Product Review: The Loveable Loo composting toilet system

First off, the Loveable Loo composting toilet is more of a system than a product.  Although they will sell you things, happily, the people at humanurehandbook.com will also give you the plans for the stuff they sell, provide free instruction, and you can build your own.  

They mostly want you to use the Loveable Loo system. Based on what I read in the Humanure manual, their motivation is ecological interest.  It bugs them how much fresh water and valuable compost are wasted in flushing.  (Note:  Our only connection with this company is that I’ve bought some of their product and liked it.)

In the cabin at The Place: The Loveable Loo, bucket full of cover material handy. The water carboy is more than this system would use in a month of changes; it was just what I had on hand.

What is Loveable Loo?

At its heart, the in-house part of the Loveable Loo system is a glorified chamber pot.  It has two very significant improvements over the medieval version…. Well ok, three significant improvements.  

The first is the use of organic cover material.  You put a layer of cover material on the bottom of the bucket, and every time you use it, you add more.  The cover material needs to be finely ground, moist but not wet, not noxious in contents or odor, and biodegradable.  

We use the output of paper shredders, and I’ve also used cut grass that dried out in the sun before I raked it up. 

Sawdust works, as long as the wood was not kiln-dried, so do a bunch of other choices that might be locally available, such as coco fiber in Central America.  The point of the cover material is to prevent air exchange while the pot’s inside (reducing odor by a lot) and providing ‘brown’ compost material for the composting part (more on that later).

The second big improvement is the comfort and stability of the box set over the bucket.  It’s as comfortable, stable, and sturdy as a standard toilet fixture if you buy the Loveable Loo or do a good job building one to their specs.

The third big improvement is the handle.  Five gallon buckets handle a lot easier than ceramic or metal chamber pots.  No nifty hand painted decorations as you see in the antique versions, but hey, get out your brush and knock yourself out if that’s your groove.

What makes it different?

The collection is just the first part of the process.  The real heart of the Loveable Loo system is the answer to the problem, Now What?  Most ‘poop in a bucket’ systems just leave you with a major and gross health hazard.  

Most composting toilets are fiddly and unpleasant. The Humanure system shows you how to compost it in a way that is safe, odor-free, eco-friendly, and exceptionally easy.  

You need to be able to have a compost bin.  My high-tech masterpiece is four pallets held together by fencing wire.  The human material provides a very nitrogen-rich material (‘green’ in the lingo of composters) which is nicely balanced by the cover material (which is why you use something moderately dry and fibrous, ‘brown’ in compost-speak).  You can also add other compostable materials to the bin.  

To empty

You just dump the buckets in (most of what you notice is cover material), add a bit more cover, use a toilet brush and a tiny bit of dish soap to clean the bucket and add that on top, and keep doing that for about a year.

After a bin is full you let it sit another year, then use the compost.

The mix of materials if the system is used as described provides for optimal composting.  If the bin is built according to specs, no material escapes, bottom or sides (or top; it doesn’t stink).  You’re not donating germs to the local water supply.  

Optimal composting is hot enough to kill whatever microbes were in the human waste.  The instructions tell you how to monitor that with a thermometer.  If you’re careful with it, it’s safe compost to use on anything.  Ours system doesn’t produce enough waste to run optimally, so I will treat the compost as if it might have unfriendly microbes in it (probably doesn’t) and use it on trees instead of vegetables.

Pros of the Lovable Loo system:

Very good answer for safe, mostly unobjectionable handling of human waste in a retreat with no plumbing. Easy to build and use.  Minimal odor, has a well thought out approach for keeping things sanitary, and even provides compost.  (Nobody growing their own food every had too much compost.)  Exceptionally cheap if you use their instructions to build your own.

Cons of the Lovable Loo system:

Won’t work for apartment-dwellers, since you need a compost bin.  Requires a good supply of cover material, which might be more difficult to acquire during a crisis than it is now.  You have to change buckets every couple of days to make it really nearly odor-free during summer use.  Needs a little water during bucket changes.  (Their plans include a snazzy bin with its own water catchment system for this purpose.)

The final word:

We use the Lovable Loo system at The Place and I’ve been very pleased with it.  I’ve made sure we’ve some bags of cover material on hand in case we lose sewer service in town, as well.  (We already have a compost bin.) Should some major disaster make the sewers unusable, you can bet I’m going to be on a mission to teach this approach to my neighbors before we start seeing the otherwise-inevitable diseases pop up.

But wait! There’s more!

Prepping to Handle Waste: Loveable Loo Composting Toilet