Composting toilets

[Tim Castle]

Timothy Tikker wrote:
> I've read much material about composting toilets which cost $1,000 and
> more.  But I gather from some reading elsewhere that some have devised ways
> of making such themselves.
> 
> Any ideas on where I can find this info?

        How cheap, homemade and code questionable can you go?  Our
Eco-Throne
is a plywood box with a vent and toilet seat lid, two pails and a
plastic divider to help the solids and liquids go their proper
directions.  For our family of four, liquids are carried out every 2 - 4
days, solids (each 'deposit' covered with soil to eliminate odors) every
couple weeks or so.  Composted thoroughly (2 years), makes excellent
tomatoe fertilizer!  
        A bit labour intensive, but it does work.  After a bad
experience with
an old smelly, commercial fibreglass composting toilet, this system has
minimal odor, and it's dirt cheap.  But the whole point is that a
valuable fertilizer is not 'wasted' as a water pollution problem.
        We got this idea from a brother of a friend living in a south of
the
border (American) city -- so maybe some people have to maintain a
flushable toilet, but toilets DO make interesting flower pots!  To
paraphrase John's point, what is code and what is cool, may not be
consistent.
        Life, as we know it, exists in a thin fragile sphere of air and
water
surrounding 'our' little rock in the universe, balanced precariously
between the sun's nuclear furnace, and the cold vastness of space.  Does
not water (and air) deserve our love and respect?
        -- redbard