A word of warning – if you install a basic compost loo its good if its not upstairs and imperative that you have a lid which can be properly secured.  I only mention this as I had a near miss with our bucket of poo this morning.

Coming downstairs with a large bucket of human faeces, urine and pine needles (to cover the poo and give a piney fresh scent!) is one thing I give my complete attention to.  I am by nature a very clumsy person – forever tripping and slipping so I always approach the task of emptying the poo bucket with a hint of trepidation.  This morning – walking down wooden stairs in socks (I know, I know) I slipped and nearly lost control of the bucket.  It was one of those moments where the world slows to a standstill and your future (in my case a brown wet future) flashes before your eyes.

Thank goodness we upgraded the compost toilet bucket to a snazzy one with a clip on lid after the last time I nearly lost control of it!  Now all we need to do is relocate the compost ‘facilities’ downstairs and I’d be forever safe!

i have to say that being in charge of a big bucket of poo is not my favorite task on the finca but I am very glad we use a compost toilet.  It has saved us a fortune in water (which is very scarce here for most of the year) and makes us feel good that we have fantastic compost to carry on improving our land.

We do have a traditional loo which is plumbed to a biodigester – multi-chambered septic tank, but that’s really just our ‘second’ toilet for use by squeamish guests – you know who you are – and when the compost one is ‘occupied’.  We’ve used the composting toilet for four years.

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It’s so simple – a bucket inside a wooden box with a toilet seat over the bucket.  The theory (not complicated) is that each time the bucket is used a handful of fine compost-able material is used to lightly cover it up.  We use sawdust, dry grass clippings or pine needles (my favorite for their fresh smell and ease of collection – our land is surrounded by pine and holm oak woods so there is never a shortage).  Every four days or so the bucket is emptied into the middle (yes by really digging a hole in it) of a compost heap.  A year later the waste is a big pile of friable compost for use on the garden.  All pathogens should be long gone by such a time, particularly as the heap will get very hot with all that humanure.

I admit it all seemed a bit mucky at the beginning but now it doesn’t seem any more ‘yucky’ than cleaning a conventional plumbed in loo – no limescale to deal with being a particular joy.  It’s just one of the pooey chores like cleaning out the hen house or tidying up after puppies.  Yes I’d be happy if D offered to be poo monitor for all time but in reality the task just puts you in tune with your impact on the land in a really basic way.   I think its been good to have to really think about where our human waste goes – its the most basic of recyling chores and nothing a pair of rubber gloves and a good wash in hot soapy water can’t sort out.

We probably (if I’m honest definitely) wouldn’t have gone down the compost loo route if we’d been on the main sewer and water supply.  Now though, wherever we lived we’d stick with it.  It just seems more sense to use something so valuable and free rather than pay with money and resources to flush it somewhere else to become a problem for someone else to get rid of.

I think its quite good to be responsible for ones own poo anyway!  And it makes you very very careful!

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