a toilet waste question

[sandyshore]

i am moving to start a new full time life abroad in the alentejo region of portugal in a natural park miles from anywhere and without trash collection.

the toilets go into a "self cleaning septic tank" which i cant put any toilet paper into..

what do people do with the toilet paper which will go into a bin next to the toilet?

can i burn it? is this the most environmentally friendly way of getting rid of this waste?

your help is much appreciated.

[Annpan]

Maybe someone with more experience can answer this but why can't you flush loo-roll???

Most septic tanks can be used in such a way as to reduce the emptying and I am relyably informed that if you are carefull you can get away with never emptying it. But you can flush loo-roll down them - especially the recycled type which I think breaks down quicker than your quilted Kleenex /Andrex type.

Hmmm

[Clara]

Hi there, we have the exact same setup in the south of spain. In the winter when we have a fire going, we burn it all. But at the moment we bag it and take it to the bin (which is 1km walk away). I guess you could compost it or use an alternative to loo roll such as cloth or the water/hand method

Annpan - I think it´s not quite the same thing as a septic tank as you know it. I have only just emptied ours, due to a blockage, it´s been in use for 20 years and this is the first time! I think that it is some kind of two tank soak-away system, rather than a sealed tank which you have to get sucked out (good job in our case, no road!)

Clara x.

[red]

at my last home we had a septic tank - with soak aways - we flushed toilet paper down it just fine. emptied about once in 20 years

[Clara]

at my last home we had a septic tank - with soak aways - we flushed toilet paper down it just fine. emptied about once in 20 years

Interesting, maybe it´s just habit here then, as most people with mains sewage can´t flush loo roll - don´t ask me why, but it leads to instant blockage.....

When we emptied ours, we dug a shallow channel to where we wanted it to go and opened the pipe.......smelled quite bad for a day or so, but in this heat the bacteria were quickly dealt with I guess.

[Muddypause]

Is Portuguese or Spanish bog roll different to the stuff here? Must say, I'm surprised to hear that you can't flush it, too.

[red]

I think maybe the pipes are smaller.. so more likely to blck the loos and soil pipes rather than then tanks

I can remember toilets in greece with a bin for the loo paper next to it... eww... unhygenic or what....

[possum]

We have a septic tank like the sort you mention. It probably will need emptying out eventually, say 10 or 20 years.
You can happily put loo roll down it, just use as little as is practical. The things that are not so good to put lots down are things like bleach etc which will kill of the bacteria needed to break stuff down.
Also using shower gell rather than soap apparently is the thing to do as it is a petroleum based product and again does'nt kill the bacteria so easily

[sandyshore]

Thank you all for your comments

my plan at present is to buy strong paper bags (like the ones the americans get to carry their supermarket shopping) put these in the little bin next to the loo and empty the bin every day into a compost bin.. put as far away as i can from my house.

if i did this and didnt add anything else to the compost bin, could i theoretically one day use the compost bin contents on my garden, though i dont reckon on anything edible?

[Clara]

I´m not a compost expert but I think you would need some other material too. The world is divided over whether it is safe to put toilet waste compost on edible plants - to be honest I´d worry more about the dioxins in the paper than the poo!

[Sassinak]

The other thing to bear in mind is that if my dogs reaction to babies nappies is anything to go by, dogs love human poo. If you have a dog you might have to fence it out of the area.

[Annpan]

Annpan - I think it´s not quite the same thing as a septic tank as you know it. I have only just emptied ours, due to a blockage, it´s been in use for 20 years and this is the first time! I think that it is some kind of two tank soak-away system, rather than a sealed tank which you have to get sucked out (good job in our case, no road!)

Clara x.

As far as I know most septic tanks in Britain are brick built with soak away systems - though I know that their are fibre glass models that should be emptied once a year I know my sister has lived in her house for 20 years and has only emptied hers once... and that was because someone flushed babywipes down and blocked it. You can also buy a bottle of special septic tank chemicals (whatever they might be) to flush down your loo and save emptying your tank.

The idea of using human poo as compost is frequently dealt with on here, most people seem to favour using it for 'non- contact' food like fruit trees and bushes, rather than root veg or lettuce etc.

[Clara]

a mystery then! maybe it´s the loos themselves, ours does seem to have a tighter u-bend.... anyhow you CANNOT flush loo roll down most spanish loos without blocking them, the only exceptions I´ve come across are in "posh" places like shopping malls and airports.

[ohareward]

Hi all. I just need to clear up one small thing first. When people talk about loo rolls, are you talking about the cardboard part or just the paper. Loo rolls will block up the pipes. Toilet paper is usually made out of stuff that is okay for septic tanks. It breaks down quite readily.
Here is a site that explains how the system works.

www.totalfrance.com/france/fiches.php?fiche_id=48

Our system has three tanks. When the crust builds up (or down in this case) and the sludge builds up and there is less room for the water, we then get a firm in to suck it all out. This is done about every 3-4 years depending on the number of people using the system. When it is emptied a sachet of bacteria in a soluble plastic bag is put in the toilet last thing at night, flushed, and left to start the process again. On the web site it said that if you take all the sludge out it will take about a year to start again. This why we put the sachet in straight after. The contents are taken to the council sewage works and disposed of.

Robin

[rag_grrl_nz]

Have you thought about cutting down your toilet paper use by using wee rags for the girls? We use old cloth flat nappies cut up into small pieces, they get washed and re-used. I can't quite bring myself to wash poo rags for the whole family but wee rags cut down toilet paper use dramatically.