Does anyone use or have experience with either a composting toilet or incinerating toilet (uses electricity to heat the waste and burn it to ash)?  Read about them in Mother Earth News and wondered if they would be a viable option for a full time rig. Thanks.

This is interesting...maybe someone can explain how this is a good thing. I guess every new invention has a purpose I just can't see what the purpose for this would be. Maybe in the Space Shuttle? What do they do with the ash? Speedy

Seen both on documentaries about folks living off the grid...trying to be as green as possible. Seemed to work well. The incinerator toilets have been around for a longtime, the federal agency I work for uses them at remote sites and they work well, no smell or problems. I've seen them advertised in trailer life & popular mechanics in the classified section. The ash can be used as fertilizer or dumped in the trash bins since it's been burned which kills any bacteria. The composting toilet is a different story, it has to be emptied which means you are carry around smelly waste until it can be dumped at a waste facility. I understand it's against the law to dump human compost waste anywhere near a fresh water source or field used for growing food. I'v had no personal experience with these type of toilets, have only seen a couple of documentaries where they were shown and discussed.

I had looked into composting toilets before fulltiming.  There are some specifically designed for boats and RVs (you don't want the drawer that holds the waste to fly open when you drive down the road).  We eventually came to the conclusion that we didn't have enough space in our RV for one.  We also couldn't find any testimonials of fulltime RVers that used them.  I think it might be ok for occasional use, but I'm not so sure how well it would work for fulltimers.  My thought is that the tank would fill up before it could be converted to compost.  If that's the case, there really is no point to it.

Here are a few links to sites that sell composting toilets.  I think the only one that would have worked in our RV is the Nature's Head toilet as it is more compact than the SunMar.  With the Nature's Head toilet the urine is diverted to a separate compartment, which you have to empty presumably into a real toilet (or in the woods when no one is around).

http://www.natureshead.net/

http://www.sun-mar.com/prod_self_mobi.html

Now when we settle down into a sticks and bricks (since we have to go back to work), we would like to live off the grid if possible.  We would consider a composting toilet made by Envirolet.  With these the composter can be outside or in a basement and you can add food and paper products to the composter as well (just don't spread the compost on your vegetable garden - leave it for your flower garden instead).

http://www.envirolet.com/enlowwatrems6.html

Supposedly, if used properly, these toilets don't smell and neither does the final compost.  I can not verify this though.

-Colleen

Question. Why do you feel a need for an alternative to the accepted current technology? I can't envision what the gain would be, since you would need the regular hose setup to eliminate your liquid wastes from the sinks and shower anyway.

The benefits of having a composting toilet in the home include:

1. Medications that pass through our kidneys and into the toilet don't end up back into water supplies (toilet --> sewage treatment plant --> lake  --> Fish --> humans)

2.  It reduces the amount of water we use.  (Keep in mind that RV toilets use very little water anyway).

3.  Vegetables and other compostable materials can be added to the composter.

4.  Restores nutrients back to earth instead of sending unwanted nutrients to our water systems

5.  Ideal for people that have cottages on the lake where there is no public sewage system (sewage doesn't get dumped directly into lake with a composting toilet) - I think it is unbelievable that this still happens in places, but it does.

Those are just a few.  Unfortunately, you still need someway to process the greywater as most places won't let you just dump it.  You may still need city sewer or a septic system if you are in a more rural area.

-Colleen

This "new" method of disposal brings back memories of my days in SEA (Southeast Asia) when the "stuff" was soaked with JP4 fuel and burned....each day there was a rotation of"burn the c---" duty. Ah, those were the days.....roasted hotdogs anyone? I know, my meds will kick in any minute now.....Marty

Both are not new technologies....they have been around for many years. They are both designed for every day use and do not smell if used properly. The benefits are not having to be hooked up to a dumping source or having to dump every 3 days or so when the tank gets full. As mentioned there is also a huge environmental benefit and this type of setup would be perfect for those boondocking since you can go for a long time before having to clean the tank and when you do its a simple matter of disposing of the ash/compost. A side benefit would also be less weight in the rig since the solid waste weighs less than liquid. 

The incinerating toilet uses far too much power for boondocking.

The composter method will NOT be free of the chemicals/medicines that pass through you into it. The compost will actually have all those chemicals in concentration due to the low volume of finished compost in proportion to the chemical volume. Composting (unless you induce specific bacteria bio-engineered for the specific chemicals) will NOT destroy chemicals. Regarding odor - proper composting will not smell - when the proper ratios of air/moisture/stirring are maintained in the process, but you have to monitor those closely or else!

The incinerator CAN destroy those chemical/medicines IF the incineration regimen is specifically set up for the specific chemicals discharged. Improper incineration can convert those chemicals into airborne toxins if not done at the correct chemical specific temps or combustion environments. The bulk of our Nation's toxic waste is currently destroyed (made essentially inert) in special bulk-scale incinerators under highly controlled conditions. In an RV or home application, the per-unit operating and energy efficiencies of such set-ups would undoubtedly be nothing short of atrocious.

Ah, the "good old days" of the JP4 + dung (and everything else) pile... What a cooked concoction of disaster - a biological Bhopal. I think these were also the days for the catch phrase - The solution to polluiton is dilution.... Yeah, right.... NIMBY!

This is a topic I did some research into as my family is currently urban homesteading and plans to return to the RV lifestyle in a few years. In short, compost toilets in an RV are FANTASTIC... as long as you have somewhere to legally and greenly put the material. Which I cannot find a place other than a typical RV dump sites. See, the process takes too long and while I haven't tested it out myself, it would seem that you would need a place to store the material while it completes the process. Having to dump half composted material defeats a large purpose of the humanure concept these toilets are promoting...to use it as compost in order to stop the continued buildup of human waste. If you're doing a short run trip then they're great because you can come home and put the material into your compost bin to finish (for safety reasons if for any other reason) the process. Do they smell? The one our buddy built sure didn't but I think his family also knew how to use it, which does include a lot of sawdust. What worries me about using them in a moving trailer is the vibrations settling the material -- less air means more bacterial build up so humanure site says. I don't think I want to stir it for airation after each road jaunt. Save money? Guess that depends. If you are using free sawdust, solar powered energy, not paying for dumping fees, not having to buy bacteria, then yeah, it would save. Lends to being more self-sufficient. Heck, can even build your own for an RV. But the commercial ones I'm not so sure about. They require air fans, heat pads, bacteria additives. Your call. At the moment we have decided against adding one because of the defeat a full timer would have with material (storage, completion, etc) and possible legal issues that will no doubt arise over the years to come as these things become more popular. Ever try to get a permit to put a compost toilet into your house? ugh My two cents :)

Sounds like a lot of trouble. I'd rather squat behind a tree. LOL!