
The no-flush movement: the unexpected rise of the composting toilet - ciconia
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/dec/09/no-flush-movement-composting-toilet-clean-water-waste-fertiliser-eco-revolution
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mc32
Does this process address issues associated with pathogens like e-coli, etc?

Japan also used to collect waste to use as fertilizer[1]. Though with modern
fertilizers it’s little used.

[1][https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_soil#Japan](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_soil#Japan)

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brippalcharrid
It can close the parasite lifecycle loop when it's used for agriculture, so
it's best avoided for growing stuff that's going to reenter the foodchain.

The defector from North Korea who was in the news a couple of years ago was
found to be full of parasitic worms when he was operated on, apparently
because NK is using nightsoil to fertilise crops.

[https://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/04/health/north-korea-
defect...](https://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/04/health/north-korea-defector-
doctor-intl/index.html)

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opwieurposiu
I installed a composting toilet a few months ago at an off-grid cabin in the
mountains. The important thing to get right is the venting system. This keeps
a negative pressure in the compost chamber so air is continually drawn down
through the toilet and up out the vent stack. When this is working correctly
the bathroom will have no smell at all.

The second thing to worry about is the overflow drain. Depending on
temperature and usage, urine may not evaporate faster then it is added. There
is an overflow drain to handle this situation. Local building codes may
require you to pipe the overflow to a conventional septic system, thus
negating a lot of the cost and simplicity benefits of a composting toilet.

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tomatocracy
I'm always surprised that urinals (especially so-called 'waterless' urinals)
haven't taken off more in residential settings - they don't take a huge amount
of space, can pay for themselves in terms of water costs relatively quickly if
you have metered water and enough men/boys in the house and don't present any
particular new issues in terms of dealing with waste.

For toilets, gray water systems (using waste bath/shower water to fill the
toilet) equally achieves savings (at a cost of space) without people needing
to do anything different.

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Flozzin
Why install a urinal when there is a perfectly good sink just sitting there?

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tuesdayrain
That reads like a joke but I'm genuinely curious what the answer is.

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Flozzin
I was half joking.

I read an article from dollar shave club a while ago on the subject.
Apparently some men do it. Just a warning, their articles are closer to click
bait than to journalism.

[https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/content/story/toward-
grand-u...](https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/content/story/toward-grand-
unifying-theory-men-pee-sink)

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notjtrig
Urine has a NPK of 11-2-4, that’s something you $10 a bottle for at a garden
store, it definitely has a noticeable impact on plant life, especially
nitrogen hungry corn.

My farm was built with an outhouse, today it has a toilet with a septic system
where the waste is stored and liquids dispersed underground. It’s wasteful and
destructive to the water table, but convenient and recognized as safe, despite
being biggest water quality threat in rural areas.

Composting toilets are definitely needed if we’re going to keep up this
standard of living we’ve grown accustom to.

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wool_gather
Can you use human urine directly as fertilizer or are there other chemicals in
there that are not so good for the plants?

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throw0101a
A practical advice video on the topic by the (formerly) RVing couple Gone with
the Wynns:

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYR6GPmDzVM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYR6GPmDzVM)

They actually switched to a sailboat a few years ago for their travels and are
now partly across Pacific (per recent episodes). Still use a composting toilet
on the boat.

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duelingjello
Quakers and Mennonites have been doing it similar to this way for hundreds of
years.

