Comment

Comment by Rick Stillwagon on September 7, 2011 at 10:46am

In our area this kind of system is hard enough to get by a Health Dept. inspection, let alone open use of human waste. In the Pacific Northwest, with rain fall 9 months out of the year, there is talk of water shortages, private well metering, rain barrel taxes, and many other bizarre water issues.  There are just too many people in too small an area, desiring a standard of living that is getting more and more difficult to upkeep. Conservation, "recycling" and common sense with the use of clean fresh water is needed.  This system is designed to address commercial and industrial sites where there is massive use and waste of fresh water. I dont think getting people to use a bucket is practical in these settings at this point in time.  Biological hazards need to be addressed when handling human waste as well. Of course, a careful, and conscientious person can avoid spreading disease, but rarely are you going to have this level of care beyond a small group of people. I think smaller versions of this system are a practical alternative or addition to the standard septic system. Something like this could be promoted to the average person, incorporated into their household, and accepted by the masses.  Relatively little maintenance and inconvenience in comparison to a standard septic system, as most of them in our area require pumps to be incorporated anyway.

Comment by TCLynx on September 5, 2011 at 7:31am

Now don't get me wrong, I like that people are thinking about these things.  But there are lower tech less spendy ways to do these things.

 

Less spendy would be to gray water directly from use out to gravel beds for filtration.  Heck, if you are only doing gray water then you could simply feed the water to mulch pits around plants you want to water and move the feed to different places every day but that doesn't really allow for re-use but if you are not flushing a toilet, you don't need to reuse so much.

 

In my opinion if one wants to be really "green" you should avoid creating black water and use humanure composting methods to take care of those wastes without contaminating any extra water.  The sawdust toilet method of humanure composting doesn't cost much (often you can get the buckets for free but they are cheap even if you have to buy them, the sawdust or other cover material is often free or cheap and a big old fashion compost bin outdoors is very cheap.  Most costly part is probably the toilet seat and the frame to hold it over the bucket.

Comment by Rick Stillwagon on September 2, 2011 at 12:41pm

I agree. That is why I plan to implement a version of this on my own property.

Comment by Averan on September 2, 2011 at 11:15am

though much less mechanically spendy than typical modern waste treatment plants!

Comment by Rick Stillwagon on September 2, 2011 at 11:09am

Be my guest. It is a really great concept, although mechanically spendy.

Comment by Miguel Afonso on September 2, 2011 at 8:59am

Would you mind if I or you reposted this image in the permaculture group under the John Todd discussion?