Pee / Wee Harvesting

Definitely a serious topic. What I want to do is extract the urine

"Luggage Luggable Loo" - love the name! What a sensible solution to the problem. I have some questions though ...

Why is that JJ? (I'm curious to know). Would he pee on the heap, or pee in a bucket and pour it on the heap (himself) instead?

That's useful to know, thanks. I guess I should actually ask my girls what they would considerable acceptable, rather than assuming that what you lot tell me is what I will be able to impose!

What about a fold-down/up loo seat (for support) with a bucket under it JJ?

IME it makes a HUGE difference (to rate of temperature increase). However, I have found that I am getting more benefit by using it direct on plants, although I have so far avoided using it on veg crops. Having said that, my research over last couple of days suggests that has way more to do with how I have been conditioned, with flushing loos connected to central sewage works, than there being any risk to health.

Even things like Oestrogen build-up appear to be moot at a personal-usage level, and on application to the soil the bugs in (healthy) soil deal with urine pretty much immediately. There is discussion about avoiding contact with leaves - but I think that centres more around burning of the leaves, rather than spread of pathogens (what's to stop a dog/similar cocking a leg on my veg anyway?)

So if X people (rather than just me) contribute to the bucket what then? I read of one person who said that diluting X:1 took longer to apply (he had initially tried 10:1 and 5:1, but then even 2:1 he said took longer).

I pee'd on a Bamboo in a half-barrel I had bought on eBay, it stood outside during the winter where I took the dogs out for their final night leg-stretch, and I was planning to keep it sheltered and plant in the spring. After a few weeks of a once-a-day fertiliser application the leaves turned brown and it looked very unhappy ... so I think using neat may be too strong and I've since diluted before use, usually by peeing in bucket whilst it is under the tap on my IBC and filling and then using. Sometimes I pee several times before diluting & applying.

But a bucket-loo in the house somewhere that is them emptied once a day - is that going to be a Yuck! task, or would it not bother folk?

Perhaps the "bucket" needs to be shaped just like a watering can? Funnel attached to loo-seat that drains into a watering can perhaps? Easier to then apply to plants rather than having to tip a bucket into a watering can, dilute, and only then add to the plants/soil?

 

I have no idea why he won't. He doesn't even like the idea of me peeing anywhere else than a toilet but won't stop me doing it, just teases me about it.

Although once he was busting for a pee and we had the sparkies round doing our rewire and had ripped up the floorboards in the landing in front of the bathroom. I happily handed him my 3 gallon watering can and told him to fill it. He only did it out of desperation I think.

This is my 3 gallon water can.



The reason I had to squat was because its got a massive handle in the way. Which proved difficult to do, but the large hole made up for it.

To me as a women (and I'm not your typical one) you would want something that you could sit on cleanly. So I would say something like a commode perhaps? Instead of having a bowl/bucket underneath I would put a large funnel that would then go straight into a watering can. The other trouble is you have to get rid of the smell. Urine can smell really bad very quickly (experience from a family member who refused to flush the loo after peeing in order to save water) and again from a female point a view you need to find a way of avoiding that.

I'm just curious what your aim from this "venture" is. Is just to harvest your own urine for the garden/compost bin? Or are you hoping to save water and sewage costs as well?

 

No, Luggable loo, you can lug it around!!

Val

 

Sorry about that! What with me being a byslexic dastard and all .. I wasn't intending to take it on holiday in order to be able to bring something back as a present ... honest!

It shouldn't smell if kept neat (well, not for a reasonable period of time) - it is diluting it that causes the small problem. Ditto with flushed-systems compared to dry ones. Dry ones have their own issues, with no flow of flush-water the urine will crystallise on the pipe surfaces etc. which is then difficult to clean (and who would want to). There are choices: U-bend arrangements that you put some light oil into. That floats on the urine, keeping the smell the other side, but the system is in other respects "dry". There are also composting loos that have a fan, so the air is always going into the pan, although I have read that people sitting on them find the draught a surprise - the first time at least!

We are off main's drains here. Reducing water is definitely of interest to me - I find it abhorrent to chuck potable water down the loo (and to put potable water on the garden for that matter). It is hugely expensive to try to work around that though, mains drinking water is very cheap [relative to any form of self-storage].

We have a digester-thingie here now, so in principle we can put all exhaust water from that direct onto the garden - so flushing the loo is not a waste, it is just more water available to the garden. But as I grow older I increasingly hate waste, of any form, and the raping of the planet's resources, and any recycle & reuse becomes increasingly more important to me. I also see myself as being privileged, and I think that privileged people need to be prepared to be early adopters as economies of scale will be needed to drive the price down, and refine the technology, before anyone less well off should be expected to bother.

So I'm basically just trying to make use of a waste material that we have on site. I've also been impressed with how well the plants have reacted (I'm sure if I chucked some Ammonium Sulphate on them they would have done equally well but to me that's not the point

 

I have a similar issue considering how I would handle any collection from other members of the family. Me doing it is fine - by me. Its all in the mind though, of course.

 

There are so called "urine diverting toilets" that offer that capability - Boys have to sit (or be both a good shot and contortionist!), but that wouldn't bother me personally.


although from my research I don't think this is the best design, small children will sit forwards and careless users will get paper etc. into the front compartment - more of a problem for public rather than private usage I suspect; systems are also available based on the Coandă effect - which replies on fluids being happy to run around & stay attached to a curved surface that "overhangs" whereas solids will fall off. These are mostly intended to save water (no-flush, or in composting toilets to have no liquid in the composting section), rather than harvest urine, so the front part is plumbed into the back, and thus consequently everything gets flushed WHEN you flush, which solves the hygiene issue. The reduced [diluting] water in the public sewage system makes treatment much cheaper (less energy required, as well as less chemicals) - so there is the possibility that they might become the norm / mandated.

As Roosevelt said "civilized people ought to know how to dispose of the sewage in some other way than putting it into the drinking water."

Personally, space permitted, I think a urinal would be better (than a separating loo). There are female versions available, but from what I read they are not popular - clothing /squatting awkwardnesses. I'm surprised that there isn't more keenness to adopt them, give them length of queues outside the Ladies, compared to the Gents.

There are urinals which (I think) are better suited to home use - not looking like a public convenience! Here's a Villeroy and Boch one, which has a lid (inherent inbuilt training for boys - should be popular with the ladies?!)

 

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Back in my murky past, I can remember the awful smell coming from a wardrobe because somebody had peed into a bucket during the night and then put it away to be forgotten. And yes, it was a 'squat'.

 

Instructions on the packet said: A quick shake that was all that was needed re store they come in their own little plastic box A rinse under a tap bit more hygenic methinks