Talk:Dry toilet

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Test Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 07:11, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

Australian suburbs and pit latrines
Without any references this section should be removed. To the best of my knowledge most suburbs used the "pan" system where a small tank was exchanged and the effluent taken to a central location for processing. Not pit latrines at all. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 1.178.213.192 (talk) 00:08, 19 September 2015 (UTC)


 * OK, I have changed it from pit latrine to dry toilet, this would be correct (dry toilet: not sewered). EvM-Susana (talk) 09:07, 24 September 2015 (UTC)

Great Britain
"emptied directly" I believe the contents were "dug in". All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 14:29, 10 October 2015 (UTC).

Better composting toilet photo?
User:Bio-CLC: I would prefer a different composting toilet photo. This one is not great. Why have a schematic when there are lots of normal composting toilet photos? EMsmile (talk) 21:21, 3 October 2017 (UTC)
 * The schematic explains what is going on. A photo of a composting toilet would look almost exactly like an overly full (digusting) pit latrine. If you have a better schematic of a composting toilet, I would suggest that we can post that. Of course, Clivus Multrum is only one type of composting toilet, but all we need here is an example. Bio-CLC (talk) 10:32, 4 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Why don't we just take a photo from the article on composting toilet, like the one from the lead? I would prefer that to the schematic as it somehow implies that Clivus Multrum is the gold standard which it is not. EMsmile (talk) 14:02, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

We need to improve the challenges section
User:Bio-CLC You asked me why I removed the pit emptying photo. This one, see on the right:

Firstly, it was in the history section where it didn't make sense. Secondly, it could be added perhaps to the section on challenges but we first need to re-write that section! As you can see the article doesn't really "mean" pit latrines when it talks about dry toilets (it is mostly thinking of UDDTs and composting toilets). This is something we need to clarify. Then we can broaden up the challenges section to include information on pit emptying. Then it would make sense to add that image. - The article says that a pit latrine is a "dry toilet" but I am not so sure because most pits are pretty wet... We might need to seriously re-think how we want to explain this. If the article is really mainly about UDDTs and composting toilets then a pit emptying photo is confusing. Also I think we cannot say something like "no one should have to do this kind of work.". Take a look at the captions used at fecal sludge management or manual scavenging, I think they are clearer. Anyway I don't think we need to dive too deeply into pit emptying issues here as we have other articles for that: pit latrine, fecal sludge management or manual scavenging. This article here is meant to be about what dry toilets are and not what they NOT are, or how it should NOT be? Otherwise you could now start to adding images about water pollution, water wastage etc. - more examples of what a dry toilet is NOT... EMsmile (talk) 14:07, 4 October 2017 (UTC)
 * The pit latrine is a type of dry toilet and it makes sense to indicate acceptable and unacceptable ways to manage, especially since many people hear of dry toilets and immediately presume we are talking about pit latrines. Bio-CLC (talk) 13:33, 6 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Looking at the article again, I've realised it needs a lot of work to clarify what we are talking about when we talk about dry toilets. While pit latrines theoretically belong to dry toilets, in practice most people in the sector do NOT think of a pit latrine when they write about dry toilets. I will try to make that clearer in the article, although the hard part will be to find suitable references to substantiate this. I will also re-arrange the photos in a gallery style; one photo for each type of dry toilet (but no photo for pit emptying; if we started to add photos about toilet emptying, then we would also need that for the other types of toilets). That particular photo that you chose is very powerful. For that reason, it is already included in the article about pit latrines where it fits perfectly. I have now also added it to the article on FSM where it also fits well (note also the caption that I used; in my opinion suitable). Here on the page of dry toilets it does not fit, in my opinion, as it would go too far to talk about emptying or other issues for each of the different types. That's what the other linked articles are for. EMsmile (talk) 17:08, 8 October 2017 (UTC)
 * have reworked the article now, although more work is needed; also still need to find some suitable references.EMsmile (talk) 17:48, 8 October 2017 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 18:37, 27 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Defecating into a pit (schematic).jpg