According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), composting toilets are great for the environmental because they reduce water usage and allow for the full recycling of waste materials. Instead of waste going to a wastewater treatment plant, it can be put back into to the environment as a natural food source for many plants.
What Are the Pros and Cons of a Composting Toilet?
The biggest advantage of composting toilets is reduced water usage (thus a lower water bill) and less wastewater treatment or introduction of chemicals into the environment.
Other benefits include low power usage, self-containment eliminates the necessity to transport wastes, ability to set up in remote construction sites, and diversion of potentially waste borne pathogens from soil and groundwater. In addition, the resulting compost from the toilets can be used to feed many plants and compostable kitchen waste can be thrown away in the toilet thus reducing landfill waste.
The down side to having a composting toilet many focuses around the consequences of improper care a maintenance. Composting toilets require the owner to take responsibility for the system more so than a conventional wastewater toilet.
If a composting toilet is not maintained regularly or properly, removing the compost and cleaning out the system can be very unpleasant. In addition, waste odors can permeate through the household and improperly treated waste may pose a health risk.
What Are the Water Benefits
The largest water benefit to the owner of a composting toilet is primarily a lower water and sewage bill.
In addition to this, the EPA acknowledges that the environment benefits greatly from composting toilets in that there is no water wasted in the transportation of human waste to a treatment facility and excess nutrients from the waste are not added to the resulting water body, which can cause detrimental biological effects.
What Are the Gardening Benefits?
The compost product of a composting toilet can be used as garden fertilizer for trees and other non-food producing plants. Since the waste isn’t treated, it retains most of the nutrients that benefit the plants and make the soil healthy. Composting toilet products should not be used on edible plants as it may pose a health risk and unwanted pathogen consumption for those who eat from those plants.
What Are the Environmental Risks?
If composting toilets are not properly maintained, they could introduce health hazards to the inhabitants of the household and those who come into contact with the compost waste. If not allowed to decompose and the toilet system isn’t kept up, bacteria such as fecal coliforms and salmonella, and enteroviruses can leach from the system and result in illness.
Since composting toilets use graywater, this can also be less safe to handle and if improperly maintained can pose serious health hazards.
How Do You Use a Composting Toilet So It’s Safe for the Environment?
According to the Greywater Action Organization, as long as the following factors are taken into account, composting toilets are a safe way to get rid of waste. First, make sure the waste is isolated from people so that pathogens are allowed to die off without infecting anyone. Second, the toilet needs ventilation that leads away from the inside of the house in order to have oxygen flow and eliminate odors.
Next, the temperature of the environment and the necessary amount of time required for pathogens to die off naturally need to be taken into account before attempting to extract the end product. Finally, too much moisture in the toilet’s waste build up does not allow for proper decomposition so the addition of a dry agent such as sawdust, grass clippings, or chopped straw may be necessary.
How Do You Use a Composting Toilet So It Improves the Environment?
To use a composting toilet to its full potential for environmental benefits, it needs to be thought of as more than just a waste facility. Using it to dispose of human waste first and foremost helps the environment by saving unnecessary water usage.
By taking the end product compost and using it as fertilizer for the garden, the environment benefits greatly because most of the nutrients from the waste are allowed to return to the soil instead of being wasted. In addition, kitchen waste that comes from produce and eggs can be placed in the composting toilet thus recycling those nutrients and reducing landfill trash.
Are Composting Toilets Sanitary?
Composting toilets are sanitary as long as the required maintenance is applied. They need proper aeration and dehydration in order to maintain a healthy waste disposal system. If taken care of properly, the end product compost when removed should pose no health hazard in the way of pathogens and viruses.
How Do You Clean a Composting Toilet in an Environmentally Friendly Way?
Composting toilets are not difficult to clean and can be scrubbed with a regular toilet brush and environmentally friendly dish soap. This allows for no introduction of unwanted chemicals. The addition of natural compost additives such as leaves or coconut husk fibers also help create cleaner compost when removing the end product.
Do Composting Toilets Use More Electricity Than a Wastewater Treatment Plant for the Same Number of Users?
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a typical wastewater treatment plant uses 30 terawatts of energy in a given year. A single composting toilet can use up to 150 watts per use. It would take 200 billion flushes of a composting toilet to equal the energy used by a single wastewater treatment plant.
If you factor in that the average person flushes the toilet approximately 2,500 times a year according to the World Toilet Organization, then it would take 80 million people using composting toilets to equal the energy used by a wastewater treatment plant which services on average 15,000 people.
Although composting toilets use electricity, their power usage is much lower than a traditional wastewater treatment facility, thus another win for the environment.