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Cob
Building Tutorial
Chapter 12:
Composting Toilets
 If
you’ve ever thought about building a home using natural materials such
as cob, straw bales, or earth bags, you’ve probably realized that
building such a home would be better accomplished in a rural area. Let’s
face it…zoning restrictions in urban areas are generally far too rigid
to accommodate alternative building styles, and green building methods
are the new kid on the block in most industrialized nations (even though
people have been building with natural materials elsewhere for thousands
of years).
One of the
issues in building a home in a rural area is waste management. Currently
the preferred method of dealing with human waste is to install a septic
tank. While this may be the easiest way to get a building permit, it is
not the most environmentally sound way to go for a number of reasons. If
you have a building site with a lot of trees that you wish to keep, a
septic tank might not be an option. This is because septic tanks require
leach fields, and these fields can be up to a half-acre in size,
depending on the underlying soil. So if you don’t want to bulldoze that
grove, you’ll have to look at other options.
 Another consideration is that flush toilets use large
amounts of water, and as droughts continue in many places throughout the
world, water conservation will become more and more of a necessity. Any
waste management system that can conserve water will have the advantage.
A composting toilet provides such an advantage.
Composting toilets are basically toilets that are
self-contained and use little or no water. There is a composting
compartment attached either below or behind the ‘bowl’ to catch waste
material. This human waste naturally decomposes, or composts, into
odorless humus, which can then be used for organic fertilizer for home
gardening projects. While the composting chamber does have to be emptied
on occasion, this only has to be done about once every three to six
months, and is not nearly as messy and unpleasant as you might think.
Composted humus from human waste is virtually indistinguishable from
commercial peat in texture and odor.
Commercial
composting toilets are odor-free and at least as sanitary as a septic
tank. Some studies would indicate that composting toilets are even more
sanitary, because waste from a composting toilet isn’t released into the
ground water system, whereas germs in a flush toilet are mixed with
water in a septic tank, which then flows out into the leach field to be
absorbed into the ground.
If you’re interested in a commercial
composting toilet, a good place to start is:
www.thenaturalhome.com/compost.html
 Commercial composting toilets are a bit expensive,
ranging in price from $1500 to $3500 or more, depending on the model.
This still makes them cheaper than the average septic tank installation.
If you’re a hands-on type of person, you may be able to build your own
for far less.
If you’re considering
building your own green home, a composting toilet could be an integral
part of your home design. For general information on composting toilets,
visit Dean and Andi Hazelwood’s website. You may also download a free
114-page book on making your own composting toilets from the EcoSanRes
Organization’s website.
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