Composting Toilets: A Septic System Alternative

For thousands of Americans who want to live in rural or remote areas, building a home presents special challenges.  One such challenge is what to do with wastewater when standard utility connections are not present.  Those of us living in urban and suburban areas tend to take for granted the city infrastructure that supports our homes.  But for those building a home without the presence of a city sewer hookup, alternatives must be sought out.

Traditionally, the standard method of dealing with wastewater in areas without sewer connections was to install a septic tank.  A new septic system, however, can be prohibitively expensive, and depending on the specific location where you want to build your home, a septic system may be absolutely impossible to install.

One alternative to putting in a septic tank is to install composting toilets instead.  A composting toilet is a special type of toilet designed to process and break down waste, converting it to harmless and non-offensive compost, a substance that looks and smells like ordinary garden soil.

You might be wondering how such a process works and if the toilet would smell bad.  Composting toilets operate on the simple principle of aerobic decomposition.  Waste is held in a special drum inside the toilet, so the user need not come into direct contact with it.  Human waste is actually 90% water, so the primary role of a composting toilet is evaporation.  This is usually aided by the presence of a heating element and/or fan.  The remaining waste solids are then aerated inside the drum every few days, insuring the right balance of aerobic bacteria to break the waste down.  Odor free operation is maintained by a venting system that prevents any possible odor from entering the bathroom.

After a period of several months, some of the broken down waste can be removed from the toilet's drum for final sanitization.  In many composting toilets, this process is automated so that material simply moves from the drum to a different chamber within the toilet, without ever having to be handled or even seen by the user.

Composting toilets are not cheap; prices range from $1,500 to $3,500 depending on the size and type of system purchased.  However, when you compare this to the cost of putting in a new septic system, which can run upwards of $10,000, the difference is stunning.  The other benefit to a composting toilet is that it will realize residual savings long after its initial purchase.  Obviously, money is saved when you don't have to pay a monthly city sewer connection fee.  But additionally, because these units use little or no water, the water savings alone can add up to several hundred dollars a year.  All this means that a composting toilet system with average useful lifespan of about 20 years will more than pay for itself in its lifetime.

Many Americans dream of one day building a home somewhere in the country, on a pond or lake, or up in the mountains-someplace that is far removed from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.  If you are among those fortunate enough to realize this dream, and you are struggling with how to build a home in an area lacking common utilities such as sewer connections, a composting toilet system might be a good option for you.  Not only will you save an enormous amount of money with this alternative to the traditional septic system, but you'll also enjoy the peace of mind of knowing that you've done something good for our environment.