I installed a composting toilet in our master bathroom about a year ago. We have a urine diverting toilet seat. I use a bucket and sawdust for the solid wastes, and have been collecting the urine in a separate container, which I carry out to empty and fertilize with. This works okay, but the urine collection has been messy, and I want to streamline the system, and avoid disasters like an overflowing pee bucket (yuck!). I’m considering running the urine hose out through the exterior wall of the house, and into a holding tank with a spigot for easy access for fertilizing, and an overflow pipe from the holding tank which would drain into some sort of infiltration basin (either a gravel or rock pit, or a mulch basin). I’m curious if you’ve seen systems like this, or have any suggestions for getting the urine out of the house, providing somewhere for it to infiltrate directly into the soil, and also allowing access to it to use as a fertilizer resource when needed/wanted? I’m nervous about drilling a hole through the exterior wall of the house (eek!), and also curious if there are any negative consequences of having a lot of urine infiltrating into one spot, and/or having urine sit in a holding tank?
Thanks in advance for any advice you have, and for the great work you’re doing!
- Guest asked 7 years ago
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Hi Elizabeth,
I would not go that direction as you are likely to set it and forget it. I’ve had your same issue in the past and have found that adding a calendar reminder on my phone works wonders! I empty my urine diverter every two weeks. It only took one time of overflowing to do this 🙂
- Sergio Scabuzzo answered 7 years ago
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Hi Elizabeth,
Different things work for different people! For myself, I wouldn’t want to manage a urine container inside the house again (I did it for many years). I would definitely want a direct urine drain to outside. I like your idea of a container with an overflow. What you describe are options people choose with a urine diverting toilet. If you overflow the urine into a soak-away pit you’ll need to be sure you’re not near any surface waters or high ground water, or drinking water well etc, b/c the urine is very high in nitrogen which could pollute. You could create a constructed wetland type planter, or “evaporation bed”, which is lined so urine can’t soak into the ground, and planted with plants that are tolerant of the salty liquid. Alternatively you could create a carbon sink, like a lot of wood chips, to absorb the nitrogen. I describe these types of options in more detail with diagrams in my book, The Water-Wise Home.
Good luck with your system!
- Laura answered 7 years ago
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Yeah I agree instead of running into a container it is better,to dispense the urine directly outside in the garden but this will take some time to setup in your home and have also called the expert for installation spending dollars on it.Your Idea seems to be interesting please let me know if you do it and I brought Separett Villa after reading this source https://topreviewedten.com/best-composting-toilet/ I hope you might find any new idea from the this source https://topreviewedten.com/all-about-composting-toilets/
- ErnaC answered 6 years ago
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Hi Elizabeth,
Just passing by, still decided to share my two coins as I am building a cabin that will have a non pit out house, a composting one (I somehow copied this design). From the start it is basically as you stated: using sawdust to cover each time. And then I discovered – the secret of zero odor is not the sawdust. It is the seat. Looks regular but it’s design keeps the solids separate from the liquids.
So in my new toilet the liquid is channeled by a hose to a small bucket mostly air tight (you can use a food scrap compost bin charcoal filter $3 as a vent). The solids fall into a Home depot bin that when full is changed out and flipped upside down. It stays there for 2 years and then it can be tilled into the ground as composted wood dust and waste. Even the urine can be mixed 10:1 in a rain barrel and used as nitrogen after a year.
Hope this helps.
- Patricia answered 5 years ago
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Hey Elizabeth, do you know exactly what brand of toilet you had?
I had bought one (I think here) and I’ve literally had nothing but problems with it.
I’m looking to do something similar to what you’re doing, so would appreciate the exact model! Thanks!
- BrysonLiam answered 5 years ago
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Hi Elizabeth,
Once I used a composite toilet in my bathroom. The model was Villa 9215 AC/DC by Separett. It comes with a urine-diverting mechanism. The mechanism helps to channel the liquid waste through the pipe directly to the pee holder. The pee holder is isolated from the internal composting toilet and emptied in a water tank or draining pipe. It works best for my tiny house. However, now I moved to my new home which is much larger than the previous one. Now, I have installed a dual flush toilet in my new house. It flushes my toilet cleanly but not flushing out too much water that is highly efficient in terms of water use. If you don’t live in an off-grid area, I would like to recommend you to install a dual flush toilet in your home. Though it is not that environment-friendly like a composite toilet, but dual flush toilet would be great for less water consumption.
- David Stern answered 4 years ago
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