If you're not sure what to do with waste, why not just burn it instead? Incinerating toilets are specifically designed for this purpose and are simple to install and operate.

What do you do with the sewage problem when water is in short supply, or you do not have a sewer or septic line? Homesteaders have dealt with this issue by installing outhouses and battling the elements whenever the weather demands. Outhouses, however, require additional real property and aren't forever; they have to be moved once they're full.

Three options for people who prefer having their bathroom in the home include composting, chemicals, and incinerating the toilet. Of the three options, incinerating toilets are the cleanest.

What Is an Incinerating Toilet?

The name suggests that the incinerating toilet is a device that will burn human waste. Most commonly, they are single units; however, there are systems that connect several toilets to a central unit for incinerating.

Standalones run on propane, electricity, natural gas, or diesel. In general, they burn off garbage after every use. Systems with multiple units typically turn on only after reaching a certain quantity of garbage.

Incineration toilets are able to handle solid and liquid waste. They expel odorous gases using an exhaust pipe that is, in the most efficient models, equipped with catalytic converters to "scrub" the gases and transform them into harmless. When properly utilized, incinerating toilets don't need any cleaning. The only need for maintenance is periodically emptying the storage tank for ash.

Incineration toilets don't need a connection to sewers or the aid of water. Installation is straightforward, drop the toilet in position, then attach a vent pipe to it and connect it to a source of power. Plug it in by hard wiring it or connecting it to a fuel line.

How Does an Incinerating Toilet Work?

A toilet that is incinerating is designed as a regular toilet. A trap door on the base of the cone-shaped bowl leads to a reservoir for waste which is home to the incinerator. Certain models require you to place a cone-shaped paper liner in the bowl. Other models have a smaller reservoir of water to clean the bowl.

After flushing the water, your contents (and any liner, if one) goes into the reservoir or are pumped into it by an abrasive gear. They're then transformed into ashes once the burning cycle starts.

A single use can produce about 1 teaspoon of ash, that's about one cup of ash per person each week. The ash is stored in a reservoir located at the bottom of the toilet, under the incineration chamber. It has to be cleaned out regularly and is usually done by taking out the drawer. Ash is clean of pathogens and bacteria and has enough potassium and phosphorous to serve as fertilizer for the garden.

The burn process typically ceases after someone lifts the lid. The cycle is activated by pressing buttons (equivalent to flushing), which allows two or three persons to flush the toilet at once.