Hi, Jeff Laughton here,
and I'm making a compost toilet.
Why?
Because they're extremely efficient
and they don't use any water.
And a normal-flush toilet
uses 30 to 40 thousand liters per person, per year.
Now we can turn our humanure
into a very sustainable waste system,
and it's completely healthy.
There's no problem.
There's no problem with diseases,
in a lot of A-projects,
it's an ideal solution,
but it's an ideal solution
for the first world.
And it can save a lot of money.
I can show you how to make a compost toilet
by recycling materials you can find anywhere
in the world,
and it's really cheap.
You don't have to buy an expensive one.
So, let's show you how to do it.
The first thing we have to do
is actually drill a hole right at the bottom
of the wheelie bin.
Then we fit an irrigation fitting
and a sealing washer,
put on a ball valve tap
and a fit into a hose
so we can open up the ball valve
and drain any surplus liquid
from the bin.
Then all we have to do is make our own filter.
And a bit of shade cloth tied on the inside
of that pipe.
That just stops it blocking.
This might be a little bit tricky
'cause you've actually got to climb inside
or crawl inside,
and screw the inside of that tap on.
And then fit your filter.
Next, we need to measure the corners.
The back corners are shorter because they go down
to the axle ledge, there.
And we just need a pipe cut in half.
We need to cut an ordinary bound-pipe for plumbing.
Cut it in half,
then cut slots all the way along.
On regular intervals, stand the pipe
for aeration in the corners.
Then we get ordinary strapping.
We measure it around the pipe,
strap it on,
with pop rivets drilled straight through the wheelie bin.
Now we need to get a grill
and shape it,
so it fits around the pipes,
on the recess of the axles,
and on the elbow of the two longer parts
at the front.
Now we need a long piece of shade cloth,
that will wrap around the grill
at least once,
twice.
Then we fold in the edges,
tuck that under the back pipes,
and rest it on the elbows at the front.
And we're ready.
Now, we need to get a second lid.
And we need to cut a large hole
in this lid,
the size of the compost toilet delivery pipe.
This is a band cut out
of a recycled inner-tube
from the car tire depo.
Who knew you should get 'em for free?
This seals on the tube,
and goes down onto the lid of the compost toilet,
and helps make it more or less air-tight.
And the lid that's attached to the bin
is going to lock it down when it's full
so it can go through a full moldering process.
Now we just click on the garden hose
and we can open the tap,
and any surplus liquid
can be directed to a reed bed like this
if you have one.
Otherwise, it can go to a gravel trench
in the ground, with a slotted pipe
so all the surplus liquid just soaks to the ground
and becomes a natural fertilizer.
All we need to do now
is tip in 20 liters of sawdust.
We're ready to start the system.
Purchased systems, built systems,
I've tried many types of compost toilets over the years,
but they all work the same.
Compost is compost.
This system is as good as any.
And all you have to do now, once it's full,
is lock it down.
Keep it locked up for six to ten months,
and then it's ready.
You just empty it and use it again.
This is one of the best systems you could use.
It's made out of recycled materials.
It's a completely waterless toilet.
Uses minimum water,
and it's safe and efficient.
This, I believe, is one of the most ethical ways
you can use a compost toilet
with sensible materials.
Here's the end result.
So this is what we can put around our trees.
It's nice, high fungal compost.
It's got a lot of sawdust in it,
or it's got a lot of wooden material.
It's broken right down,
it's nicely aged.
It doesn't look like anything it started off as.
It's quite safe to handle.
Just looks like typical forest mulch.
There we go.
Put it around our tree.
Pulling it back a bit.
There we go,
that's humanure,
when it's gone through the process,
and it's aged really well.
It smells fine.
Looks fine.
You wouldn't have no idea
how it started life.