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permaculture - Re: composting toilets

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  • From: Toby Hemenway <hemenway@jeffnet.org>
  • To: permaculture digest <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: composting toilets
  • Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1999 08:01:59 -0800 (PST)


I need some clarification here. Heather writes:

>The RBTS [Reed Bed Treatment System] we design must include a septic tank.
>Like you say this partially
>digests the solids and presents the reed bed with a liquid to treat.

And others have said something similar. But Art Ludwig, in his Oasis series
of greywater booklets, says to never store untreated greywater for more
than 24 hours or it grows bacteria at an incredible rate and converts to
blackwater, requiring far more treatment than simple greywater. And I know
this to be true: we have a failed greywater system left by the previous
owner in which greywater goes into an 800 gallon septic tank, and though
it's clear and odor-free when it enters the tank, when it leaves, phew-ee
the stink! And it's ugly blackish stuff by then, too. In the systems I've
seen in California, greywater first passes through a small grease trap,
then into a reed bed or mulched basin. This seems like much less hassle. Is
the septic-tank system something that some benighted code authority thought
up, or is there some advantage to creating blackwater out of greywater and
then purifying it that I'm unaware of? Or are these for high-volume,
constant-throughput systems where the greywater is constantly flowing
(unlike low-volume household systems)?







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