Composting toilet misconceptions

[66788]

I recently viewed a vandweller's van and she was very proud of her composting toilet.   "No bad smells at all." she stated.   I'm sorry, but you must have Cov19, 'cuz I certainly smell it.

I have toured other dwellers vans who claimed the same thing.  Their vans smelled also.

I don't know why they are called composting toilets as they don't compost while in the van...

Maybe they could have used cat litter boxes and been money ahead.

Anyone out there with a working solution?

 

[nature lover]

Oh crap! I build a box with a hole in the top,under the lid, And a 5 quart bucket inside. Thank you Walmart for your plastic bags. I use a large urinal 1 gallon plastic jug with a nice handle, for the #1 never mixing the two together and my van doesn’t stink. KISS! Keep it simple stupid. Composting toilets are for the off grid home where you have the time to compost and the place to put it once it’s composted.

 

[bullfrog]

We have a C-Head separating toilet which has a vent fan that can be used but we never have. We simply use red aromatic cedar chips from the pet store and use the mixer crank like 15 cranks after every use and dump or bury them twice a week as well as dump the gallon urine jug every other day, as long as most of the cedar chips stay dry no smells are noticeable with some natural ventilation and some air freshener.

 

[GoingMobile]

I've been doing some research, (although antecdotal and second hand as opposed to my own experiments) and I've decided to build and try out a composting toilet in my current build. 

My understanding is that full time ventilation, moving air over the poop mixed with organic matter to dry it out and venting that air to outside of the van is key to not smelling it inside the van. I believe the C-Head and Nature's Head both have built in ventilation fans connected to vent outside that run 24/7. Instead of the odious air wafting up from the toilet it is directed to outside. Air is being drawn in through any openings in the toilet inside the van. With dog poop out on the lawn once the outside surface dries the smell is not so noticeable as when it was fresh. I think the same principle is at work with keeping the air moving around it in the composting toilet. The poop is being dried out or petrified.

There is the process of composting going on to some degree, but the time between its deposit in the composting toilet and its removal is too short to fully compost it to be usable on plants. It would need further composting to reach that stage. So for most it ends up being thrown out in a bag into the trash and into the local trash disposal system.

Of course separating the urine from the poop is another key to reducing smell. These toilets are referred to as separator toilets as they do this and each goes to its own area after leaving the body. Emptying the urine frequently is required.

I'm planning on building my own composting toilet and am focused on good ventilation and aeration with organic matter, both of which will serve to dry it out, reduce and also carry the smell to outside the van. 

If I am going to be packing out what I produce in a two week boon docking period it seems like the best option. I don't want to be returning to town and services with a van full of many individual plastic bags of poop. I don't like the use of so much plastic, or holding on to so many bags of poop until I get to somewhere to dispose of properly. So in effect the composting toilet, if done properly,  serves as a better storage solution for me.

 

[bullfrog]

^^^ The C-Head has a chopper stirrer in the bucket to mix the cedar shavings with the waste, keeping enough dry shavings to dry out waste is key to preventing smells.