For years I’ve been taking a pee jug along when I go camping. I buy a 2-gallon jug of kitty litter and keep the nice wide-mouth jug it comes in. They’re firm plastic and have a nice handle. I keep one right outside my tent for midnight pees. Way easier than hoofing all the way to the bathrooms or whatever.

This time we actually brought the pee back and added it to the compost pile! It’s like two of my hobbies finally came together after years. Huzzah!

  • scarabic@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Ah I see! Well you must have been the hero of the hour, giving the ladies a way to pee that wasn’t even gross!

    • Treevan 🇦🇺@aussie.zoneEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Ha, I dont know about that. Someone bought it, just a bucket and a toilet lid and since I was into biochar, I thought I could make this a little less disgusting.

      I even trialled a bird cage with char as a substrate, worm farming, greywater reed bed, tank base, water treatment -drinking and dirty, potting medium, animal pen flooring, animal feed etc. I used to share all the experiments. Char is easy to make at home and it does have a 1001 uses while having the feel good of permanently locked carbon. One thing I haven’t done as I dont have one is use it as the replacement for “carbon” in a proper composting toilet system, I think it would be much better than sawdust.

      I probably wouldn’t use it as a kitty litter tray as the dirty footprints after would be a bit disgusting but it would work.

      • scarabic@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        11·
        1 year ago

        If it’s “permanently locked carbon” then that would imply it’s not available for chemical reactions. And so I don’t see how it can be the browns in your compost. Doesn’t it have to be bioavailable to be composted? If it’s available for reactions, it isn’t permanently sequestered, right?

        • Treevan 🇦🇺@aussie.zoneEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          It’s not the browns for a compost, it’s an addition of 5-10%. Humanure usually goes out into another composting system for 12 months before use, the addition of biochar carbon during the pooping phase would be an experiment to see if it cuts smells (which is what the addition of small amounts of sawdust does). You’re not really creating a browns:greens compost ratio in a composting toilet, particularly with the small addition of sawdust each time you poop.

          The char attracts ions and other charges, the structure holds microbes. It’s still doing stuff even though it’s mostly inert.

          You can read a few articles here if you have account: https://medium.com/tag/biochar