My recent adventure involving a clogged low-flow toilet makes me miss the days of the bucket.
We used the Humanure system for over 5 years, and it worked great for us. Sure, there were bitter cold January days when I heard “Papa, the toilet’s full. Will you empty it?”, when I wished we could just flush, but overall, I’m quite fond of the bucket.
Here’s why:
The Allure of Humanure: Ten Reasons to Love a Sawdust Toilet
- A sawdust toilet never gets clogged.
- When it needs cleaning, you just take it outside and spray it out.
- It uses no water, except for cleaning.
- Composting returns nutrients to the soil.
- There’s no splash.
- It’s great for camping. Leave no trace.
- You’ll never have a plumbing leak.
- It doesn’t smell like an outhouse. It smells like the woods.
- They make for great conversation. “Derek, what do you collect?” “Well, funny you should ask…”
- They never get clogged. Ever.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
My grandmother had one of these when I was a little kid. Hated it. It used to smell and it was a bit away from the house so I didn’t like going there in the dark. There certainly wasn’t any reading of a good book in that toilet. In and out real quick.
leigh´s last blog ..Oztent 30 Second Tent – I Want Of These
That sounds like an outhouse – the humanure system isn’t any smellier than a regular bathroom.
What about toilet paper? Where do you put the toilet paper? And what happens when you need to urinate?
No thanks, regular toilet for me.
Toilet paper goes right in the bucket to be composted as well. Urine can go in the bucket, but we also used a ‘pee bucket’ so the main one wouldn’t fill up right away with liquid.
The humanure toilet is a great choice if you don’t have a regular toilet, or if the water is off due to some kind of infrastructure problem. If all you have is a flush toilet, but the water or electricity is out (to the town pumps), you can’t flush anything. A bucket will work no matter what.
Kind of… except you don’t have to scratch in the dirt afterwards…
They make great camping toilets, and they don’t smell (well, they don’t smell worse than any other toilet).
Okay, seriously–is this like a sawdust “litterbox” for people?
Hmmmm. Never heard of this. I might have to Google it!