I’m purchasing a property which will not perc for a conventional septic system. There are alternative septic systems that are possible, but also I’m wondering, what about an alternative system altogether? Does anyone have experience with handling greywater and waste separately (say composting for waste) in a home with several members?
I tried a moldering-pit system for a while. I modified a standard toilet by cutting out the siphon and making a barrier wall across the bowl with “white cement”. The urine, on the “front” side went to a drum outside and the solid(ish) waste fell into a concrete chamber with an access door. Two of us, using toilet paper and dropping it down the back hole, made less than 1/3 cubic meter (say 10 gallons) of solid waste per year.
The urine barrel would fill about monthly, and we would alternate between two barrels, so the full barrel would have a month to ferment and then it would be obligatory to apply it for fertilizer so we could resume filling. That was an unpleasant job -distributing it by small hose in a downhill wooded area. The annual scoop-the-poop and bury it in a shallow grave was not so great either. We stuck to it for two years though. Then we went back to a regular toilet since we already had a septic tank for kitchen sink water. If I were looking at a house that had that means of waste management, I would probably keep looking.
If you go alternative - do everything you can to make it low-effort and automatic. Composting is often healthy exercise, but if the compost-turner is ill, the waste will still keep accumulating.