Composting Toilet in the Garden : 11 Steps (with Pictures)

We never imagined that one day we would promote the composting of our own organic waste, but when we realized the enormous damage that traditional sewage cause to the environment, it really became a necessity.

Here's how I made a composting toilet using any available materials at hand - old canvases, old vineyard stakes, plastic bucket and umbrella.

Step 1: Laying the Foundation

I got some old vineyard stakes, erected them into the ground and tight them together. This are to be the walls of the composting toilet. You could use wood or anything suitable.

Step 2: Making the Walls and the Roof

I joined old canvas sacks together for the walls. In front I mounted a faucet, soap dish and we got all the comforts of a modern toilet :) For the roof I used old sun umbrella. It is very romantic, especially when it rains - you squat and do your job while watching the green orchards, rain softly murmuring...

Step 3: A Piece of Art

Our squat composting toilet is not only healthy and environmentally friendly but also a masterpiece of art ;-)

Step 4: View From Inside

View at the garden from inside the toilet. You don't get this even in five stars hottels :-)

Step 5: Making the Squat Platform

This is the platform that I came up with. There is a bucket into the ground underneath. One squats over the hole facing the orange receptacle. The receptacle serves as a barrier, like the Japanese toilets (http://connectere.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/squat_toilet02.jpg). Allows men to urinate while squatting and funnels the urine into the bucket.

It has long known that squatting posture is the olny natural way to empty the bowels and protect us from many diseases that now plague the modern man. Do not believe me? read http://www.naturesplatform.com/health_benefits.html

Step 6: How Do You Flush Water in Waterless Toilet?

When using composting toilets instead of flushing the water, you take a handful of sawdust and throw them in the toilet. You may not believe, but there is absolutely no bad odor coming from the toilet, neither from the composting pile.
Outhouses (loo) are common in many villages in Bulgaria. They consist of a big hole into the ground with a squat platform above. However the smell and gases emitted from the liquid human excremments underneath the platform is unbearable, especially in hot weather. From a 100 meters distance one could smell the nearby outhouse :-)

However, to my amazement, there is ABSOLUTELY NO SMELL coming from the composting toilet. The difference between traditional outhouse and composting toilet is that the in the traditional way the waste is collected raw, liquid and unmixed with other organic material, in a close environment without air. So it decomposes very slowly, emitting malodorous gases and odor. On the contrary, in the composting toilet decomposition starts right away, so fast that it can't even smell.

Step 7: Taking the Bucket Out

When the bucket is full of chips and organic material, I rasie the platform, take the bucket and pour it into the compost.

Step 8: Empty the Content

Here's the plastic bucket with the organic content, ready to be emptied at the compost

Step 9: The Copost

Compost, which is discharged from the toilet bucket and organic waste from the kitchen and garden. I know what you're thinking, but I can assure you that there is absolutely no odor from the compost even when passing by it.