I wrote recently about ordering the vermicomposting toilet plans from Biorealis.com. I’ve read through the plans and they are well thought through and use very easily sourced parts. The funny part is that so much of what he wrote about and considered in the design is targeted toward Alaskan weather, so things like heat retention ventilation and the likes don’t really relate to Thailand.

Mostly though, that just means it is a bit simpler here.

Also an interesting coincidence is that one of the new engineers at work (his name is ‘Than’) who just started about a month ago raises red worms at home with his family. So I may have a source for the worms, too.

But the biggest hurdle is that the system is designed to be built in a space directly under the toilet. And although BaanRimNaam is raised off the ground, it isn’t raised up enough.

Here is a picture under the bathroom:

The brighter blue PVC pipe on the right is the shower drain and the larger diameter and more shaded pipe is the toilet drain. (If we go with the composting toilet system, we will probably replace it with a 12″ PVC pipe since this will hopefully allow the solids to drop down with minimal interaction with the pipe.)

We only have about 70cm, and the Biorealis design is meant for about 1.4m of space. One suggestion from Than that I think will work well will simply be to cut the 200L drums in half vertically. Based on the info in the Biorealis plans, a family of 4 should fill up one 200L drum in about 6 months. So Praew and I living alone might take about a year. If we cut it in half, it might be back down to about 6 months again. Since it would be in a “lazy susan” type rotating design, even at 3 months it would just require a 1/3 rotation every few months and taking the drums out to compost about once a year. This doesn’t seem like too much “dirty work” for the composting toilet.

Yes, I know that a modern flush toilet requires even less “dirty work”. But consider the fact that an average household with a flush toilet uses 42,000-98,000 liters (11,000-25,000 gallons) of potable drinking water per year to flush “toilet wastes” down the drain. Additionally, I would be adding to the strain that Bangkok’s already poorly designed sanitation system has to handle. Compare this with the fact that a similar household of 4 using a composting toilet will not only save the enormous wastage of potable water mentioned above, but they can also produce 1 cubic meter (1000L) of fertile garden compost instead. No more “toilet waste” at all. Just “not yet composted organic matter”. 🙂

So it is time for me to consider the options. Vermicomposting (worms)? Normal composting? 200L drums cut in half? Or standard 50L drums instead? (These fit without cutting.) Compost in place under the house? Or dump a small drum of uncomposted excrement into a compost bin every few weeks? (Simpler system, but more interaction with untreated waste.)

Hmm. I’ll need to keep reading up on the options until one solution presents itself as the best fit for us at this time.