Leachate, urine-diversion, urine-collection, etc, etc... So many terms, so many systems, things can get rather confusing when it comes to composting toilets and urine treatment! If you're thinking of investing in a composting toilet, you've probably got a whole lot of questions on the subject. Does urine smell in a composting toilet? Is it fine for it to go through the compost pile? Do you need a urine-diverting system? What actually happens with the urine???
Urine is full of nitrogen, which is actually beneficial to the health of a compost pile. Too much urine, however, can make a pile too wet and slow down decomposition. To maintain the right amount of moisture in the pile, composting toilets deal with urine by evaporation, leachate drainage, or urine diversion.
Evaporation
All our composting toilets are equipped with an exhaust fan. The fan draws air down through the toilet and out through the vent stack, keeping your toilet odourless, and helping evaporate fluids from the compost pile.
On its own, however, the fan is not always enough to evaporate fluids sufficiently. To deal with this, some systems have leachate drains, while others evaporate excess liquids through heat. Heated toilets aren't only great for leachate evaporation, but are great for maintaining the right composting temperature, too! This is especially handy in colder climates. Such systems do, however, use more electricity than non-heated models, and usually require mains power or a good solar off-grid package.
See product as example:
Leachate Drain
Many composting toilets deal with excess liquids (leachate) via a leachate drain. This sees leachate drained into a designated soak pit or absorption trench in the ground. Urine runs through the composting chamber, drips through to the bottom, and drains out through the leachate drain.
See product as example:
- Nature Loo™ NL2
- Clivus Multrum™ CM2
- Nature Loo™ Classic 650
- Clivus Multrum™ CM LP
- Nature Loo™ Classic 850
- Clivus Multrum™ CM HP
Urine Diversion to Soak-away
If you're prone to hosting parties and family gatherings where the toilet is smashed with number 1s (such as a marae gathering or an Irish shindig), then it might pay to have a urine diversion system to soak-away system. Such systems have a composting chamber for solids, and a drain for urine which sees it go to a soak-away directly, rather than seeing it go through the compost pile first.
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Urine Diversion to Container
Some models of composting toilets divert urine and collect it in a separate container. While these models are equipped with a fan for odour control, they do not have heating elements or leachate drains. This means once the urine container is full, it will need to be disposed of manually. For information on how to do this appropriately, see How to Dispose of Urine from a Urine Diversion to Container System.
See product as example:
Need help choosing a system? Call WCTNZ® on 0800 022 027 for free advice on system specification and setup. Advanced design consultancy services are also available.
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