Figure 1. Earthworms in compost

The Wonder of Vermicomposting (fig. 1)

By Jenna Wheeler

Many years ago, when I was a wide-eyed idealist, I embraced what my parents regarded as an alternative lifestyle. I was vegetarian, insisted on eating all organic foods, and was interested in all things natural. I wore my Birkenstocks with pride, enjoyed practicing permaculture and urban farming, and studied natural building methods like rammed earth, straw-bale, and cob, with the intent to someday build a structure combining these methods. One of the primary principles behind natural building is that of sustainability spanning all the systems involved in a modern dwelling: electricity, heating and cooling, plumbing, sewage and stormwater. At the time, a friend and I shared a piece of undeveloped property in a fairly rural area of the Olympic peninsula. We endeavored to build a cabin that would follow as many principles of sustainability as possible. To that end, we researched composting toilets.

Composting Toilets

Composting toilets have been around for a while; they “have been installed at many backcountry sites in national parks and other recreation areas in the U.S. since the ’70s, and they have an even longer history in Europe” (Rogers) (fig. 2). However, in residential use, they aren’t widespread and are reserved for those visionary few who aspire to do their part in being good stewards of the Earth, no matter how small the impact. We had hoped to be part of that group. What we found in our research was that the composting toilet would take up considerable room to accommodate a holding tank that would store the urine and fecal matter, and that it would require someone entering the tank once a week or so to stir the dung around while simultaneously mixing in a bulking agent like wood chips or cellulose. Then there would be the need to empty the tank, which with regular use was estimated to be about once a year. It was going to require a lot of commitment, and given we lived a few hours away and didn’t visit the property but a couple times a year, we abandoned the idea. We would find other ways to lessen our environmental footprint.

Figure 2. Example of a composting toilet in a National Park

Figure 3. Toilet Tech’s “Decompose” style toilet installed at Smith Rock State Park, OR

Figure 4. Ecodomeo’s “Tentale” style dry toilet

Advancements

These days, there have been many advancements made in the world of composting toilets. Two companies in particular seem to have a good understanding of what it takes to have a successful, odorless composting toilet that doesn’t require yearly clean-outs. Toilet Tech of Seattle, WA, is one of these companies touting a “Decompose” style of toilet (fig. 3) that separates urine from fecal matter and “functions as a composting toilet should, promoting decomposition of the solid waste, without the need of bulking agents or mixing” (Hill). When combined with the concomitant, pre-fabricated vault buried 2 – 4 ft. into the ground, these assemblies hold up to 20 years’ worth of waste. Ecodomeo, a French-based company, has developed a dry toilet (figure 4) with the same idea of separating urine from fecal matter by employing a conveyor belt to deposit feces and toilet paper into a chamber behind the seat (Rogers). Ecodomeo’s website boasts that these toilets are “the modern solution for today’s homes” (Ecodomeo), that they “work completely without water allowing an economy of 25% of the household water consumption while producing a rich compost for the garden” (ibid), that the compost chamber can hold 3 – 10 years of solid waste where it is “reduced into compost by earthworms” (ibid).

Of Worms and Men

Wait, what?!

That’s right, vermiculture (fig. 5), or what dry toilet enthusiasts refer to as “vermicomposting” (Rogers). Apparently, these creatures are quite adept at metabolizing “fecal sludge” (ibid). In one published study in the Journal of Water, Sanitation & Hygiene for Development in 2014, toilet scientist Claire Furlong reported that over a 30 day period of time, earthworms reduced said sludge by 76% as compared to 17% where there were no worms (ibid). What a remarkable feat!

Figure 5. Vermiculture – earthworms processings compost

Figure 6. “Worms Eat My Garbage” book released in 1982

Black Gold

In my permaculture days, I had a worm compost bin where I would dispose of my uncooked food scraps. What resulted was affectionately referred to as “black gold”, because the compost had such a tangible, nutritive effect on the garden’s spoils. The iconic 1982 book “Worms Eat My Garbage” (fig. 6) might well have to release a new edition, including a reference to Ecodomeo’s dry toilet, with the revamped title “Worms Eat My Garbage and Poop.” What better way to engage in the principles of sustainability than to turn to the innocuous earthworm, Mother Nature’s perfect composter, bringing us full circle to honor and engage in our role as stewards of the Earth.

Bibliography

Ecodomeo. “Modern Solution for Dry Toilet.” Discover Our Dry Toilet Technology, https://www.ecodomeo.com/english/.

Hill, Geoff. Decompose Toilet. https://www.toilettech.com/toilettypes.

Rogers, Nala. “Inside the Controversial World of Composting Toilets.” Inside Science, June 2019, https://www.insidescience.org/news/inside-controversial-world-composting-toilets.