Composting toilets are waterless (dry) toilets that use anaerobic, bacteria-based, processing system that naturally breaks down effluent waste into usable compost. In this blog you will learn more about how they work and why they are ideal for glamping.

As Composting Toilets are a waterless solution, they are ideal for off-grid situations, where there is no running water or access to primary sewage connections. Along with their eco-friendliness, Composting Toilets are an excellent alternative solution to conventional Flushing Toilets. This makes them ideal for glamping business as well as for outdoor Early Years Pre-schools too. What's more, a Composting Toilet can typically save around 26,000-litres (5,800-Gallons) or more of water for a single glamping pod or shepherd hut etc. used over a spring-summer season. That's a significant saving in water consumption not being flushed down the loo. Also, avoiding waste collection and subsequent removal, resulting in even more money and carbon footprint savings along the way - bonus!

So how do Composting Toilets work?

Well, the essential principles are that wee and poo are separated. Wee, is diverted away to a gravity soakaway or collection tank and poo drops into the Toilet collection vessel. Sawdust, a dried mulch, or a bark bulking material is added to solids after every use. This helps to stimulate the natural anaerobic biological process. This means that everyone has to sit on the Toilet (no standing). This solid mass builds up in the Composting Toilet and is the first stage of the composting process. When full - typically after a season, or longer, or at change over. The composting mass is transferred to a composting bin. Where more first stage solid waste is added as the season progresses.

After a year, the Toilet compost is unrecognisable as effluent. It is then left to decompose naturally with no further solid waste material added. This is the second compost stage. At this point, modest amounts of urine and other organic waste material can be added to speed up the composting process. After a full two years what remains is pure compost with no nasty pathogens remaining. This can then be used to feed flower beds, gardens, fruit trees etc.  

Composting Toilets all need appropriate ventilation to keep the smell out of the bathroom while providing enough oxygen for the effluent waste to start breaking down into compost. Some Composting Toilets achieve this by natural means, others employ electrically operated fans. This can be provided via solar power batteries too.

So, in summary, Composting Toilets use the natural, eco-friendly processes of decomposition and evaporation to recycle human waste. The waste that enters the toilets is over 90% water, which is evaporated and carried back to the atmosphere through the vent system. The small amount of remaining solid material is converted to useful fertiliser by natural decomposition.

Different Types

There are many different styles and manufactures of Composting Toilets. At Glampsan, we are providing three solutions that meet different needs. Two of these are from Finland and one from Sweden. The Scandinavians know what they are doing with Composting Toilets as they have been using these solutions for decades.

Here are a couple of high-level infographics that quickly illustrate our range of Composting Toilets:

For even more information, check out our detailed product sheets on our website featuring each of these options.

See also our related blog on The Compost Toilet Revolution.

Social Media

One of our passions is that we love using social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in quirky, fun and useful ways to inform you. For example we have an awesome blog site aimed specifically as glamping businesses to help to inform you of waste sanitation solutions. So, head over to our blog website https://www.glampsan.com/blog. We do regular videos too to help get useful messages across to our customers, and we'd love you to tell us, in the comments, what you think too people.

If you've got a spare moment, why not check out these blogs we wrote about glamping business startups.

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Sincerely, JT

0800 999 6010‍

https://www.glampsan.com (Part of Plastic Solutions based in Aldridge)