Help with burning waste

[Rich.H]

Currently myself and partner live in a mid terrace house with both and open fire/back boiler & oil heating system. I have recently looked into various ways of reducing the general things we use and the topic of water came up.

The biggest culprit turned out to be the toilet as such we looked into the technicalities of composting it all. Unfortunately living here makes that very very hard as there is no where to make a suitable compost box.

Now I am thinking we could use it as fire fuel, we also have a few animals and have up until now disposed of their waste with the toilet as our own.

I know the main problem here is moisture content, so I am trying to think of the most efficient method of drying. So far the best I can think of is to use food grade buckets with lids, then fit a fine mesh to the upper section to allow airflow and only fill them 3/4ish full. Also I figured if they were also used as a toilet then simply toss in some sawdust as per a composting toilet it should reduce smell as possibly aid drying.

So can anyone suggest either an adaptation to this idea to speed up the natural drying or even offer up something totally different as a more efficient means to achieve this?

[diggernotdreamer]

Could you not just wee into buckets and then just dilute your urnine with some water and use it as plant food and as compost activator and then just use the toilet for when you want a poo, that would cut out a lot of water use, you would need some serious heat to dry out poo, the default for all waste products is to break down, not dry out.

[Skippy]

Can't help thinking that if you are struggling for space to compost your waste then having dozens of 3/4 filled buckets of drying crap is only going to take up more space.
Do you have a pub, supermarket , public building or public toilets anywhere nearby ? Then you can guess what I'd suggest. I have a friend who always tries to go when he's at work, saves on toilet paper too


Pete

[Crickleymal]

But that only shifts the problem of water usage from one place to another not so distant place.

You'd be far better off, if you want to save water, by gathering rain water or using your bath/shower water to flush the loo.

[Skippy]

yes I agree that using rain water , or for that matter waste kitchen or bathroom water, would be a far better option.
but to answer the original question about a better method of drying I'll put forward an idea. Rather than the bucket I'd suggest a sort of louvered shed with shelving inside to spread the waste. I have a similar shed that I store wood in and it allows a constant airflow with no water ingression . I'll admit I'm still not 100% convinced that the drying for fuel is the best option but I'd like to know If it works.

[Crickleymal]

I'm not convinced that drying human excrement would be healthy. My understanding is that the dung that's used for fuel is from herbivores and is basically plant matter. So it dries out ok and is fairly inoffensive. Even when I was a vegetarian I wouldn't want to have my dung hanging around thank you very much. I know how much it smelt.

[doofaloofa]

Sorry OP

dry human excrement for fuel is a shit idea (I made a funny)

You will soon have a stinky health hazard on your hands

Use objects in you systern (filled water bottles) to reduce volume of water used to flush

Or do the right thing and build a safe composting system

[diggernotdreamer]

I am old enough to remember the adverts in the 1970's when we had a water shortage, telling us to put bricks in the cistern, I still did that until a few years ago. Remember the saying if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down, we still practise that even though we have a spring well and have plenty of water we don't waste it and as I have said before, the OH wees outside and I have my little bucket for outside. Here's another idea, put up a washing line, with butchers hooks on and hang your shit up to dry. Would shit burning smell, I used to know a dog kennel that burnt all the dog shite and it was rank, the neighbours may have something to say, I know we are all a bit eccentric but maybe this is a bit over the top, come back in Rich H and tell us what you are going to do, we are hanging on your every turd ...... I mean word

[Dutch Dave]

I wouldn't dry human waste to burn in a stove. It's asking to get sick.

To convert human or animal waste into fuel you can build a "digester". In this digester bacteria turn the waste into methane. This methane can be used as a fuel. Two humans produce enough waste to convert into gas to make a pot of tea daily.. adding kitchen scraps to the digester can boost production.

Think about hygene , people get sick by handling human waste the wrong way..

[wattreesmassive]

I cant imagine having human poo drying anywhere,the smell would be overpowering and what if you had a "vindaloo tum"??? Wouldnt it be better to build a simple composting loo {those old chair commodes with a bucket placed underneath instad of the potty bit are what we use.} and put the resulting "matter" into an old water butt to compost for a year,would be a better approach,or like already suggested,use either rain or recycled grey water to flush the loo? I have heard of using cow manure mixed with straw as fuel but human waste is another matter.