I've had a few queries about how the composting toilet performed.

So just be warned, this blog post mentions poo so if you don't want to think about that then press the Back button now!

As mentioned in previous posts, our toilet works by separating the 'wet' from the 'dry'.  The designers said that poo smells much much worse if you mix it with urine (obviously, it smells a bit all on its own - but that's what the ventilation fan handles). Everyone has been very skeptical about this, but truly, it didn't ever smell. Not once.

We had to empty out the wee container once a week, but that's really only with one person using it. 90% of the time I'd just wee behind a bush.

After 8 weeks it was approaching full, in the poo department. The agitator was getting a little harder to rotate by the last week. But, 8 weeks without thinking about emptying it was perfect. I've never had a chemical toilet, but I gather they need emptying every 4 or 5 days.

I left it for a few days to 'compost down' when we got home, and then I braced myself to empty it. The whole bottom bowl comes out when you empty it.

OK - so it's not a great sight, but you can see how it has composted down. It just smelt like a normal 'garden' compost bin.  I dug a small hole under a tree and turned it upside down. Easy.

When I tipped it out into my garden, it looked like this:

So just an earthy mix, and quite dry consistency.

There you have it. Partially gross, but hey, everyone's got to go!