Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Toilet technologies

As we begin our journey through the wonderland of environmentally-friendly toilets, let's start by cataloging the main technologies available.

Vacuum toilets use little or no water. You may have used them on aircraft or on ships. Perhaps a bit overkill for an island summer home, but is most like the toilet you have at home.

Composting toilets take waste and collect it for decomposition. There many ways to collect, and many ways to decompose. Some methods are more attractive than others, to put it mildly.

Incinerating toilets burn waste in a very high-temperature process. Good news: all that icky stuff is quickly and permanently gone. Bad news: giant, expensive, power-hungry combustion chamber right between your legs.

More detailed posts on each type- complete with photos!- to follow.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Back in the Day" I slid in the dark down an icy hill to get to the freezing cold outhouse. It took awhile to convince my hardy Swedish husband that it's fully respectable, in the 1990's, to have an indoor toilet. Best nagging I've ever done! We now live civilized. And no, I've never emptied out whatever mulching type of enviro friendly toilet we have. Need I say never will?

Best from your only slightly spoiled Aspo neighbor

Anonymous said...

I think you can live very civilized with a composting toilet. I have for many years a Separett. www.separett.com