Saturday, September 10, 2011

Build a Composting Toilet


From Rory Aronson's blog:


Today I built a composting toilet and a urinal at the Upham house. The toilet consists of a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet seat on top, and a bucket of sawdust from the hardware store's shop vac to cover your work when you are done. Once the bucket gets filled up, it will be buried in a hole in the backyard to be further composted and eventually supply our tree in the back with nutrients. The urinal is a large funnel connected to a tube. The tube goes through the floor, out the wall, and into the grass outside.

Every time this system is used, we will prevent the use of 1.6 gallons of water and also alleviate the need to clean that water in the waste water treatment plant.
(4 flushes per day)*(1.6 gallons per flush)*(365 days) = 2,336 gallons saved per year







SLO County to Ban Disposable Bags

Bill Worrell, head of the Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA) proposed banning single use plastic and paper bags at supermarkets in order to promote the use of reusable bags. City Council voted unanimously on September 6, 2011, to pass the ordinance. Vote now goes to the IWMA board on the 14th. The ordinance will eliminate disposable bags from all county supermarkets July 1, 2012, and from smaller stores by Jan. 1, 2013. Let's hope it gets passed!