Humanure Toilet Composting: A Personal Account
Over the years I have had personal experience with several non-conventional toilet composting systems. In rural Mexico I lived in a small indigenous village where we “did our business” in the backyard milpa (cornfield) – a waste disposal method that produces what is sometimes referred to as “night soil,” and is quite common in developing countries. On the other side of the spectrum, I have had personal experience with some high-tech and very comfortable manufactured composting toilets in some upscale environmental resorts and ecovillages. But by far my longest personal experience with toilet composting methods came from living for two years in a rural ecovillage in Northern Missouri.
This ecovillage relied heavily on Joseph Jenkin’s humanure toilet composting system, sometimes referred to the “Five Gallon Bucket” composting toilet because, as the name implies, it involves using five gallon buckets to collect human waste (along with dry brown organic matter – we used sawdust from a local mill – and toilet paper). This was a relatively new ecovillage when I joined it, and many members were strapped for cash as they were building their homes (out of strawbales, cob and other local, environmentally sustainable materials).
Jenkin’s composting toilets were cheap and easy to make (read more about how to build a composting toilet based on Jenkin’s design here). So during the “pioneer phase” of this community’s development, humanure composting toilets were placed in various buildings and outhouses in the community and a rotational system was put in place whereby each member had a shift for emptying and cleaning the five gallon buckets into the humanure compost bins. It is probably no surprise that this rotation was not very popular in the village. Many members came up with often quite elaborate excuses to get out of the humanure rotation when their turn came up, and it was a source of considerable tension in the village.
Over the two years I spent living in this ecovillage, I had the personal “opportunity” to process the humanure on about twenty different occasions. Missouri probably is not the best of climate situations in which to have such a toilet composting system (although the lack of building codes in the region was also what made it feasible in the ecovillage). During the winter months the composting buckets (which were stored outdoors to limit odors indoors) would freeze and we would have to bring them inside to thaw out before it was possible to carry the dozen or more (often quite heavy) buckets to the composting bins located about a quarter mile away from where they were stored (there was a cart that could be used for this chore, but it was often broken, or difficult to use during the winter months when there was quite a bit of snow on the ground). And during the hot summer months, the compost buckets became quite foul smelling and also very liquid in nature, so it was difficult to empty them into the bins without having quite a bit of fecal matter splashing onto your clothes and body.
Besides the physical strength needed to haul the buckets, the physical discomfort experienced when emptying and cleaning them, and the social tensions surrounding the humanure rotation system, there were other considerable health issues as well. The five gallon buckets were stored in a single location as they were filled which was also near the main water cistern for the community. The cistern, unsurprisingly, eventually became contaminated with E. Coli bacteria. At community dinner time, I also often wondered if some of the flies that ended up in our kitchen might have visited the humanure composting heap earlier in the day as well.
All in all, you could say my experience with this system was not positive. However, this does not mean I discount this toilet composting system entirely. I believe many of the problems with the system at the ecovillage was due to poor decisions made by community members about where to store the buckets, how to deal with disposing of the waste, and so forth. I also believe the community had long outgrown the usefulness of such a system, and should have invested the time and resources into developing an easier to use system that could deal with the growing population of the village in a sanitary method (I believe the community would have benefited greatly by investing in a manufactured composting toilet system using both self-contained and remote composting toilets in their facilities).
I do still believe Jenkin’s humanure composting toilet system has an important role to play in the toilet composting debate. For single individuals (or very small family units) with little financial resources and a strong commitment to composting their waste, I believe the system may work quite well for them. However, for larger family units and for individuals with disabilities, busy schedules, or a general desire to minimize their contact with unprocessed humanure waste, a manufactured composting toilet model should definitely be considered instead.
If you are interested in reading more articles about toilet composting systems, including micro-flush and vacuum composting toilets, and composting toilet reviews, please visit the Toilet Composting Homepage.
Related posts:
For more information about the humanure toilet, visit humanurehandbook.com, or just read the humanure handbook, which is free on the web. You will find that the book clearly states do not let humanure receptacles freeze, keep the compost pile covered to eliminate flies (which it will do entirely), etc. The receptacles do not leak and cannot contaminate water supplies. They also produce no odor whatsoever when properly used. To be done right, the community would have had one person or a dedicated crew doing the humanure composting, or else each family doing their own. The compost bin does not need to be a quarter mile away for obvious reasons. It should be near enough for easy emptying of compost material, including food scraps. Also, I have heard of people caliming to splash themselves with “human waste” when emptying humanure receptacles. People who can’t empty a toilet container without splashing themselves should not be doing so. Having emptied them myself for 30 years and never had that problem, I can only wonder what the cause of your problem could be. Or is this web site intended to promote commercial compost units? In which case, providing incomplete, erroneous or misleading information about the essentially free humanure toilet would be to your advantage, but unfair to the humanure concept. Humanure toilets have been used with good success at large music festivals – no flies, no odor, no contamination, no waste, no environmental pollution. You can see video clips of these systems at humanurehandbook.com.
Thanks for your recent comment. Some quick responses to what you wrote that you might want to consider:
For more information about the humanure toilet, visit humanurehandbook.com, or just read the humanure handbook, which is free on the web.
- I have links to both your published and online handbook on the “resource page” and encourage visitors to read your book on other pages of the site as well.
You will find that the book clearly states do not let humanure receptacles freeze, keep the compost pile covered to eliminate flies (which it will do entirely), etc. The receptacles do not leak and cannot contaminate water supplies. They also produce no odor whatsoever when properly used.
- True, but I am simply reporting how the community actually used the receptacles and the humanure composting system. The containers leaked because they had developed cracks (probably because of improperly storing them outside during the winter) which is why they ended up contaminating the cistern. The containers did smell, although this was probably due to improper cleaning and their age (some buckets were several years old at this point). Members did know they should cover the compost bins well, but the actual adherence to this policy (and interpretation of it) varied quite a bit by individual. There was also an additional problem with animals getting into the compost bins.
To be done right, the community would have had one person or a dedicated crew doing the humanure composting, or else each family doing their own. The compost bin does not need to be a quarter mile away for obvious reasons. It should be near enough for easy emptying of compost material, including food scraps.
- Absolutely agreed. As I mention in the article, the community had many difficulties in how they implemented the system which I don’t blame on the system itself, but on community organization. If you read the post carefully, you would see that at the end I actually recommend that small family units may find this a very useful system. I do not think that it is useful for larger units, however, without considerable social approval and organization (which our community did not have on this matter).
Also, I have heard of people caliming to splash themselves with “human waste” when emptying humanure receptacles. People who can’t empty a toilet container without splashing themselves should not be doing so. Having emptied them myself for 30 years and never had that problem, I can only wonder what the cause of your problem could be.
- Nearly every individual in the community complained of this problem during the summer months, and it is not only in this village that people have experienced this difficulty. Instead of coming across as insulting and condescending, perhaps you could try to come up with a more productive take on resolving this problem that many seem to have?
Or is this web site intended to promote commercial compost units?
- Quite the opposite. I actively support the use of humanure toilets in many sections of the site, but I do want to give a balanced and honest view of both my experience with the system and prepare people for using the system – or suggest they consider a manufactured model if that is in their best interest.
In which case, providing incomplete, erroneous or misleading information about the essentially free humanure toilet would be to your advantage, but unfair to the humanure concept. Humanure toilets have been used with good success at large music festivals – no flies, no odor, no contamination, no waste, no environmental pollution. You can see video clips of these systems at humanurehandbook.com.
- Thanks for the plug again for your book and website, but I don’t think there is anything misleading about providing an accurate report on an individual’s personal experience with the system.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Margaret
All of this, and my own research, has increased my intentions to utilize this process. As discussed, the success of the system will rely on initial design and personal adherence to maintenance techniques. After my reading, I think that I will design a bucket-holder that has a wheeled system under it, for ease of transporting the material to be disposed of. That should make it much easier for someone who is not so strong to remove the waste bucket. It would also seem like a good idea to have 2 or more of these, so that rotation of the buckets would be more do-able. I have limited resources, and space, and this will make it much easier for me to accommodate the small cabins I want to put on my property for folks who frequently need to be “fostered” at my house, while they get back on their feet. I have had to have my septic pumped out almost yearly for the past several years, and it has been quite costly. Thanks for all your great input!!
Hi Candace,
The wheeled bucket idea sounds like a great innovation – thanks for sharing, and let us know how it goes!