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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] poop and pee

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  • From: Robyn Francis <erda@nor.com.au>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] poop and pee
  • Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 07:27:19 +1000

On 17/10/06 2:52 AM, "Gregory Konger" <gjkonger@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I have been using pee in my yard for about a year with no problems.
> However,
> when I tried composting my poop, I had a problem with smell and animals. I
> used a plastic composter from Menards to dump a 5 gallon bucket of poop into
> it every time it became full.

Compost needs the right mix of carbon, nitrogen, water and air - poo & pee
provides the water & nitrogen (BTW you dont want too much liquid, the
composting materials simply need to be moist otherwise it becomes anaerobic
& stinks), so you need to add carbon materials like sawdust or wood shavings
and the container needs to have air moving through. It's critical that any
humanure composting chamber is completely secure against animals.

There are Council-approved composting toilets in Australia using wheelie
bins (have also seen pickle barrels adapted in a similar way). These have a
mesh screen floor installed about 6" from the bottom to keep the solids
suspended. Right at the bottom a small 1" hole with a hose attachment drains
off liquids (usually into an in-ground irrigation/leaky pipe system) and a
larger 4" hole just above the small one with a fine mesh screen for air
intake. Up the sides of the bin in the corners half-section lengths of 4'pvc
pip are installed with half inch holes drilled at regular spacings to help
vent the air flow. The lid has another hole fitted with a short section of
3" PVC pipe fitted with a fine wire mesh screen so air can rise out of the
top.

These retrofitted containers work really well - they ventilate and no
critters can get in.

I found the following about a wheelie bin loo in Fiji - doesn't give a lot
of detail about fitting out the bin but is interesting to check out
http://www.coralcay.org/news/articles/composting_toilet_system.pdf

Ciao
Robyn






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