Our need for a composting toilet system
Brown gold, as it's sometimes called... is too precious a resource for us to be flushing down the toilet, even if we could. And as we are working on improving soil fertility and are most likely going to be planting many trees over the coming months and years, we will need a lot of compost. And where better to get it than from our own bodies.
The whole idea of using fresh, clean water to flush away our excrement is ridiculous when you give it a moments thought, but it is part of our cultural obsession, to flush things away and forget about them. There are around 45 million toilets in UK homes, using an estimated two billion litres of fresh water every day.* These toilets use between 6 and 13 litres per flush. Can you imagine it, 13 litres of clean water just to flush the toilet! And where does this water go? And how is it then treated to make it safe to enter back into the water cycle? You can read more about the treatment of the UK's waste water in the links on the appendix page of this project, here.
When considering the permaculture ethic of Earth care, using a standard flush toilet just doesn't add up. Wasting precious clean water doesn't count as Earth care. But using this sustainable, renewable resource to improve soil fertility and put back into the land what we have taken from it as food to nourish our bodies, this is Earth care at it's best. And, if we also consider the other ethics of People care and Fair shares; as we throw our clean drinking water down the toilets (literally) there are others around the world that are without enough clean water to be able to survive. Clearly, this is not a good way to use such a precious resource. As we become more and more certain of an uncertain future, with worldwide resources of drinking water becoming threatened, we need to make sure that we are using only our fair share of this resource, to ensure that our reserves will still be there for others in years to come.
The whole idea of using fresh, clean water to flush away our excrement is ridiculous when you give it a moments thought, but it is part of our cultural obsession, to flush things away and forget about them. There are around 45 million toilets in UK homes, using an estimated two billion litres of fresh water every day.* These toilets use between 6 and 13 litres per flush. Can you imagine it, 13 litres of clean water just to flush the toilet! And where does this water go? And how is it then treated to make it safe to enter back into the water cycle? You can read more about the treatment of the UK's waste water in the links on the appendix page of this project, here.
When considering the permaculture ethic of Earth care, using a standard flush toilet just doesn't add up. Wasting precious clean water doesn't count as Earth care. But using this sustainable, renewable resource to improve soil fertility and put back into the land what we have taken from it as food to nourish our bodies, this is Earth care at it's best. And, if we also consider the other ethics of People care and Fair shares; as we throw our clean drinking water down the toilets (literally) there are others around the world that are without enough clean water to be able to survive. Clearly, this is not a good way to use such a precious resource. As we become more and more certain of an uncertain future, with worldwide resources of drinking water becoming threatened, we need to make sure that we are using only our fair share of this resource, to ensure that our reserves will still be there for others in years to come.
Closed loop systems good, broken loops bad..
To create a sustainable waste management system, or any system for that matter, it can be useful to look at how the elements within that system are cycled. You can see the connections in these diagrams below. Please click on the images to expand.
To produce no waste, one of the principles of permaculture, is very relevant in this situation. By creating a composting toilet system we will be able to use the fertile, nitrogen rich waste being produced on the land, and safely turn it into nourishing compost for our plants, that will in turn feed us. What a magic and incredibly sensible cycle! And alongside this we will be increasing our skills and awareness of proper composting methods, a hugely beneficial outcome. I feel that composting can be one of those misunderstood worlds where many people (myself included) haven't always understood how to properly do. So this will be a nice opportunity to really deepen my understanding in this area.
We will also be working within several other permaulture principles, which you can read more of in the evaluation towards the end of this project.
We will also be working within several other permaulture principles, which you can read more of in the evaluation towards the end of this project.
You can move onto the next page and the beginning of the project here