A composting toilet is a stretch for us... or we thought it would be. We are accustomed to outhouses at Camp but in a house we are also used to a real flushing toilet. The thought of doing the research on a composting toilet was not the most exciting thing to do and of course we thought the biggest issue would be the smell. We asked our neighbor at DAcres, a local organic farm, if we could smell their composting toilet and they said, "Sure, come on over Sunday night during the community pot luck dinner". We visited their toilet, looked inside, opened our eyes and looked again, stopped holding our breath and yes took a big wiff. Surprise! It was not an issue. Ok, now to visit the cellar were everything ends up. What appeared to be a mini submarine in the cellar was where "it" all goes. Ok, open 'er up and lets see what we are getting ourselves into. With 50 people upstairs in the kitchen I thought for sure the house would have to get evacuated as we disembowed the composter. Well, wrong again! I didn't need the clothes pin I had in my pocket after all! This composter stuff was nothing like I imagined and environmentally it sure makes a lot of sense. So if anyone wants to stick their head in our composter and test it, come on over. Actually, it may make sense to wait until we install it and fill 'er up a tad.
Some habits are just hard to break and the general perception out there about composting toilets get some people like me just a tad..how would you say... reserved. The toilet below is a great compromise, it has a flush handle for that old habit and squirts a small amount of soap into the composting toilet. Hey, this is the best of all worlds, no habit to break and the smell is an enviormentally pleasant soap that adds to the cleanliness of the "experience".
