As Redhill are now the proud owners of a brand new composting toilet, next to our storage unit, it only seems right that we are aware of how to use it and what not to do.
Currently the steward and committee are discussing the best means of access, so please bear with us and in the mean time if you get caught short Iris will be happy to oblige in opening up for you.

Overview

NatSol Compus Twin toilets depend on natural biological processes to breakdown human waste into composted material. To allow this process to function successfully you must follow two golden rules:-

1. No contamination of the composting vaults. The contents of your composting vault should only be human waste with little or no urine, toilet paper (preferably non-chlorine bleached) and a recommended soak material - see below.

2. Time As the Compus system uses natural biological processes to convert potentially harmful waste into useful compost the process cannot be rushed. When your first vault is full it must be sealed with the cover provided for at least one year for the beneficial bacteria present in the vault to do their work.

Using your composting toilet

Defecation
Use the toilet in the same way you would a WC. After you have finished you will need to add a handful of soak material to the vault. A container of soak should be kept in the toilet cubicle to facilitate this.

Female urination only
Use the toilet as you would a WC. After you have finished simply close the lid, it is not necessary to add soak material to the vault if you have only urinated.

Male urination only
If you are sure that you only wish to urinate do not use the compost toilet, use the wall mounted urinal provided. Remember the urinal is non flushing.

Hand cleansing
You toilet comes supplied with a waterless hand disinfectant system.

Notes

1. The toilet lid should always be left in the closed position, failure to do so could compromise the vault ventilation system and will increase the likelihood of flies entering the vault.
2. Sanitary towels must not be placed in the toilet. Please dispose of these in a suitable rubbish bin clearly marked to distinguish it from the soak bin.

Management

Apart from normal good hygiene practice of cleaning external surfaces, as you would a conventional WC, your Compus toilet needs little day to day maintenance. The pedestal is designed to minimise fouling in normal use.

Weekly Procedures
Periodically you should check the urine separating plate situated on the front internal face of the toilet pedestal. Remove any solid matter or paper that may have adhered to the plate by spraying with a non-chlorine cleaning solution and using a suitable brush.

Check the soak bin is full. Wood shavings make good soak material but not sawdust. Chopped barley straw is a very good soak material as it assists rapid deomposition. With barley straw, in particular, manure worms could be introduced and will speed up cdecomposition. They can usually be found in animal manure and rich garden compost heaps. Shredded paper may work well.

Clean the ceramic urinal bowl with a similar cleaning solution and flush with approximately a litre of clean water. If the toilet is on a site that has a large number of users or is open to the public you may have to increase the frequency of the above. If the toilet is for private use a weekly cleaning should normally be sufficient.

Other Toilet Management
The frequency of the following operations is dependant on the amount the toilet is used and how familiar the users are with the compost toilet practice. We would normally recommend that the following operations are performed at least every other month.

Unscrew and remove the emptying hatch of the active vault which is situated directly in front of the toilet pedestal. Check the compost pile of 'peaking' and if required rake with the tool provided towards the front door end of the vault. The object of this operation is to prevent excessive build up of material directly below the toilet which could ultimately impede the function of the urine trough; at no time should the urine be closer to the urine trough than 100mm. This operation also helps to bring the pile into the final position for emptying after the vault resting period. During this operation the progress of the composting can be checked and if the compost is dry it will be beneficial to add sufficient water to dampen the pile. Try to distribute this evenly. Leave the rake in the vault.

At the same time you can visually inspect the urine trough at the bottom of the separating plate to ensure that this is not becoming blocked with paper or solid matter. If you find this to be the case clear the blockage with a suitable implement. In the case of a severe blockage it may be nesessary to remove the rodding cap on the outside of the building and rod the urine trough clear.

Twice a year, or after clearing a blockage in the urine trough, it is advisable to check and clean the back of the inlet gully leading to the soakaway.

The resting vault should be checked 3 or 4 times during its 12 month resting period. Remove the front access hatch (and the rear one next to the pedestal if necessary) and check to see if the pile is dry. If so we advise distributing water evenly over the pile until damp to promote better composting.

Low use situations
If your Compus Twin toilet is used very infrequently it may be acceptable to allow some urine to enter the vault to encourage good decomposition. This could be provided by standing males using the pedestal rather than the urinal.

Annual change over of vaults

General notes
Uncomposted human waste and urine is potentially hazardous and may contain pathogenic organisms. You should therefore observe hygiene precautions during this procedure. We recommend the wearing of rubber gloves and appropriate clothing and footwear.

To change vaults over use the following procedure
With the toilet seat open and wearing gloves, reach inside and swing the urine plate backwards whilst lifting the front of the pedestal. Now slide the pedestal forward to release the rear retaining clip. As you remove the pedestal the urine separating plate will swing free and hang lower than the base of the pedestal. Make sure that this part of the unit does not swing into feet or legs or strike the floor. Take the assembly outside whilst swapping the hatch covers. We suggest you may also wish to take this opportunity to clean the inside of the assembly when it is outside. Turn the pedestal upside down on a non scratchin surface. The urine separating plate can be removed completely by undoing the bolts from which it hangs but we advise against this unless there is a very good reason.

Taking care with regard to the open vault aperture, unscrew and remove the hatch cover situated to the side of the open vault. Place this hatch cover into the frame that previously held the toilet pedestal and screw down. If you have a wall mounted soak bin move this across to an equivalent position on the other side. Bring the toilet pedestal back into the cubicle and taking care to locate the back of the pedestal into the new vault opening and push the urine plate back so that it drops through the hole. To check that the lower edge of the urine separating plate is above the collection trough you can look through the emptying hatch in front of the toilet. The toilet is now ready to use.

Second and subsequent vault change
The vault which has been resting for a year or more will need to be emptied. This is done by removing the hatch closest to the door over the resting vault and using the tool provided to lift out the compost into a wheelbarrow or suitable bags. The vault does not need to be cleaned out completely. Leave about 50mm (2") of compost to help seed the next batch with useful organisms. The hatch is then refitted and the pedestal swapped over as described above.

The finished compost should be used or disposed of in accordance with environment agency and local authority guidelines or further composting can be carried out in a dedicated composting facility on site before eventual use or disposal.