The council have got back to me on the subject of sewer connections vs. on-site composting, and they still, despite it being carefully explained to them, regard a composting toilet as a cesspit. This is troubling.
A cesspit is a holding tank for faeces, urine and the water involved in its disposal. It must be emptied by lorry at frequent intervals, so not only does the material end up in a treatment plant where it would have done were there a mains connection anyway, but there’s the added faff and cost of transporting it. This is obviously unacceptable and mains connection should be used in preference wherever possible.
A dry composting toilet, by contrast, separates urine from faeces and uses no water at all. Urine can be discharged directly into a soakaway in the ground (it’s nearly always totally sterile and does not pose any health risk) and faeces are collected into storage containers, along with a “soak” material (sawdust) which keeps the matter at the right level of moisture for decomposition by microbes, insect larvae and worms, depending on what’s got access to it. It doesn’t leach into the ground during the initial decomposition process; it is processed within a moisture-proof container and does not make its way to the outside world until it has been composted for a year, by which time it is as safe as any garden soil. Which is what it becomes.
No water is wasted, no fuel is needed to transport anything anywhere and nobody gets sick. It’s a great system. It’s definitely different from a cesspit.
I’m at a total loss as to how to convince the council of that though.
Consequently, I have spent my day researching what options I have for connecting to mains drains. Looks like going further over budget. Par for the course, we’ve all seen Grand Designs, right?
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