It was pretty crappy of whoever threw out all these toilet seats!
Yes, I know what you are thinking. And, yes, that is a basket full of toilet seats. But wait there's more...
6 slightly used toilet seats with hardware
One plastic motor oil bucket
3 storage bins
2 storage bin lids
A bit of rope
A rotting wicker basket (to transport said toilet seats)
With the exception of the handle on the bucket and maybe a few screws in the seats, every item today is a big solid piece of plastic. The six toilet seats were attached to toilets, of all things. Actually, there were about a dozen toilets altogether, but not all of the seats survived being thrown about. Most of the commodes were damaged and too heavy for me to carry (I'll explain what happened to them in a later post), so I salvaged the good seats and the hardware from the broken seats.
I have been working on a plan for a bank of compost toilets that I would like to build. We may be able to set up a campground near Aji beach (on the other side of the island) later this year. Hopefully, that will help attract more visitors to the island. If they do come, then they will need facilities too. And building and connecting regular pit or flush toilets to the mains would be expensive and pointless because all of the human waste from the island either gets hauled off the island by a honeysucker truck or ends up out in the ocean. If we build a smart compost toilet, it will handle everyone's poop and recycle the nutrients back to the environment, and save it from going places it shouldn't.
6 slightly used toilet seats with hardware
One plastic motor oil bucket
3 storage bins
2 storage bin lids
A bit of rope
A rotting wicker basket (to transport said toilet seats)
With the exception of the handle on the bucket and maybe a few screws in the seats, every item today is a big solid piece of plastic. The six toilet seats were attached to toilets, of all things. Actually, there were about a dozen toilets altogether, but not all of the seats survived being thrown about. Most of the commodes were damaged and too heavy for me to carry (I'll explain what happened to them in a later post), so I salvaged the good seats and the hardware from the broken seats.
I have been working on a plan for a bank of compost toilets that I would like to build. We may be able to set up a campground near Aji beach (on the other side of the island) later this year. Hopefully, that will help attract more visitors to the island. If they do come, then they will need facilities too. And building and connecting regular pit or flush toilets to the mains would be expensive and pointless because all of the human waste from the island either gets hauled off the island by a honeysucker truck or ends up out in the ocean. If we build a smart compost toilet, it will handle everyone's poop and recycle the nutrients back to the environment, and save it from going places it shouldn't.
Source: humanurehandbook.com
We could make our toilets very simple like the bucket-in-a-box loveable loos designed by the folks at Humanure Handbook, or we could build something grandiose and inspirational like the ones I used while studying Permaculture at Milkwood Farm in Australia.
Source: milkwood.net
But, it will take awhile to find a suitable parcel of land and to get approval for a campground, so I can just daydream about compost toilets for now (is that normal?) For now, though, I did have a pressing need of...you guessed it: another toilet!
A little too small for me, but perfect for our canine friends!
Just after I gathered up today's garbage, I decided to turn one piece of trash into a real treasure. We are house-training our new puppies now, and we have been thinking about ordering a special plastic mat with plastic mesh over it. I actually ordered it online this morning before I headed outside. Once I had these storage bins before me I realized that I could make my own doggie toilet, and I cancelled my order. I then located a piece of aluminum mesh that I gathered from the disaster debris last year, and cut it to go in one of the bins. Perfect fit! Right now we have what essentially amounts to a flat-diaper-sheet for dogs, but they are just as un-biodegradable as regular baby diapers, so we will be replacing them with some kind of washable material. We do not have a humanure compost toilet at our new house for ourselves yet, but our doggies have been pitching in for our compost for a while now (well, I pick it up and pitch it in the bin!) and when they are outside all the plants and trees in our yard get a nice nutrient package delivered right above their roots.
Human waste is something that we don't often think about; where it goes, what happens to it, is there any inherent value in it, etc. Most waste has the potential to be useful and utilizable by something else if it is put into a different situation. Hopefully, over the course of the next month, I will be able to find ways to utilize more of the stuff I find scattered about our island.
In the end, you could say this post is full of shit. And, you would be right!!!
Human waste is something that we don't often think about; where it goes, what happens to it, is there any inherent value in it, etc. Most waste has the potential to be useful and utilizable by something else if it is put into a different situation. Hopefully, over the course of the next month, I will be able to find ways to utilize more of the stuff I find scattered about our island.
In the end, you could say this post is full of shit. And, you would be right!!!
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