Summer cottages are more often second homes where comfort and functionality are essential.
– We have had a cottage in the Kemiö archipelago for two years. We fell in love with the place and we plan to spend more time on the island, even all year round. There used to be two small cottages here that were built in the early 2000s, but we needed more space, say this family from the Helsinki region.
There was electricity on the island, but water had to be carried and there was an outdoor toilet in the middle of the woods. Their new holiday home was completed in 2021.
– Having a proper WC is important, especially in winter, when you don’t want to have to go wandering off outside. We looked into the various options. We looked at a high-spec incineration toilet and a flushing toilet, but neither of these was really optimal for us. Emptying the tank of a normal flushing toilet once a year by ferry from the island isn’t ecological. The Raita Environment system immediately seemed like the right solution for here. It met our requirements, the mother in the family says.
The house is on top of a rock and we were able to locate the sewage tank nicely at the base of the rock. The team that built the house also installed the toilet and the sewage tank. The system includes two tanks that are easy to exchange. When you switch to one tank, the other one is left to decompose. When its turn comes, the contents of the tank have become pure soil. If you follow the instructions sewage tank is odor-free.
Using nutrients locally benefits the environment
Transporting wastewater to a municipal water treatment plant is costly and isn’t environmentally friendly. Also, the wastewater treatment plants in many holiday cottage municipalities are designed for the wastewater volumes of the existing population centers. If you treat your wastewater and compost the sludge on site, the nutrients can be used locally.
– The system has been in use for a year now. We have been positively surprised at how smoothly it all went, both the planning and installation. Spending time on the island is quite different now. The little cottage was 25 square meters and we were there for almost a year. We didn’t have running water and the old toilet was at the far end of our land. Young people are used to certain comforts in town, and now they are happy to bring their friends to the island. Creature comforts are important, but it’s ecological too. You need to think about the island when you make any alterations. The property also increases in value when you have functioning facilities, the family concludes.