Chemicals and Composting for Convenience

If you want the convenience of an indoor toilet, or if soil or water conditions prohibit the installation of a pit privy, chemical and composting toilets are practical alternatives to the outhouse, just as for a privy, you must get the approval of your local health department before you make the installation.

Chemical toilets, designed to operate in all climates, are used by such government agencies as the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, and Parks Canada. For weekend cabin-dwellers, inexpensive portable models good for a maximum of 40 to 50 uses are available from camping- supply stores and mail-order houses. Though they are relatively odor-free and easy to use, they have one major disadvantage: their receptacles require frequent dumping, cleaning and refilling with a disinfectant. For longer periods of use, you may want a unit of larger capacity, such as a recirculating chemical toilet, similar to the ones installed on a modern jet aircraft. Some of these units can be used up to 1,000 times be fore being emptied, and with an additional holding tank their capacity can be extended. Full tanks are emptied by special service trucks or owner-purchased portable pump-out tanks.

In a composting toilet, human wastes are mixed with kitchen and garden wastes in a large container where they decompose into a rich fertilizer. Large, relatively costly commercial models require little maintenance, and have few moving parts that might break down; smaller and less expensive models need careful tending and require electricity for heating coils and fans to speed the composting process. Manufacturers pro vide complete instructions for installing and maintaining their units.

121 (top) A recirculating chemical toilet. A foot-pedal flusher activates a pump that sends chemically treated fluid from a holding tank through the toilet bowl; the wastes are flushed back to the tank. At intervals recommended by the manuf., the tank is emptied, hosed down and re-filled with water and chemicals.

(above) A composting toilet. Body wastes and garbage are deposited through the toilet stool to rest upon the inclined bottom of the com posting tank. The wastes seep along a starter bed of peat moss and rich topsoil, while gases and evaporated liquids escape through a ventilation pipe. After about two years the waste turns into humus and is removed through an access door in the front of the container.