My husband and I are looking at purchasing some mountain property in New Mexico and builing a small vacation cabin on it.  The majority of the property has access to the water and electricity, but no septic/sewer.  So I am trying to figure out which would be more cost-effective- a traditional septic system or a composting toilet/greywater irrigation system.  I have researched the basics involved in each, but can't find any cost comparisons anywhere.  I really like the idea of going green with this cabin, but being on a tight budget, it may be impossible.  We would prefer not to use all of our money on the waste disposal system so we can have enough money to actually build the cabin :).  I also got a list of the codes for installing a greywater irrigation system and it seems very strict.  Can anyone help me with info on this?  Thanks in advance!

AFAIK,

Where I live, a graywater disposal system has basicaly 1/2 the leaching field requirements as a full septic system so is rarely cost effective.  Your mileage may vary.  As long as you are not talking about a very small lot, or an area with very high water table, what is it about a septic system that you are trying to avoid?
cheers,
Eric

I don't recall the numbers exactly so I might be off by a little but I looked into this for a new house. I discovered that for me grey water disposal is a nice idea but isn't cheap in the short or long term. I'm assuming that he toilet is for the inside of the house and not a outhouse. The traditional septic $12,000 was much less expensive than any alternative and handles the rest of the water usage. Composing toilets I found ran around $12-15,000 each. Grey water if you are building new is fairly easy to incorporate into the building design. you can just run a dual drain system and put the kitchen sink and toilets on the septic line and the grey water for the grass and non-acid loving plants. Though grey water disposal cost money because of additional pumps, filters, for my house I was looking at an additional $5,000 and a lot of work to bury the lines and emitters for the grey water. After all the research we decided not to bother with grey water and put the money into other things like a pond in case of a fire.

I'm putting in a split system on my new home. Toilets, sinks, and kitchen sink drain to the septic tank. Showers, bathtubs, and washing machine drain to the greywater collection tank and subsequently to a drywell if not pumped for irrigation use. This significantly reduces the load on the septic system.

Thanks for the advice everyone! Eric, we are planning on building on a lot that is a little less than an acre, which enables us to use a traditional septic system. I was just curious as to how feasible putting in "green" septic system would be. Looks like it is a lot more expensive and takes a lot more work! Yikes!