Sawdust toilets have captivated the interest of the extreme green movement. They are sometimes presented as one of the best waste management options and as a far better alternative than expensive, professionally manufactured composting toilets. In this article, we’ll discuss the top five reasons why we feel a professional composting toilet is a better solution than a sawdust toilet.
1. Sawdust toilets require an enormous amount of physical labor. A bucket full of waste can easily weigh 50 pounds or more, and a family of four will likely fill a bucket every one or two days. That’s a lot of carrying, emptying, and cleaning of buckets! Not many busy families have the time or desire to add this chore to their to do lists.
2. Once all those full buckets are hauled outside, they have to be dumped somewhere. Effective management of a bucket system requires a large amount of land, not only ground space for dumping, but also distance from your home. Why do you need distance? This brings us to our third disadvantage of sawdust toilets…
3. Odor! While it’s true that the sawdust layers prevent the majority of odor indoors, you don’t get that same benefit once the buckets are dumped outside. What you will end up with is a large stinking pile of anaerobic mess that will have to be caged off with chicken wire just to keep animals and other pests out. This clearly makes the sawdust toilet system a totally unfeasible option for urban or suburban dwellers that have small outdoor areas and live in close proximity to their neighbors. Read the rest of this entry »
