permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>]

On 9/18/2010 4:07 AM, Dieter Brand wrote:

> Is this a pet project of yours?

I have been experimenting to see what works best.

> I have been using our compost toilet for over ten years with good results.  
> From my experience, the problems I can see with the trench-style system you 
> describe are:

> •       It is difficult to install such a trench near one’s living quarters.

True, it would have to be out near or in a field and on a slope.
Easy to install, shovel to dig it and scythe to cut the weeds. No need for bucket or sawdust (not readily available) 
and/or compost (readily available)
Needs a source of water, either in buckets or hose connected to water line or siphon from tank or from some other 
impoundment or pond

> •       If we are to go to different locations on the trench, that may cause 
> some confusion, especially when it is dark during the night.

Use a flashlight or lantern. No problem using anywhere within the active zone which is 25% of the total length of the 
trench, usually 6 to 12 feet, plenty of room - this works

> •       Without a concrete floor, the trench won’t pass inspection by the 
> local planning department.

I never suggested that this would pass any type of inspection at all, other 
than your own.

> •       People will tend to neglect excavating the product, thus leaving all 
> that extremely high N material in one place instead of distributing it evenly 
> across your land.  When my compost toilet is full, I have to empty it since 
> no more will go in.  I then compost it for another year with plant residues 
> etc. before spreading it very finely across my growing area. In Natural 
> Farming, which I practice, even organic fertilizers such as manure are not 
> accepted, except for returning the organic matter naturally occurring on a 
> farm to the land as a means of soil improvement and not as fertilizer.  A 
> high N concentration is to be avoided since it will result in a soil 
> imbalance.

You do not excavate the product ever. Reread the description. Use the system, reduce all solids to liquid with water 
(hose or bucket); effluent soaks into a large mass of compost and cut weeds as it diffused throughout the active zone
and flows into the lower finishing zone for the final stages of decomposition. This is all aerobic and completely odor 
free; nothing is visible except the compost with new layers of fresh cut weeds on top. I think there may be some benefit 
from adding the fresh weeds as they provide, under the right conditions, fermented plant extracts. Of course the upper 
zone, the other 25% of the length of the trench provides a continual source of beneficial microorganisms
from the compost in the trench - you can run water through this area and into the active zone periodically to refresh 
the active zone with aerobic microbes, aerobic and anaerobic so that they stay in balance with colonies containing 
adequate populations of each.