FAQ: Composting Toilet System: Worm Composting

One of the most nervously asked frequently asked question is: How do you deal with your toilet? First off, let me say that being a vegetarian/vegan makes taking a hand on approach to my managing not just my toilet A LOT nicer....a much more mild smell than the human waste of a meat eater. Think of the difference between cow and dog poo.

I use a home made toilet box/bucket system that separates wet from dry waste, and then I feed the dry + bedding + food waste to red wiggler worms. Worms can eat 1.5 times their body weight a day.

 Made of cedar, a cut up piece of counter top and an old toilet seat.

 With a little compartment opening in the back for sawdust, or peat moss, which worms LOVE!.

 I built a little gutter to catch urine so the bucket stays dry,

 The door on the front opens so I can empty the wet bucket easily.

 The whole thing is on wheels.. easy to move around and I may want to ride it in parade or something. To keep the whole box from being too high to practically sit on I mounted a piece of a bucket on the bottom for the 5 gallon dry bucket to drop into.

 Little food waste compost bucket in the kitchen.

 The stacked work composting bin lives outside.

 I got a pound of fresh worms to re-populate the bin, gave them some starter compost to get cozy in,

spread out some food scarps to get them started, and then added the next tray with the dry "bio-waste" for them to crawl up to and get started on.

 Cover the pile with a wet layer, in this case a compostable bag, but really wet newspaper works best.

 And then I wrap the whole tower with a cardboard box and piece of black tarp to keep them warm and dark under the porch.
  I got my latest pound of worms from Winterville Worms, which I biked out to the other day.