Lets go back in this thread before the end of the world.
Toilets will flush fine if you just manually fill the tank with any water. As far as I know, sewers are gravity drained.

AS long as the sewer lines are not broken, clogged or valves are closed. Of course, if you live on the 22nd floor, it will take quite awhile for the toilet to back-up. 😉

Mountainman.

Folks,
a long time ago I posted something on worm composting toilets under "miscellaneous great ideas" You need redworms & need to research it ahead of time. The benefits are many. I've had redworm bins to compost kitchen scraps, but I haven't tried doo-doo yet as it just seems ... well ... I've read up on it and believe it would be a great alternative to keeping a buncha bagged feces all over the place.

I have commented before without any reply.

5 Gallon bucket 1/2 filled with carbon rich material like saw dust, hay, old dry grass, shredded newspaper etc etc.

Then you poop into the bucket.

Then you put some more material over your crap.

Repeat till full.

When full you can dig a hole into a compost pile and empty the contents and cover with hay or any bio material that is dry since it acts as a filter for smell and will NOT attract flies and does not stink.

Compost your poop since septics use water and tanks fill. Out houses pollute the heck out of shallow water tables and are not recommended.

Read the humanure handbook if you want sustainable living. Yeah it is some work and is not as convenient as the life we live today.

http://humanurehandbook.com/downloads/humanure_instruction_manual.pdf

Great resource, thanks so much Gravlore. I thought about buying the book some time ago, but this has everything needed in a nutshell.

Martha,

I like the worm idea for sanitation management.

Only one question will the organic matter being processed by the worm still work when a family is huddled in an unheated apartment, when it is -30C? Will the worms freeze or will the organic matter generate enough heat to keep the worms alive??

The bag suggestion has worked in the past during other wars, when it was too dangerous for civilians to venture out into the street day or night for fear of being shot by the soldiers.

When it is safe, evacuation from the city should begin.

Mountainman.

Gosh Mountaiman, the short answer is I don't know. I'm guessing that it wouldn't be practical to keep a big enough mass of worms/organic matter to keep from freezing in a small space for a lengthy time. I'm guessing they would freeze if the place was that cold. I'm thinking they could be kept outside in beds covered with heavy layers of mulch or something. Whether you could reproduce something like that indoors, well...

I would suggest getting familiar with worms now. I inherited my worms from an elementary school teacher at the end of the school year. They made the most gorgeous compost for me, but eventually had an outbreak of fruit flies and I finally decided to put them outside & let them freeze rather than tolerate the flies any longer. (There were some other things going on in the house that contributed to the fruit flies, namely I was bringing home lots of crabapples to dehydrate & not using them quickly enough.) Nevertheless, fruit fly outbreaks are a common occurence with worms, but not a continous state of affairs.

I am far from an expert on worms, but you could read up a bit if you google the Worm Man. He has demo videos on how easy it is to set up a bin. I'm planning to get another one going soon. He also has info on there on how to make a worm composting toilet. I'll try to find it and link it here.

From
redwormcomposting.com

Human Waste Vermicomposting
Interesting message from Michelle:

We need to further process the human waste from our composting toilet!
I’ve read that vermicomposting could be the answer. Do you agree? Do
we need to make sure that the worms also get kitchen scraps? Also, we
are approximately in your USDA Hardiness zone (4 – 3ish) and want to
keep the worm bins in the basement but are concerned about the
temperatures they need to stay active.

I am so excited about all that I have learned on your site; thank you
for being so education-minded!

Hi Michelle,

I do indeed agree! Using Red Worms (or other composting worm species) to process wastes in a composting toilet is a great idea, and something a surprising number of people have done successfully. You definitely don’t need to provide them with food waste though – believe it or not, human waste is probably closer to the “ideal” food for these wigglers. That said, there’s no reason you couldn’t still toss the food scraps in the same system!

Your mention of “worm bins” actually leads me to believe you might be thinking about removing the waste from the composting toilet and adding it as “food” to a completely separate system (or multiple systems). In all honesty, this really isn’t necessary – you should actually be able to establish a thriving population of worms IN the composting toilet itself.

There are a couple of very important issues to consider though: 1) ammonia/salts (assuming this is not a urine-diverting toilet) and 2) pathogens. I recommend adding LOTS of bedding types of materials such as shredded cardboard on a regular basis. This will help to soak up excess liquid, keep things oxygenated, and just generally provide the worms with a much more substantial safe habitat zone. As for pathogens, while there has been considerable research demonstrating the effectiveness of vermicomposting as a means of destroying pathogens, I still recommend taking a cautious approach with any material removed from the system. You may want to further process it via hot composting before using it – and you may want to avoid using it as fertilizer for food crops (even with additional measures being taken).

It’s been shown that Red Worms hatching into a new environment are much better adapted for life in that environment than adult worms introduced from elsewhere. As such, you MAY want to start up a “regular” worm bin (assuming you don’t already have one) and then just transfer cocoons from it to your composting toilet. Adding a fair amount of habitat zone material (from your worm bin) – containing worms, cocoons etc – away from the main waste drop-off zone (lol) in your toilet holding tank could also prove to be a good stocking strategy. Whatever you do, don’t just toss in a pound of worms and hope for the best!
(Ever heard the expression “throwing your money down the toilet”?)

Regarding your temperature question – if your basement temps dip down below 50 F (10 C) you’ll likely see a pretty substantial slow down in waste processing speed. I would think that the composting toilet tank would stay warmer than the surrounding environment however – these tend to be fairly large, and the combination of nitrogen-rich wastes mixed with lots of c-rich bedding materials should result in lots of microbial activity (results in heat release).

Hope this helps a bit!

Martha,

Excellent post and a wealth of knowledge.

Before I suggested moving extra solid waste in doubled garbage bags and stockpiling in an adjacent condo unit as a lateral move. New thought, during the early stages punch a hole through the floor and use the condo unit below you as the vessel for your composting, worm-digesting toilet. If you generate enough bio-mass it will be self-heating, to a point.

Definately, food for thought.

Mountainman.