins has written... everything goes into the bucket and give it plenty of cover material, more if it seems sloppy. My fovorite time of the year is when I dig into my 2 year old pile and place it in the gardens. All exciting!

Thank you so much for sharing this video.. It will ease the way for my partner who is 80% on board with this idea. I think it will push him to 100% or close enough.. Great!!

Xisca Nicolas wrote:Sarah, I was not responding to you only, but shared a link with info that I am deceived noone seems to go an read!

I'm reading it--excellent information, confirming what Joseph Jenkins asserts in The Humanure Handbook. I think it's awesome that the simplest solution is also the best in every way.

Xisca Nicolas wrote:

http://www.eautarcie.com/en/05a.html

Urine that is not mixed to herbal materials will very quickly (few hours) change into ammonia that will oxidize into nitrates in the soil!
Apart from the size, it seems it is like spreading liquid pig manure!
If you separate urine, absolutely throw it on TOP of the compost pile, so that it mixes with cellulose.

I have also learned in this website that urine and other stuffs SEEM to do good because plants love them. But actually, it is doing the same as chemical fertilizers: it accelerate the transformation of humus. A real compost should create more humus.

I might not be good at explaining, then you can read this website, and I hope the English translation is good and the pages as complete as in French.

Thank you so much for the link. A lot of insightful reading on that sight. Priceless!

Well - it's been a while since I posted this thread but I'd like to happily announce that next weekend we're moving into our off-grid cabin (we're finishing it up this weekend) and so this coming week I'm going to build a bucket toilet as per the Humanure book. I loved all the discussion in this thread! Just build my pallet compost pile this morning next to the house... we're so excited to finally be in it. Only cost us $13k plus the land to get "in" and it wil be rustic (no running water and probably no power for a couple months) but it's OURS and we can do whatever weird permie things we want without anybody breathing down our necks. Including crapping in a bucket

We have a bucket toilet at my house. It is literally a bucket with a commode seat over it because we just haven't had the time to finish it. We have lids for the buckets so we can empty them a few at a time into our big compost heap, which also never smells as long as we keep it covered. We do #1 and #2 in the same bucket without any issues. We use pine shavings and some wood ash if we have any. It does fill quickly as there are 3 of us using it and one potty training child. The only thing I am in any hurry to change about it is that I would love to get rid of the commode and build a nicer seat. It works great and never smells.

Sarah I built the older style Jenkins frame but from plywood with 2x4 legs. Very easy to build, quite strong and paintable if you like change. I think the plans are still available on the Humanure web site.

i want to build a kind of small bench. a bit wider than the jenkins-design. if i can fit the space i will totally go for a toilet which will allow for squatting.

using tiles as finish could look awesome

this one looks great:

3 years on the bucket! Never gonna flush again. In fact i always feel bad for being stuck in a location where i need to go and there are no proper facilities. By proper and of course, i mean a place i can go to deposit my waste where these conditions are met.

1. Able to return "waste" to the enviroment as nutrient and habitat for the base of the food chain where the benifits trickle up hill to us and beyond.

2. Water conservation is honored.

3. Toilet paper is not used. It always feels wierd and makes me feel guilty to put paper in the toilet hole, much less contaminate myanus! Not the name of the town.

We do not compost wipes and prefer to use t shirts bought from thrift stores by the box for $15. If you do not use cloth as wipes, try it!
A square, slightly larger than a single toilet sheet will generally do the job and do it much better. I cannot overstate how much more effective it is over any paper including paper towel which we have also used.

A single shirt makes a several inch tall stack of wipes.

We had to be very selective about where we source t shirts, they can be heavily contaminated with fabric softener. We do not use fabric softener because it is toxic and deadly, the most toxic substance in conventional homes besides dioxin from bleach and is an uncontrolled cocktail.

The first warning was odor and smarm on hands during proscessing wipes, then the lingering wretch and headache inducing and otherwise alien (to uor household) odor in the bathroom.

The last straw was realising where the smarmy oily feeling evinced itself after use of contaminated shirts as wipes. I have the same issue with paper used for toiletry and house cleaning, soaking grease off of food...yuck.

Dioxin!!

Our recycled paper is completly cross contaminated with hazmat. So newspaper or toilet paper in compost is a no-no in our practice.

I am intending on going the organic hemp,re-usable route. Our friends use cloth diapers for both children. The ridicule and scorn was intense!

They bought a toilet mounted sprayer which i named the babe-beday (never could spell in french) and hosed them off as pre-treat before tossing into a small washing machine bought for that single purpose. Food grade peroxide and vinegar wash, beutiful!
He is also smart enough to have 3 washing machines, one for diapers, one for general laundry, and one for work clothes. She is a dental hygenist and he worked (thank goodness for past tense) in a machine shop. They decided to not cross contaminate their laundry, a huge problem at military bases also, and for obvious reasons.

You can keep the collection of nutrients in one vessel if you allow for proper evaporation of water from the mix. Study composting toilets of the mechanical store bought variety.

The store bought ones prove too pricey and fiberglassy for us. Fiberglass is remediated and banned fom our property, the next asbestos-like catastrophy is looming...its everywhere. It is detected in alarming quantity in the air and water at the most remote locations on earth, complete cross contamination of the ecosphere as with radioactive dust, chemicals and metals.

I have two identical stainless steel washer tubs from our old laundry machines. They are now tumbler components for our transition away from the bucketry. As soon as the mechanical is proven workable, we will dress it in wood and tile for a permanent solution.

We still have our flush toilet for legalities and guests, but as soon as the bucket (loveable loo) goes, so does the flusher. The pipe and water connection will stay for code compliance on resale of our home if we ever leave.

Dont misunderstand, code compliance is not our issue for resale or acceptance of any techniques used here or by anyone else, thats your business, but...men with clip-boards are accompanied by men with guns and they love to shut down homesteaders and crabs leaving the industrial monopoly bucket!

Stay above reproach while doing the right thing and walk tall, all-ways.

I bought the Humanure hand book about 20 years ago and have done pretty much what the book says since then. I saw a lot of logs into lumber so sawdust is what I use and it works just fine. I personally don't worry about the laws on this as I don't believe in the Government telling me what I can do On my place. The one thing is Ill say that you have to replace the bucket every once in a while as it gets a rough surface on it and is harder to clean and empty.

Here is my set-up:

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByWO-E1nQlB/

I found glazed flowerpots at Ollie's that precisely hold a 5 gallon bucket.  Son-in-law laminated the wooden deck, cut the hole precisely, and chamfered the back so it hangs on a bracket that can be mounted wherever it's wanted.  (Bedroom corner in the winter.)  

Pee bucket stays in except for morning business.  The pee bucket has a loose matching lid, and the pee gets dumped out onto heavy leaf mulch in any of the gardens every few days.  The bucket is rinsed and aired in the sun.

Poo bucket sits nearby, with an airtight flexible Saver Lid ($1.68) and a bottom layer of coarse sawdust/chips or dry leaves.  The white "tank" contains the sawdust supply and a tin cup scoop.  When this bucket is 3/4 full, it gets dumped into a heavy duty trash bin and sits cooking in the sun for a year, and then applied to garden beds.

It was important for my aesthetics to start with new buckets and in a dark color.  Lowes had them in grey the year I shopped.  The fact that they've never been used for any other purpose means smooth inside walls, very easy to swipe clean with the used/dried TP deposited in the waste basket.  The dark color means I never have unsightly splash on the walls of the bucket.

If I had it to do again, I'd ask SIL to make two decks, so I could have separate stations entirely.

Brunhilda Bierman wrote:Amelia, I love your setup!  Do you fill the bin from inside, or does it also open to an outdoor source of sawdust?

As far as this thread is concerned, I have a somewhat related question... My husband and I are eagerly planning to use a "bucket toilet" and to remove the whole concept of black water from our lives.  Then I remembered that I would like to use cloth diapers for our children...this complicates things a bit.  Does anyone here have any good suggestions for dealing with a minimal amount of black water for cleaning baby things only?  We are still in the design phase of our house, so any suggestions as to how to incorporate this would be appreciated!  At least for a while, we will likely be using a pair of galvanized wash/rinse tubs which could be "easily" diverted to a seperate drainage location when needed.

I know this thread is old but I'd like to add my 2 cents because I have recent experience with buckets, and experience with babies/diapers.

We have been on our homestead for a couple months and I set up a temporary bucket system until I can get my permanent system in, and here is what I've found:
We have a urine diverter (which slides back for pee and forward for poop) with a gallon jug it's connected to, and we cover our poo with a nice layer of compost in the bucket. I empty the urine daily (down any groundhog burrow I find--they never use that opening after that; my garden thanks me) and rinse the jug.
The poo bucket doesn't smell bad at all. The urine diverter, hose and jug stink like crazy and no amount of rinsing gets rid of the smell; it only reduces it to a less nauseating level.

As I said, this is temporary. My permanent plan is the (modified for my situation) bucket system from the Solviva book by Anna Edey, who is a frikkin genius! No smell, flushable with grey water (if flushing is desired) so even company will use it.

We (2 of us and occasional visitors) live in a travel trailer so the no-flush setup I'm about to describe works great for that. If you live in a regular house, a lower level, crawl space or basement may be needed under your bathroom depending on your home and desired level of difficulty. Here's how to do it:

For us, we remove our camper's porcelain toilet and store it. In its place I build an enclosed cabinet with a door that opens to remove  & replace the bucket, and a bin beside it for cover material which is a mix of partially composted leaves and sawdust or rich compost (which can come from your compost heap or even from fully-composted poo, which has all the right bacteria and soil life for the purpose). Actually, many materials can be used. Ground corn cobs, shredded newspaper, etc. I thought about getting one of those paper shredders that makes confetti rather than strips. I would mix it with good compost.

There is a hole in the top with a toilet seat and the whole thing closes tightly. (eliminate the spaces between cabinet top and seat bottom, and between seat and lid).

There is a hole drilled in the top of the cabinet with a hole saw into which a long hose is inserted (I cannibalized a couple old shop vacs). The hose runs up the corner of the wall, across the ceiling to the skylight which has a vent fan in it (which I will be replacing with a solar attic fan soon). The fan runs whenever there is sunlight, keeping the toilet-cabinet and bathroom smell-free.

Now for the buckets: For our system, I'll be putting drain-hole in the bottom--a pvc fitting in the bottom of each bucket with a short length of pvc pipe which will fit down into the existing hole leading to the camper's black water tank. You could do the same with your toilet hole if you have one. Some thin, soft foam insulation around the hole in the floor ensures a good seal between bucket and floor.  
The hole in the bucket is covered with 1/4" hardware cloth, then the bottom of the bucket is lined with a couple inches of hay, straw, dried grass clippings or similar to act as a pre-filter to the screen filter. Then another couple inches of shredded, partially composted leaves. These layers will filter and prevent poo down the drain hole, and remove the smell from the urine, which drains through to the black water tank.

Now, outside, near my bathroom, I will have this:
One of those big blue, poly barrels that people give away or sell cheap on Craigs, and one of the smaller poly barrels that fits inside with about 2 inches between the outside barrel & the inside one, lined with surplus insulation to keep it from freezing in the winter. The top of the inside barrel is removed and discarded, and the top of the blue barrel is removed (or cut off if necessary) and rigid insulation is cut to fit snugly in the top of the outer barrel and glued in place on the underside of the barrel top, creating a sealed, insulated pod.
On the side of the pod near the top (not through the lid, though), a hole is cut, large enough to fit the camper's sewer hose (or your drain pipe leading from your hole in the bathroom floor). The black water tank valve on the camper will be left open to drain urine directly into the inner barrel.
In the bottom of the 2 barrels is a drain hole with pvc fitting where a flexible french drain hose will attach.
The inner barrel will be about 1/3 to 1/2 filled with a mix of 1/2 composted leaves and 1/2 aged wood chips of an easily-compostable wood (so, not cedar, black locust, pressure-treated, etc), and about a pound of red worms (collect them or order them). Don't worry, it won't overfill--the worms compost and liquefy the contents so fast that you may have to ADD leaves and wood chips occasionally rather than removing anything. But if you do need to service the pod, the lid is easily removable.

We need to have the pod lower than the toilet and drain hose, consequently, the pod is buried so that the bottom of it is about 3 feet deep (no deeper) and the french drain hose is trenched in down a slope, getting gradually shallower until it is only about a foot underground (but must be heading slightly downhill the whole time so liquid will not pool in one area). The flexible hose can curve back and forth, it doesn't have to be straight as long as it maintains a slight decline in elevation. The trench is filled with a combo of  partially composted leaves and (easily compostable) wood chips, with a thick layer of wood chips on top. The path of the french drain hose should be planted with nitrogen-loving, pollinator-attracting landscaping flowers, shrubs and trees (or food plants and trees, if you believe in the purifying properties of proper composting). There will be no smell, no flies, no swampy patches, just lush growth.
If I want to cover the barrel sticking out of the earth, I can build a little cabinet of wood scraps and insulate between the cabinet & barrel for extra freeze-proofing.

Using the toilet: Pee and poo in the bucket. Pee drains to the pod outside. We have gotten into the habit of putting our toilet paper in a small trash can, which keeps the buckets from filling too fast. The trash doesn't really smell but if you want, use a lidded trash can. Empty it into the pod when it is full--the worms love paper! I'll empty our bucket into the pod at least once a week to keep the worms fed. I can rinse the bucket right over the pod; the extra water will drain away.

Depending on the size of your family, you may want a larger composting receptacle. Ms Edey's box is only about 3 feet tall by 4 feet wide and long, and it handles a flush toilet used by anywhere from 4 to 20 people (she has workshops) without overfilling or needing servicing. She built hers out of wood, lined it with garden cloth and insulated it, and it is above ground because her bathroom is on the 2nd floor so she has enough slope to leave it above ground.

To convert this to a flush toilet: remove the bucket, put your low-flow toilet back in place, route your grey water (with food particles filtered out) to the toilet tank with an overflow-prevention device (you figure that one out) that will take the excess grey water straight to the pod or some other water-using area such as the garden. Then just do your biz and flush. It all goes to the pod, the fluids drain through to the landscaping and the worms go to work on the rest.

Now to address the diaper issue: It is a little-known fact that infants are already potty-trained. They know exactly when they need to go, but we have trouble reading their signals. In less-"developed" countries, they don't use diapers at all. They observe their infants' body language and biological rhythms and merely hold the infant over a receptacle of some sort. My friend from Peru, who grew up in a family of 12 children in a mud hut in the Andes, told me they would simply hold the baby over a bucket or steel bowl, or if they were outside they would just hold them away from the trodden path, since infant poo is pretty harmless. When kids grow up not soiling themselves, they will naturally begin to communicate when they have to go and you can avoid the whole potty-training issue.
I realize that this is not practical 100% of the time in "developed" nations where we have to go to the mall etc. but it would sure cut down on diaper use at home, not to mention diaper rash, detergent, etc. You could just hold your baby over the toilet or keep a small bucket near you. If you do need to rinse diapers, you can rinse them over the opened pod. The pod doesn't smell very much when open and not at all when closed.

So that's my 2 cents, which turned into more like $2.

Would the sawdust from the local big box home improvements stores be OK to use?  If they're cutting 'treated' wood, then the sawdust is also 'treated", correct?  Can I still use this in my bucket?

Charlotte Boord wrote:Would the sawdust from the local big box home improvements stores be OK to use?  If they're cutting 'treated' wood, then the sawdust is also 'treated", correct?  Can I still use this in my bucket?

I'm not sure. I guess it would depend on the ratio of treated to non-treated wood they are cutting. If it's mostly treated, I wouldn't use it but if it's mostly untreated, I would give it a try. Anna Edey has put drain cleaner (as an experiment, not regularly) through her system without killing off her worms or plants so a little treated sawdust probably won't hurt the system. The main idea is that the sawdust be able to compost.
If you do use a small amount of treated sawdust, I would definitely not plant food plants in the leach zone because it contains arsenic and other nasty things.

Hey, it just occurred to me to wonder if coffee grounds would make a good cover material. You can get those for free at coffee shops. I think I'll try it mixed with compost.

We've used a 2 bucket system since 1982. The buckets are side by side and there is a fan we switch on that draws air up and out the plumbing vent. Bucket #1 is uring but can have toilet paper while Bucket #2 is poo, toilet paper, and some urine. We've never washed out our buckets in all these years. We have 2 sets of buckets - when emptying leave the bucket upside down to bake in the sun or freeze dry and swap for the bucket that's been setting outside. We use rubber feed buckets from the farm supply store for pee and have switched to stainless steel stock pots for the poo after we found a couple at the Salvation Army for about $5 each. They are easier to empty as the poo doesn't stick to the sides and we do put a layer of shavings in the bottom. The pee gets dumped onto the garden compost pile and the poo is put into a covered compost bin, along with some pine shavings on top which is recyled from a winter's use in our root cellar for packing veggies. No shavings are added in the house at the time of use. The #1 Bucket is emptied every two days and the #2 Bucket is emptied every 4th day. Poultry manure/bedding is also composted in these covered bins. Our hosehold of 2 adults and 2 ducks/5 chickens fills 2 bins per year and we have 4 bins so that everything can sit for an entire year. The compost is used only on flint and sweet corn in our garden rotation. The only drawback is when we're away from home and we miss giving our daily contribution to the garden's fertility - that and the fact that regular toilets stink in comparison.

The poo bucket doesn't smell bad at all. The urine diverter, hose and jug stink like crazy and no amount of rinsing gets rid of the smell; it only reduces it to a less nauseating level.

We use a mild vinegar and water rinse on our urine bucket and it seems to neutralize the urine smell.

I've used a bucket in the deer stand. Not my fave. It gets heavy and you have to haul the sawdust up there, bring down the full bucket [I never waited until it was full, btw] then toss it on the compost pile. A lot of work for not much convenience. [We have flushies inside the house so we are not tied to an outdoor contraption.]

I am considering however installing a *movable* structure over a hole 2'X 2' X 2'deep. We live in poor sandy soil and planting trees near such a hole would stack functions: Enrich soil for the tree to be planted there next year, have a convenient toilet near the garden so you don't have to rush inside, never have to haul the shtuff. Pull the outdoor toilet to a new location with your 4 wheeler/ truck, repeat. The first year, plant hollyhocks. The second year, admire flowers.

Since it is convenient, it is probably illegal, so I'm not advocating you do that. But it could be disguised as a tool shed for gardening tools. Hooks on the outside, high under the eaves for hand tools, a rack inside to protect long handled tools. Since we are in zone 4, it would compost over the winter. It is just my husband and I, so I'm not sure how quickly it would fill, but I'll give it a try long before I try a bucket. I think the trick is to make the structure light enough to be able to drag it a few feet when full and attach a hitch and ball to pull it.
You know, in the old times, folks had a chamber pot for at night, so they didn't have to go outside, but the regular way of doing it was to have an outdoor toilet. I'm really not sure why we'd want to complicate a perfectly good system by using a bucket that may stink, be very heavy when full and then have to empty it when we could just leave it in the ground, where it will do the most good.

I just switched from a bucket system to a FLUSH COMPOSTING system! My bucket system just was too labor-intensive.

My flush system is almost as permaculture as you can get and works like a dream. After the hard work of putting in the system, there's little to no maintenance, no compost to deal with, no smell and the nutrients are feeding our grove of shade trees and will feed our pollinator garden in the spring. It is not the least complicated, it's just hard work. Even so, two of us did the whole thing in three days. It cost us about $100 because we had access to a lot of materials we could reuse but it wouldn't cost much more if you had to buy everything.

One of the nice things about it is that it is totally hidden and undetectable--just sayin', for you folks who have to do it under the radar. Of course, I situated our house just for the purpose of being able to hide the system but your results may vary as far as it being hidden.

Right now we're using a small amount of fresh water to flush it but my first project in the spring will be to switch it to grey water.

If anyone is interested in how I did it, let me know and I'll start a new thread.

M Wilcox wrote:I just switched from a bucket system to a FLUSH COMPOSTING system! My bucket system just was too labor-intensive.

My flush system is almost as permaculture as you can get and works like a dream. After the hard work of putting in the system, there's little to no maintenance, no compost to deal with, no smell and the nutrients are feeding our grove of shade trees and will feed our pollinator garden in the spring. It is not the least complicated, it's just hard work. Even so, two of us did the whole thing in three days. It cost us about $100 because we had access to a lot of materials we could reuse but it wouldn't cost much more if you had to buy everything.

One of the nice things about it is that it is totally hidden and undetectable--just sayin', for you folks who have to do it under the radar. Of course, I situated our house just for the purpose of being able to hide the system but your results may vary as far as it being hidden.

Right now we're using a small amount of fresh water to flush it but my first project in the spring will be to switch it to grey water.

If anyone is interested in how I did it, let me know and I'll start a new thread.

I would love to see how your system works.

M Wilcox wrote:I just switched from a bucket system to a FLUSH COMPOSTING system! My bucket system just was too labor-intensive.
My flush system is almost as permaculture as you can get and works like a dream.
If anyone is interested in how I did it, let me know and I'll start a new thread.

I can't wait to hear more about it!

Interesting that this thread got bumped! So - I DID end up using the bucket toilet. And I absolutely loathed it... lol. We used it for six years and then just about a month ago I finally got a septic installed.

I suspect I wouldn't have minded it so much if I was not the only adult with three children. Children who would sometimes empty half a bucket of sawdust in, or not cover it at all. And then trudging outside in the middle of blizzards because I needed to empty the bucket was awful. And then one winter I was just DONE so I literally just bought a new bucket every time we needed a new one, so now I have a zillion buckets and I still hated it. I hated being interrupted in what I was doing with "MOM YOU NEED TO CHANGE THE BUCKET!!" We went through a bucket every 2-3 days.

So - as a single mom with a family, it was the necessary thing but I certainly did not like it. If it was just me, though, I wouldn't have minded, for one, much less work but also less likelihood of one kid dumping massive amounts of sawdust in and then the next kid complaining because it's too full, all in the span of a few hours. Or if I had another adult in the home to alleviate the burden.

Ok, all interested parties. I just finished a quick-and-dirty explanation of my flush composing toilet I just completed. Read about it here: https://permies.com/t/123361/bucket-toilet-permaculture-flush-compost

Here's a lovely fruiting body inside the humanure composting barrel.

For those of you using bucket composting toilets in your homes...would you hesitate to put a bathtub for soaking in the same room as your toilet due to smells?

denise ra wrote:For those of you using bucket composting toilets in your homes...would you hesitate to put a bathtub for soaking in the same room as your toilet due to smells?

With woodchips and peatmoss on top, there is very little or no smell. That being said, I might separate them with an alcove wall if they are in the same room.

I have loved reading through this thread, thank you everyone for sharing your unique experiences with your bucket toilets. After a year of living with a bucket toilet I would like to share our experience.

My husband and I bought 20 acres and built a 200 square foot tiny house. From the beginning we decided that we were going to do a grey water system for our sink and shower, and a bucket composting toilet. Because of that choice we were committed to a composting toilet in one form or another. Without any experience with a bucket toilet before the day we moved into our new house there was of course uncertainty of if this was going to be a good fit for us or not. I am happy to report that one year later we are very happy with this simple and practical system.

We use a one bucket system that lives in a custom box that we built in our small bathroom. The top of the box is split in half and each side lifts, one side is the bucket and the other side is space for our bin of shavings and extra supplies like toilet paper. As you can see from the pictures we have not yet decided what color we want to paint the plywood. I do want to paint the box, because I think it would be easier to clean and more sanitary.

When we start out with a clean bucket we do a liberal dusting in the bottom of the bucket. Both pee and poo go into the same bucket, and I have found that as long as you keep all of it capped with sawdust/shavings there is no smell. The critical part here is to get everything covered with sawdust. The only time we have ever had an issue with smell is when we discover that either the poo or pee didn't get completely covered, this can be quickly remedied. Yes, you possibly can use more sawdust this way, but I don't find it to be an unreasonable amount. With 2 of us using the bucket we typically only have to dump it every 4 to 5 days. We also throw most of our compost from the kitchen into the toilet, yep the kitchen is next to the bathroom. If for some reason we find that we keep smelling something from the bucket we simply go empty it and start fresh!

Most of the time we will empty our bucket when it is about 3/4 full, but as with most of life every once in a while chores get put off until it is an absolute necessity. Of course the more full it gets the heavier it is to carry to the compost pile, so I recommend trying to take it out when it is 3/4 full. In the beginning I thought this part was going to gross me out, but it doesn't at all. My main recommendation is to not have a compost pile with high sides, ours was at first and that was the only gross part of the whole experience simply because sometimes things could splash when you had to pour it from above. We figured that out pretty quick and created a shorter pile. Almost every time the bucket pours out clean with little left behind, but once in a while there will be a skid mark or two. We then take the bucket to our frost free spigot and do a quick rinse then set the bucket down on the ground, give it a good squirt of dish soap and fill the bucket with water. We have a large scrubber brush dedicated to this purpose and we scrub out the bucket. This only takes a few moments, and easily gets rid of the occasional skid mark no problem. We have discovered that letting the bucket sit there with the soapy water in it up to the rim for at least 15 minutes, longer if you can helps to soak out any residual odor that can sometimes linger from the pee permeating the plastic bucket. We then dump out the soapy water on the landscape and rinse one last time and if the weather is appropriate we might even let the sun dry things out. Now you just put it back in its spot and put a good layer of sawdust in the bottom and it's ready for service again.

We are lazy composters. We have two piles, our current pile we are dumping into, and an older more broken down pile. At this point our compost pile is mostly just our humanure and some kitchen scraps, once in a while I will have some green material from our garden/orchard to add to it, but primarily it is very carbon rich and I pay little attention to it. Because of this it does not get up to a temperature that will kill of pathogens, so we only spread this compost in areas that do not come in contact with any of our food crops. We spread the first batch on the hillside behind our tiny house which is simply a green zone for fire safety, and the grass really took off and became lush! We live in a very dry climate, and I rarely water our compost piles so the conditions are not optimal for them to break down. Even with this utter neglect I find that our humanure breaks down great in 6 months. The sawdust is not broken down much at that point, but it is filled with nutrients, and in our dry and sandy soil it is a great addition of organic material to hold moisture and create homes for the micro-herd.

I most definitely recommend this system to others! I know this system will not appeal to everyone, and it would be more work with a large family, but I think it is a great way to reduce our use of water and capture the nutrients of our humanure.

Have been using a bucket “lovable loo” for about a year. And use- for one person- a bucket a week. I’ve been thrilled to finally get my dome up & have the lovable loo indoors, near my bed so I don’t have to go in the rain to use the facilities. With saw dust- which I collect every few weeks from saw mills there is very little smell. 3/4 full is a good time to put the lid on it.  I use orange oil spray & incense  regularly & just installed a enzyme puck in the lovable loo because I’m really sensitive to smell.

The county (in California) has been monitoring me & threatening to “abate” everything I have done on my property so I have just put lids on all the buckets & camouflage them into my wooded areas with camo netting on top. Looks like they are going to force me to install a septic.

By the time I get the county off my back. All the compost- 1&2 will be inert after 2 years & Ill mix it into a large compost bin. That’s the plan anyway. All this was started during the peak of COVID chaos so I built an emergency shelter & did my best.

Kind of excited about the rich soil I’m creating & will probably build & not really use the septic. We shall see♥️ 🌈.

There’s a lot of information here but there are a few things I haven’t really seen discussed. Granted, I may have missed it.

First, toilet paper. Do you use a specific kind or can you use any old brand put out by proctor and gamble?

Wildlife in the compost piles. My property is fully wild. Along with the smaller squirrels and pack rats, I could have turkey, raccoon, or bear rummaging through it all. Not really interested in making a bear-proof compost pile.

I’ve been using my system, which is different than most discussed here, for about 3 years. It is used by myself and other folks staying on the property. My system uses Bokashi and is an anaerobic process. If your not familiar, Bokashi is a pre-fermented grain hull (don’t quote me on this). If you’re not familiar with it, look it up. It can be incorporated in any compost system to help expedite the process. Anyways, I’ll start with a 1” layer at the bottom of coco coir (please stop using peat moss. If you don’t know why, look it up), then sprinkle about a cup of Bokashi onto that. From there on, just a typical lasagna layering. Poop, light dusting of Bokashi, more coco coir, poop, Bokashi, coir, repeat, repeat, repeat. To close off the bucket, I put another heavy (1cup) sprinkling of Bokashi and a final 1-2” of coir. Then I put a lid with a date on the bucket and let it sit for 6 months or so. Depending on how many folks are on the property, I could have a stack of 20-40 buckets before I empty them, which I’ll do about twice a year. So far, I’ve just dug a hole and buried it in the forest. I’m completely confident it could go into a pile to break down further and then be used as fertilizer.
My results have varied. When it’s just me and the layering ratios are more consistent, I’ve had amazing results where everything seem broken down by the time I empty the buckets. When more people use it, the consistency isn’t there and the results don’t tend to be as good. I haven’t found the paper to break down but the way Bokashi works is to inoculate what’s in the bucket with the enzymes, enabling it to be broken down more effectively. I use it in my kitchen compost, fermenting in a closed bucket for only about 6 weeks, and when I put that in my garden, everything is still recognizable but then breaks down remarkably quick. That’s to say that while I no longer add paper to the bucket I am hopeful that which I’ve already buried was inoculated and has since broken down. Bokashi has a slightly sweet smell (like molasses) and that is what the s***shed smells like. But I do end up with bags of used paper that we just burn in our burn barrel.

Final thought on the pee. Being male, I don’t use the bucket unless I’m already sitting down.  But when there were a couple of women up here, we had a second pee bucket that was just full of wood chips. They peed in that till it was full and then dumped it into the compost pile. No smell and the nitrogen rich pee was a perfect compliment to the carbon dense wood chips.