Installing a composting toilet.

[Neutral President]

How well do these composting toilets deal with toilet paper?  Do you have to use a special paper?  Do you bag the used paper separately? :wacko:   When you dispose of the solid waste, where and how do you do that?

 

[Blue Crab]

How well do these composting toilets deal with toilet paper?  Do you have to use a special paper?  Do you bag the used paper separately? :wacko:   When you dispose of the solid waste, where and how do you do that?

Paper fills the bucket too fast.

 

[slug zitski]

Skip the compost nonsense and put a stainless head on the stern pulpit 

blast away , no fuss 

 

[accnick]

Skip the compost nonsense and put a stainless head on the stern pulpit 

blast away , no fuss 

View attachment 496137

Built-in bidet, too.

With all due respect to those with or considering composting toilets, what do you do when you are off serious cruising, including offshore?

Where do you dump the pee, and what do you do with the solids residue? How does this work out with the boat on its ear going to windward?

Reading between the lines in one post, it sounds like they are lining the solids bucket with a plastic bag, and putting the bag in a dumpster. It isn't clear to me that this is more ecologically responsible than a holding tank that is pumped into a municipal sewer system.

Call me an irresponsible heretic.

 

[Jim in Halifax]

If all the cruising sailboats in the world dumped their poo in the ocean (offshore), how would the quantity of poo stack up against the quantity of discharged squid poo, tuna poo, lobster poo? .01%? .001%? The ocean ecosystem is well equipped to treat humus materials...just not in the concentrations a typical city discharges into estuarine waters. We worry too much about naturally ucky stuff and not enough about unnatural stuff, like microplastics.

 

[ProaSailor]

With all due respect to those with or considering composting toilets, what do you do when you are off serious cruising, including offshore?

Where do you dump the pee, and what do you do with the solids residue? How does this work out with the boat on its ear going to windward?

Reading between the lines in one post, it sounds like they are lining the solids bucket with a plastic bag, and putting the bag in a dumpster. It isn't clear to me that this is more ecologically responsible than a holding tank that is pumped into a municipal sewer system.

Where do you dump your holding tank "when you are off serious cruising, including offshore?"  Or for that matter, anywhere on the entire island of Kauai?  None of the harbors had a pump-out station or service when I lived there.

 

[Kris Cringle]

Built-in bidet, too.

With all due respect to those with or considering composting toilets, what do you do when you are off serious cruising, including offshore?

Where do you dump the pee, and what do you do with the solids residue? How does this work out with the boat on its ear going to windward?

Reading between the lines in one post, it sounds like they are lining the solids bucket with a plastic bag, and putting the bag in a dumpster. It isn't clear to me that this is more ecologically responsible than a holding tank that is pumped into a municipal sewer system.

Call me an irresponsible heretic.

My main reason is to eliminate pumping overboard. I won't get into the argument over the problems of this, it's my preference not to. If you're always near a pump out station, that's great, but we are not. 

As to disposal, I'm not sure yet. I have a composting leaf bin at home that could be it. Urine, probably pour it in the woods.

I'm not going to get into the environmental pros and cons, I'm thinking of the ocean as a place to swim these days on the coast of Maine,.... thanks to climate change.  

 

[accnick]

Where do you dump your holding tank "when you are off serious cruising, including offshore?"  Or for that matter, anywhere on the entire island of Kauai?  None of the harbors had a pump-out station or service when I lived there.

In the freaking ocean, with all the whale poop. I have a macerator pump for overboard discharge where required or permitted. Seriously, I am not suggesting you dump sewage into a crowded anchorage somewhere.

We have a large enough holding tank for about two weeks of normal usage for two people in full-time liveaboard. We have a Vacuflush toilet that uses about a cup of fresh water per flush.

The harbor where we keep our boat has a pump-out station.

 

[thinwater]

On 'medium' this seems a good source: 

https://eco-loo.co.uk/whats-the-best-cover-material-for-a-compost-toilet/

Two things they rate highly that are easy for me to get are wood shavings: I can buy a compressed bale from my local farm supply. Also, wood pellets. I burn them so have available in 40 pound bags, at my house.

Each would store easily onboard in the locker that will soon be freed of holding tank, overboard pump and hoses. Neither would need any prep like Coir bricks, just some moistening. 

Any experience using these two options? 

I test many for a magazine article. C-Head recommended aspen shavings (any pet store sells compacted aspen bedding), and that out performed everything else. But as someone else may have mentioned, you can also get it free from any millwork shop, and the addition of some sawdust in with the shavings makes it even better for this. Yes, it takes a little more space than coir, but it works better (possibly in part because it is drier) and you don't have to break it up.

 

[ProaSailor]

The harbor where we keep our boat has a pump-out station.

With all due respect, that's not what "serious cruising, including offshore" means to me.  It's not a brilliant insight to suggest that people who choose them haven't considered all the issues.

 

[thinwater]

Built-in bidet, too.

With all due respect to those with or considering composting toilets, what do you do when you are off serious cruising, including offshore?

Where do you dump the pee, and what do you do with the solids residue? How does this work out with the boat on its ear going to windward?

Reading between the lines in one post, it sounds like they are lining the solids bucket with a plastic bag, and putting the bag in a dumpster. It isn't clear to me that this is more ecologically responsible than a holding tank that is pumped into a municipal sewer system.

Call me an irresponsible heretic.

Offshore. I'll assume that was a joke. As others have said, there are no pump-outs mid-ocean either.

Ecologic. If you can compost it, logically it is better, since sewage treatment is only 90-95% efficient. In the trash (assuming a proper dumpster, not a park waste bin), sewage treatment probably gets the nod. But the real reason for many is where pump outs are not available, or very small boats where the alternative is a port-a-head. If it is just battle fatigue with conventional holding tank systems, I suggest a better answer is to research proper design and maintenance; a holding tanks system is very good and very easy if done properly, but many are not. I've had both, they both work, and I would chose a holding tank where it makes sense, and a composting toilet where that makes sense.

Getting Rid of Boat Odors--book

 

[accnick]

With all due respect, that's not what "serious cruising, including offshore" means to me.  It's not a brilliant insight to suggest that people who choose them haven't considered all the issues.

Mate, I did a circumnavigation in a boat I built myself. It had a holding tank, but the simple reality was that once we left US waters, there were few pump-out stations anywhere in the world back then. 

If you have considered all the issues and think a composting toilet is the answer for you, that's fine by me. It just may not be the answer for others.

 

[Alex W]

If you're on a mooring or in a marina, how do you dispose of the "end product?"

For us that takes months of cruising. I’ve either bagged it up and put it into the trash or have dumped it overboard when in deep enough waters. 

 

[smj]

I test many for a magazine article. C-Head recommended aspen shavings (any pet store sells compacted aspen bedding), and that out performed everything else. But as someone else may have mentioned, you can also get it free from any millwork shop, and the addition of some sawdust in with the shavings makes it even better for this. Yes, it takes a little more space than coir, but it works better (possibly in part because it is drier) and you don't have to break it up.

Sandys new preferred medium for the C-Head is the corn cob cat litter that I posted earlier. We’re able to almost double the time between changes with the corn cob litter.

 

[Blue Crab]

Sandys new preferred medium for the C-Head is the corn cob cat litter that I posted earlier. We’re able to almost double the time between changes with the corn cob litter.

A litttle elaboration would help here. 

 

[thinwater]

Sandys new preferred medium for the C-Head is the corn cob cat litter that I posted earlier. We’re able to almost double the time between changes with the corn cob litter.

Interesting. It was Sandy I talked to, about 18 months ago I think.

 

[ProaSailor]

A litttle elaboration would help here. 

Sandy Graves explains it pretty well around the two minute mark in this video:

You're smelling it because moisture is evaporating off the surface.  It's just like, I tell people, when their dog goes to the bathroom in the yard, you smell it until it dries out and then you don't smell it again until you step in it and expose the moisture again so...  Basically what this does is wicks the moisture off the surface immediately.

 

[loungesailor]

We live on the boat year round which includes haul outs. It’s really nice to be able to carry on in the bodily functions dept when on the hard for a month. I’m like cats that way, always happy to be able to poop in the same place. In the evening I dump the pee bucket in the marina’s facilities and done.

Because our set up has the finished compost percolating for a month or more I’m not too worried about dumpstering it at that point. It can’t be that bad if it already has plants and weeds growing in it.

I’ve secretly dumped it in forests and once was able to check on it a month later, just more plants. 
One memorable day in broad daylight I clumsily dropped a whole finished bottom overboard in an anchorage.  The compost floated for a bit and sank. No sewage smell and no harm done I’m thinking. 
I’ll dump the finished product overboard on passages. Way more work than hitting the pumpout button but I’m usually not in any rush. 

Sandys new preferred medium for the C-Head is the corn cob cat litter that I posted earlier. We’re able to almost double the time between changes with the corn cob litter.

I’m curious as well. Especially the double the time thing. How does it do that? One is still adding mass and material to the same sized bucket. Is there just more desiccating going on? If the magic is true then I’m in.

 

[Sail4beer]

My youngest son was in the Peace Corps in Panama, and is a fan of composting toilets. He used saw dust.

If you're on a mooring or in a marina, how do you dispose of the "end product?"

You line the head with a plastic bag and take the contents to land and dispose of it as you would any other “organic” fertilizer. If you are cruising the islands, you can leave the package to compost further and then spread the contents under a palm tree. You dump the liquids overboard when necessary.
 

25 miles from shore and you can dump the compost overboard and dispose of the plastic bag in an environmentally friendly manner, it won’t smell like a bathroom. Proper usage of toilet paper will not take up too much space. I use one of these large mouth water bottles for urine on the Catalina and made a composting head that worked well after a thread here a couple of years ago. It’s really easy and no smelly sanitation hoses or fear of broken waste lines…

 

[smj]

A litttle elaboration would help here. 

Before we used a mixture of coconut coir and aspen bedding. After a week or so the contents would get pretty damp. The corn cob litter does a much better job keeping the contents dry therefore prolonging the change date.