More sawdust and pine shavings should be used If you urinate in your composting toilet and it smells, just add additional sawdust to the mix. Before you begin to use the toilet, make sure to add a few inches to the bottom. Pine shavings are often less expensive than other types of wood shavings.
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.
Vinegar in the liquids container
To fix this we add about 8oz of white vinegar to the empty liquids container. This neutralizes the bad smell and helps dissolve any build up. Also, as a cleaning measure, we keep a small spray bottle of vinegar next to the toilet and spray inside of the toilet bowl after each use.
Important: Water should not be used on its own.
We recommend a mixture of vinegar concentrate and water (1:7). Diluted citric acid can also be used in the same proportions. Either of these blends can easily be mixed in a spray bottle then applied to your toilet.
The most common reason for a smelly composting toilet is the diverter doesn't adequately separate the liquids from the solids. Not all diverters are made equally, and some require more… aim than others. Even if your diverter is working great for you, it might not be for the other members of the household.
If your compost smells sour like ammonia, the most common reason is too much green material and/or a lack of brown material. You should use 2 to 3 times as much browns as greens. Always cover your greens with a layer of browns like leaves.
Lining the bin with newspaper can help absorb some of the odors from organic waste. The paper helps to trap the smell and keep it from spreading. The newspaper can be composted when it is finished. As it is a brown (high carbon) material, it will help balance the high nitrogen kitchen waste you have added.
The various toilet manufacturers recommend using either vinegar or sugar to keep the container odor-free and to keep deposits from building up in the bowl and tank. We tried both and felt that vinegar was by far the better.
A great cleaner for composting toilets is pure vinegar for the urine diverter, the urine bottle, and seat, and an environmentally safe soap mixed with water for the rest. You can also mix water and baking soda as cleaner alternative that is microbe safe.
Because Diarrhea typically has a little more liquid in it than normal 'poop' you may find you might need to run the exhaust fan a little more than you would normally to help evaporate the additional liquid. Other than that, your composting toilet should function as normal, without any issues.
Your composting toilet shouldn't smell, but you could actually make it smell nice, by adding coffee grinds to it. Arrange to get coffee grinds from your local coffee shop on a regular basis, and add them to your toilet in whatever quantity smells good to you.
Excessive amounts of urine will add too much nitrogen, slowing decomposing. Adding pee to a compost pile too frequently will result in a build-up of salts in the compost, which can lead to a toxic environment for the microbes doing the decomposing, slowing, or stopping the composting process.
One other unexpected, and highly beneficial ingredient, you can add to a homemade compost pile is human urine. Many may turn their nose at the thought of being able to put urine on compost, but it is a great source of nitrogen and can even speed up the decomposition process of your compost.
For garden plants in need of a genuine nitrogen boost, once or twice a month is generally fine, though some people will add highly diluted pee a couple of times a week. If you have more pee to give, try your lawn, trees and bushes.
In saying that, for the sake of throwing out a number, on average you can expect to empty your composting toilet every three months or so.
Can you use normal toilet paper? Yes, most definitely. Although we recommend using recycled toilet paper, or even better, 'Who gives a crap' toilet paper. It's really important to not put anything that will harm all the bacteria and microbes that are in your composting pile into your composting toilet.
The disposal should also be done only via residual waste. Although plant cat litter is made from natural materials, it can contain chemical residues from paints and adhesives that are not decomposed during the composting process.
Hydrogen Peroxide Based Products
Products containing hydrogen peroxide can be effective on urine odors and stains. The hydrogen peroxide helps destroy the odor causing bacteria and can also help safely bleach out discolorations on hard and soft surfaces.
Distilled white vinegar is a mild acid that helps neutralize the components in urine. Pour some distilled white vinegar in a spray bottle and liberally spray the areas that have a pee smell.
Aside from using bleach or white vinegar, you can actually make very powerful odor eliminators at home. Try mixing a cup of peroxide, three tablespoons of baking soda, and a couple drops of dish detergent. Spray the area, allow it to sit for about 20 minutes, and rub the area until the foul smell is eliminated.
This problem occurs most often if a composter has been adding high-nitrogen products. The smell signals that the pile has a surplus of nitrogen from too many green materials. The short-term solution is to turn the pile or even spread it out to allow the excess ammonia to vaporize.
Thinly layer green waste with shredded paper and cardboard, which leave air pockets that help to compost without a stench. Culprit two is food waste - remember, meat, fish, dairy and cooked food are all compost-bin no-nos.
Luckily, it's easy to fix smelly compost. To fix slimy, stinky compost in a tumbler, add dry material like brown leaves or straw and then turn the tumbler a few times each day until the moisture balance is right again. A handful of dolomite can also help reduce acidity and sweeten the smell.