composting toilet

[Qweaver]

I'm going to put an outhouse at my saw shed.  I'm considering a composting toilet, but I know very little about them.  How is the bowl kept clean without water?  How difficult is the emptying process?  I don't have a problem just digging a hole but a traditional outhouse is pretty stinky.  Visitors and customers would be using this toilet.  Would they need to be educated in it's use to avoid a mess?  Any suggestions on brands?

[Dean186]

I have used compositing toilets when I go on hut trips here in the mountains.  The Tenth Mountain Hut Division owns cabins/huts in the mountains here in Colorado with most of them located at timber line.  Some of the composting toilets are located in the log cabin.  This type of composting toilet may not be what you are talking about.  They are just pits with some special ventilation and saw dust is added after each use.  There was no odor.  Directions are simple and are posted on the wall.  They are:

   1)  Do not put trash in toilet.
   2)  Add1/2 cup saw dust after each use.

[Radar67]

I see Dean beat me to it, I was going to suggest a five gallon bucket with sawdust added after each use. When it becomes full, replace with a fresh bucket and take the full one to the compost heap.

[MFinity]

Two of us have been living in our 24' yurt for the past year. We use a 5 gallon bucket inside a simple plywood box with a toilet seat on top. We've used both sawdust and peat moss, adding about a cup after each use. There's little to no odor but just to be on the safe side we light a candle in a simple essential oil infuser to make sure even the most fastidious of visitors won't be offended  :D

Three spare buckets are kept next to the toilet. After about 3 weeks all four are full and I take em out and empty them into the compost pile - that's a separate compost pile for the "humanure".

The Humanure Handbook covers the subject comprehensively  :P
http://www.weblife.org/humanure/index.html