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• Choices of alternative toilets and toilet designs where water usage, electrical power, or onsite septic systems are limited or unavailable
• Guide to choices among chemical toilets, composting toilets, low water toilets, no-water toilets, electric toilets, & incinerating toilets as components of alternative septic systems
• Toilet product sources & product comparisons

This chapter provides information about waterless & low water septic systems, waterless toilets, chemical toilets, incinerating toilets, holding tanks, disinfection septic systems, & greywater systems. This document also has links to septic design engineers, advanced septic system products and books.

Waterless toilets, low-water toilets, holding tanks, and graywater systems are alternative designs for sites where a septic system can't be installed or where water is in limited supply or not available at all. Examples of advanced septic designs which may need to employ waterless or low-water usage toilets include aerobic septic systems, chemical, composting, incinerating & waterless toilets, evaporation-transpiration (ET) septic systems, septic media filters, greywater systems, holding tank septic systems, mound septics, raised bed septics, pressure dosing septic systems, sand bed filters, peat beds, constructed wetlands, and septic disinfection systems.

Alternative onsite wastewater disposal systems can reduce the soil absorption area or leach field size requirement substantially and can in fact in some cases reduce the needed area to zero. For problem sites where space or soil conditions make it difficult to install a conventional leach field these designs are very important alternatives.

Alternative Septic System Designs for wet sites, steep sites, rocky sites, limited space, and other difficult site conditions. Consultants in this field can be listed at our alternative septic designers page at no charge by contacting me. Also see The Septic System Information Website. Massachusetts Title 5 Licensed Septic System Inspector, & New York State H.I. License # 16000005303 (inception to 2008). Technical reviewers welcomed and are listed at Reviewers.

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Buyers Guide to Waterless & Low Water Septic Systems & Toilets & Greywater Systems

General Categories of Onsite Residential Wastewater Treatment Systems

Because various texts provide so many different views of categorizing wastewater systems, I've made this simple list which groups wastewater treatment systems into a few major categories:

(1) Conventional septic tank and drainfields using native soils for effluent absorption and treatment

(2) Raised bed and septic mound systems which take a similar approach but have to bring in fill to treat effluent

(3) Septic filter systems: various types of advanced material media filtration systems (sand beds, filter beds, synthetic textile filters, foam media filters including above-ground self-contained systems)

(4) Aerobic septic systems which insert additional oxygen into and agitate sewage in the primary treatment tank

(5) Waterless and low-water and greywater-separation systems, which may not really treat effluent, may not discharge anything into the environment, but which form another set of alternative designs where water supply or land use restrictions mean that a conventional system is not permitted.

Adding to the complexity of what to call various septic systems, there are also categories of methods of septic effluent dispersal such as gravity-fed, trickle-down, pressure dispersal, sprinkler dispersal, and intermittent effluent dosing systems which use gravity or pressure.

In case this is not enough, there are also various levels of degree of treatment of septic effluent achieved by different versions of these systems. So you may read about more than one type of pressure-dosing filter bed system which look a lot alike but which achieve different degrees of effluent treatment.

Keeping these general categories in mind when reviewing various off-the-shelf packaged systems or wastewater treatment systems with interesting but non-descriptive names (like the "magic bullet treatment box") will help you to understand the general approach which has been taken. Further reading will be needed to understand the installation cost, maintenance cost, and level of management required of each type of septic system.

Each of the links below presents a document with more in-depth information about each of these alternative septic system designs.

• Chemical Toilets: use a chemically treated reservoir located directly below the toilet seat. The chemicals reduce odors and perform partial (incomplete) disinfection of the waste. Chemical toilets have limited storage capacity and must be pumped and periodically cleaned by a septic company. Similar to simple chemical toilets but more sophisticated in design are recirculating toilets which separate the waste from the chemical and then re circulate the fluid through the toilet tank.
  
  
• Composting Toilets: may be used where the water supply is limited or not available at all, or where a building owner for other reasons wishes to conserve water use. Other wastewater treatment will still be required for handling graywater from sinks and showers.
  
  
• Disinfection Septic Systems: use chlorination or ultraviolet light (UV) to disinfect wastewater effluent before it is discharged to the environment.
  
  
• Drip Dispersal septic tank effluent systems - (Jantrania/Gross wastewater system type III or if treated to level 2 or better effluent, Jantrania/Gross wastewater system type VII)
  
  
• Greywater Septic Systems: refer to systems which reduce the liquid effluent load on a septic system by separating greywater (or graywater) from sinks and showers from blackwater (black water) from toilets. When we inspect a home which uses a separate drywell to handle greywater we presume that the owners discovered that their septic system, or at least its leach field, was of limited capacity or life.
  
  
• Holding Tank Septic Systems: use a sealed tank to hold household waste and wastewater until the tank can be pumped out by a septic pumping company. Most jurisdictions do not permit septic holding tanks as a permanent wastewater handling method for full-time occupied residences, but holding tanks may be permitted during new home construction and in other special cases. In New York State we've seen holding tank systems in use on small-lot properties located along the Hudson River. Generally such systems will not be acceptable for full time occupied residences as even a large tank of several thousand gallons will require frequent and costly pumping and disposal.
  
  
• Incinerator Toilet Septic Systems: incinerator toilets use electricity or gas to burn the waste placed into these systems. Like chemical toilets and holding tanks they have limited capacity, are used where water is not available or must be conserved, and they do not address the handling of remaining graywater from sinks and showers. My favorite of this type was the "Destroylet" incinerator toilet which was electric/propane fueled and which is no longer on the market. Each flush resulted in a more than 10-minute burn cycle which produced a pretty smelly exhaust.
  
  
• Waterless toilets, low water toilets, and graywater systems: for a detailed discussion of each toilet type, see the various toilet types and greywater/graywater links shown above on this page and re-listed below. (Jantrania/Gross consider this septic design option "Wastewater System Type IV").
  A product source for low-water toilets is LetsgoGreen 1-pint flush toilets. Product sources for other types of toilets are included in the articles on each toilet type in the list above and listed again in links below.
  
  Product submissions are welcome Contact Us. No conflicts of interest: We have no financial business relationship nor any other economic relationship with any product or service discussed at this website.

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TOILET ALTERNATIVES
    General Categories of Waterless
    Chemical Toilets
    Composting Toilets
    Greywater Septic Systems
    Holding Tank Septic Systems
    Incinerator Toilet Systems

  ALTERNATIVE SEPTIC PRODUCTS
    Aerobic Septic System Products
    Alternative Septic System Product Suppliers
    Septic System Filters
    Gravelless Leach Field Systems
    Septic Effluent Distribution Products
    Toilets & Alternative Toilet Types
    Other Septic Wastewater Treatment Products
    Directory of Septic Suppliers
Also see
    Plumbers & Septic Repairs
    Septic Tank Suppliers

• Alan Carson Carson Dunlop Associates, Toronto, Ontario. Mr. Carson is a home inspection professional, educator, researcher, writer, and a principal of Carson Dunlop Associates, a Toronto home inspection and education firm. Mr. Carson is a past president of ASHI, the American Society of Home Inspectors
• Mark Cramer Inspection Services Mark Cramer, Tampa Florida, Mr. Cramer is a past president of ASHI, the American Society of Home Inspectors and is a Florida home inspector and home inspection educator. (727) 595-4211 mark@BestTampaInspector.com 11/06
• Hankey and Brown home inspectors, Eden Prairie, MN, technical review by Roger Hankey, prior chairman, Standards Committee, American Society of Home Inspectors - ASHI. 952 829-0044 - hankeyandbrown.com 11/06
• Arlene Puentes, a licensed home inspector, educator, and building failures researcher in Kingston, NY. 11/29/06

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