Composting Toilets in your Motorhome

[Jim]

Just reading the van specs on the Consort Motorhome website and I see they are offering a composting toilet as an option when buying. Is this becoming a thing? Are any other makers offering composting toilets as standard items?

Composting Toilet with Corner Basin​

As an alterative to our standard Thetford chemical toilet we now offer the Treline composting toilet for those who prefer a separating toilet. This type of toilet will create more options when it comes to disposing of toilet waste and is regarded as a more flexible alternative when not using campsites with an Elsan point.

Our tip up basin will not fit around the composting toilet so we fit a corner basin as a suitable alternative. The composting toilet can be moved within the washroom to create a bigger area for showering.

 

[funflair]

I know you can have one in a RP, and being pedantic they are more like a separating toilet rather than composting, you could of course take the contents home and compost it thereby claiming it to be composting.

 

[Lenny HB]

I get fed up with them calling them composting toilets they not they are seperating toilets.

For a composting toilet to work you would have to carry shit around with you for 9 months constantly adding to it. Who has the payload for that ?

 

[Minxy]

I get fed up with them calling them composting toilets they not they are seperating toilets

For a composting toilet to work you would have to carry shit around with you for 9 months constantly adding to it. Who has the payload for that ?

Now c'mon Lenny we know you constantly dream of the day when you'll have a massive payload again to carry around all your shit.

 

[Bill-H]

I have a Separett Villa 'compost' toilet installed at a smallholding for over 15 years. There is no mains sewage there.Been in daily use for much of that time as well.
I've seen them on narrowboats as well, so why not a motorhome?
A vertically mounted fume extractor up through the roof and powered by a very low wattage fan keeps it completely odour free in the bathroom. Mine's a 240v fan but you can get 12v and solar options.
For one person, the solids compartment goes for about 6 weeks before needing emptying - a compostable bag lines the container and the sugestion is you add a small amout of soil to the full container to allow bacterial forces to start to break down the content, pop an airtight lid on the container and replace the full container with a second clean one.
That would leave the problem of disposing of the liquid urine in a motorhome - presumably a removable tank to empty it down a toilet, also where do you empty the solids when full, or do you have more than one container and keep the full one in the motorhome garage until you can bury it?. (My setup has the liquid draining to a gravel trap outside the building)

 

[Jim]

I get fed up with them calling them composting toilets they not they are seperating toilets.

For a composting toilet to work you would have to carry shit around with you for 9 months constantly adding to it. Who has the payload for that ?

Looking at the makers of the separation toilets, Natures Head, Air Head, Simploo, etc all call them Composting Toilets. So it seems you'll stay fed up Lenny.

 

[trophychap]

There was a trend amongst people who cruise the canal network living on a narrowboat changing their conventional Thetford type toilets over to "composting" types of toilets. To enable them to go longer in between having to cruise to a service point, I assume liquid waste is/was being deposited in the hedgerows along side the canals.
However Biffa the waste disposal people who operate the majority of service points along the canal network have been putting notices up telling boaters not to dispose of their "dry" toilet waste in the bins they provide for conventional waste. "Classing it as a health hazard for their waste disposal operators."

Most boaters were double bagging and placing the contents in the Red waste bins, I wonder now how they and any one else who are using this type of toilet waste are disposing of the soiled medium they use?

 

[gus-lopez]

Just reading the van specs on the Consort Motorhome website and I see they are offering a composting toilet as an option when buying. Is this becoming a thing? Are any other makers offering composting toilets as standard items?

As said it is a seperating toilet & yes we have a simploo-

Looking at the makers of the separation toilets, Natures Head, Air Head, Simploo, etc all call them Composting Toilets. So it seems you'll stay fed up Lenny.

Yes they do .But no composting is involved

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Rog NotJane]

Not a factory fit but Euramobil offer Xtura with no toilet so you can fit your own separating bog.

I think no-chemical toilets are becoming more popular possibly because they've got a lot better.

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

At one time I was looking at having one of the toilets that incinerates all the waste you just have to empty a little tray of ashsounded a good idea and looked good, sold the van before I got any further.

If I was doing a self build it’s definitely the way to go, think it was gas or electric operated.

 

[tacr2man]

It is a follow on to bagging up dog excrement , I suppose , what comes next ?

 

[pwilmo]

This seems the way to go a weeks use, all reduced to a cup of ash..I'll bet they are expensive.

Cinderella ..incineration toilets

Welcome to LeeSan’s online store

Lee Sanitation - The leading supplier of marine sanitation equipment and marina pump out systems. We stock a vast range of marine toilet spares, parts & service kits from many leading manufacturers.

www.leesan.com

Anyone got one to give us some user info?

Whaat £4,500 How Much !!!

 

[hja]

Knaus are installing Clesana toilets in some of their vans. These are not like separating toilets in that you dont have to ensure you gat the right waste in the right compartment. Everything goes into one bag which is automatically sealed and is to be disposed of with household waste. (they say).
I think that we are getting more and more are going over to some sort of alternative toilet. I notice in the new edition of MMM magazine Dometic are doing a conversion kit to a separating toilet. However I dont think the waste authorities have caught up. There was a video from Motorhome Matt a couple of months ago where he had a bit of a look at this and I seem to remember he contacted a waste authority who had horrors at the idea of solids, however well packed, going into rubbish bins. What I dont understand is how human waste varies from dog waste sufficiently for it to be OK for one to go in rubbish bins but not the other.

 

[WESTY66]

I get fed up with them calling them composting toilets they not they are seperating toilets.

For a composting toilet to work you would have to carry shit around with you for 9 months constantly adding to it. Who has the payload for that ?

You could trade your compost for a nights stay at a French passion site, I reckon you would be able to keep up the supply for a free night EVERY night

 

[funflair]

Knaus are installing Clesana toilets in some of their vans. These are not like separating toilets in that you dont have to ensure you gat the right waste in the right compartment. Everything goes into one bag which is automatically sealed and is to be disposed of with household waste. (they say).
I think that we are getting more and more are going over to some sort of alternative toilet. I notice in the new edition of MMM magazine Dometic are doing a conversion kit to a separating toilet. However I dont think the waste authorities have caught up. There was a video from Motorhome Matt a couple of months ago where he had a bit of a look at this and I seem to remember he contacted a waste authority who had horrors at the idea of solids, however well packed, going into rubbish bins. What I dont understand is how human waste varies from dog waste sufficiently for it to be OK for one to go in rubbish bins but not the other.

I guess one difference is that if the dog waste doesn't get bagged and binned it ends up on pavements and getting walked it, for human waste there is a perfectly functional sewage system that they would prefer us to use.

 

[TheMachMan]

It’s the only issue now that stops most from being off grid for longer than a few days before having to work out where to empty next. Would get one if it was an option on whatever we buy next.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Minxy]

What I dont understand is how human waste varies from dog waste sufficiently for it to be OK for one to go in rubbish bins but not the other.

Dog waste isn't nice but although there are some diseases/illnesses that can be contracted from it they will be small as little cross species infection etc, however the number that could be contracted from human excrement will be a lot higher ... COVID, herpes etc anyone?

 

[Rog NotJane]

I notice in the new edition of MMM magazine Dometic are doing a conversion kit to a separating toilet

Dometic bought Arwinger, there's a conversion kit for the swivel toilets (a bowl and a casette) and a drop in replacement for the 400 benches.

 

[Theonlysue]

Thetford does separate bowls that can be changed by the owner.

 

[mikash]

Knaus are installing Clesana toilets in some of their vans. These are not like separating toilets in that you dont have to ensure you gat the right waste in the right compartment. Everything goes into one bag which is automatically sealed and is to be disposed of with household waste. (they say).
I think that we are getting more and more are going over to some sort of alternative toilet. I notice in the new edition of MMM magazine Dometic are doing a conversion kit to a separating toilet. However I dont think the waste authorities have caught up. There was a video from Motorhome Matt a couple of months ago where he had a bit of a look at this and I seem to remember he contacted a waste authority who had horrors at the idea of solids, however well packed, going into rubbish bins. What I dont understand is how human waste varies from dog waste sufficiently for it to be OK for one to go in rubbish bins but not the other.

Knaus has their own Cleanflex (too?), which is a Clesana copy but the bags aren't as durable.
Clesana is originally designed for hospital environments to reduce infection risk so the bags are pretty bomb proof.

 

[PaulW2]

so the bags are pretty bomb proof.

Do they also work with post-prandial cluster bombs?

 

[Riverbankannie]

Knaus has their own Cleanflex (too?), which is a Clesana copy but the bags aren't as durable.
Clesana is originally designed for hospital environments to reduce infection risk so the bags are pretty bomb proof.

In most waste trucks there is some sort of squasher/masher to make room for more waste on the trip. That must damage the bags the dog and human waste is in, then there must be “spreadage” around the lorry and at the dump. Our lorries discharge at a local waste sorting centre and then it gets transferred to bigger lorries to go to landfill sites. Mind you the extra strong plastic bags full of buried in landfill doesn’t seem a great idea either.

 

[PaulW2]

I have several categories of question about this sort of thing.

First, I've seen video where they say it doesn't stink because it's only when you mix it with urine that it stinks. This has not been my experience. (I have, for instance, found that even farts sometimes stink.) This may be in a same marketing category as for the SOG system, where some say that it doesn't stink and others say it sometimes wipes out German neighbours. I wouldn't like to have undeodorised, unsealed faeces resting in an open plastic bag I don't think. Especially if, as my experience suggests, shit stinks.

Second, is it generally accepted waste disposal practice to put bags of faeces in bins, and presumably to splash bottles of yellow liquid in hedges? Or is it all regarded as a bit antisocial and ... hippyish by some?

 

[Reallyretired]

I suppose its down to letting the marketing people name products. So composting toilet that doesn't compost and air fryer that doesn't fry.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[hja]

In most waste trucks there is some sort of squasher/masher to make room for more waste on the trip. That must damage the bags the dog and human waste is in, then there must be “spreadage” around the lorry and at the dump. Our lorries discharge at a local waste sorting centre and then it gets transferred to bigger lorries to go to landfill sites. Mind you the extra strong plastic bags full of buried in landfill doesn’t seem a great idea either.

Less and less landfill. Much is now incinerated.

 

[mikash]

In most waste trucks there is some sort of squasher/masher to make room for more waste on the trip. That must damage the bags the dog and human waste is in, then there must be “spreadage” around the lorry and at the dump. Our lorries discharge at a local waste sorting centre and then it gets transferred to bigger lorries to go to landfill sites. Mind you the extra strong plastic bags full of buried in landfill doesn’t seem a great idea either.

Here the turd in a bag ends up being incinerated to power district heating so envinronmental impact is a bit different. Burying much anything in a landfill hasn't been a great idea for a while now. But overall I think if you want to get anxious about the envirnomental impact of this hobby, there's probably bigger fish to fry than the toilet choice.

 

[Riverbankannie]

Here the turd in a bag ends up being incinerated to power district heating so envinronmental impact is a bit different. Burying much anything in a landfill hasn't been a great idea for a while now. But overall I think if you want to get anxious about the envirnomental impact of this hobby, there's probably bigger fish to fry than the toilet choice.

I was just pondering aloud why the councils are saying no to it.

 

[mikash]

I was just pondering aloud why the councils are saying no to it.

I can certainly understand the hygiene aspect, even if it necessarily isn't that big a deal. I think the whole concept is a bit alien and off putting at first glance. Emptying the outhouse at our cabin up is sort of off putting too, tbh, but people have been doing that for ages so no-one thinks much of it Separating toilet would work nice for me because I'd have a compost to empty it into when needed, some others I think just drop it in trash or bury somewhere remote.

 

[B+W vanman]

I expect this will make the motorhome community even more popular amongst Joe Public when Joe realises that those big white, horrible boxes are touring the country delivering big bags of shit into their communities’ waste bins
Another own goal!

 

[HKF]

What I dont understand is how human waste varies from dog waste sufficiently for it to be OK for one to go in rubbish bins but not the other.

And, yet, they're quite happy to take bagged, or often unbagged, nappies