Humanure: Extreme Composting

TIME:

For a well over a decade, 57-year-old roofer and writer Joseph Jenkins has been advocating that we flush our toilets down the drain and put a bucket in the bathroom instead. When each bucket in his five bathrooms is full, he empties it in the compost pile in his backyard in rural Pennsylvania.

Read the whole story: TIME

Comments

[monnet]

02:23 AM on 01/31/2010

Composting humanure works!
Here's a radio interview from KBOO in Portland that featured Ole (a doctor) & Maitri Ersson who described using humanure compost on their garden plants -- including their fruits and vegetables. No toilet -- just a bucket, wood chips and a compost bin. They'd successfully raised their children, doing this for over 15 years, and would "never go back to flushing."

http://kboo.fm/node/3348

[VerdantCasey]

05:41 PM on 12/14/2009

Even if you don't think you can compost your household waste, there are plenty of things you can do to support the green revolution. Even if you're not as devoted as Joseph Jenkins, you can do lots in your everyday life. Want to know what you can do? check out http://www.greencollareconomy.com. It has hundreds of case studies on emerging green technology. It's also the largest b2b green directory on the web.

[JScott]

11:22 AM on 12/08/2009

I guess I could get used to it but I still have memories of the smelly dirty outhouse at my grandma's original house in Kansas in the late 1950's.

[Angie Cordeiro]

12:33 PM on 12/08/2009

Composting has evolved a bit since your grandmother's outhouse...if you do it according to the book "Humanure:.." then the rotation and the untreated saw dust keep it smelling GRRREAT ;-)

[americawasgreatonce]

08:55 AM on 12/08/2009

This is not new.

Abbey Rockefeller (yes those Rockefellers) has a company in Canbridge, Ma.
These are great products no smell, no water see:

http://www.clivusmultrum.com/about.shtml

[Jpwill]

02:35 AM on 12/08/2009

There is nothing extreme about it. In our forest cottage, which is off grid, we've been doing it for years.

Damn some towns even run off poo power!

http://www.greenexplorer.ovi.com/getinspired/north-america/usa/energy-saving-4-grid-unlocked-towns/

[Thermodynamics]

12:20 AM on 12/08/2009

What about kitty litter? People use tons of cat litter. I do not mean the kind made of clay. I think one brand is made of alfalfa. Would it be safe to compost this and put it on your garden?

Too bad, but I tend to think it is not safe because cats can have intestinal parasites that infect people.

The key is probably correct fermenting during the composting - you have to make the compost get really warm from bacterial processes. I do not trust my quality control.

[gbrooks]

10:56 AM on 12/08/2009

If you read his humanure book, you'll have all the info you need on what you can and can't compost, even aside from human waste. He discusses parasites and bacteria at length. You probably can compost kitty litter, but you'd want to maintain certain conditions in order to ensure that it's safe.

[mommadona]

11:23 PM on 12/07/2009

We've looked into this for our house - feasible and perfect - would get us off septic. They work. Great for 'off-grid' where water is scarce.

[W i l l]

10:40 PM on 12/07/2009

Ditch the processed foods and bottles full of negligent chemistry....and our 'you are what you eat' leftover fertilizer is primo nutrients for vegetable gardens.

[Bartel5]

10:21 PM on 12/07/2009

There are lots of crops that human waste could be used as fertilizer on. I would avoid vegetables for human consumption, but ornamentals would be fine.

[mamacat]

04:57 AM on 12/08/2009

Human and animal waste is reportedly still used in many of the rice fields of Asia.

I have been told anecdoteally that human and animal waste has been used for a long time in Europe on the roots of fruit trees. In areas where the soil is not great, this practice has been crucial to economical fruit tree harvests. I do not know how the recent introduction of antibiotics and other chemicals into the human gut have effected the safety of this practice.

[JScott]

11:21 AM on 12/08/2009

Somone told me that the bright flowers in the windowboxes of swiss chalets were
that way because of human composting.

[maab76]

11:59 AM on 12/08/2009

In the days of the "Great Depression" there were few farm homes that had electricity or running water. The business of human fecal waste was in "the outhouse" where all fell into a deeply dug pit. The pit was re-excavated each year when the manure spreaders cleared the pile behind the barns and spread it on the fields to nourish the next year's crops.
Has anyone considered the technology that serves airplanes? My understanding is that little water is used, waste is transferred to a holding container which is emptied at a later time. Seems to me that something similar can be designed so that all toilets in a building could be piped to a central holding post where a "spreader" could be backed in to pick up the "tank."
Next, look at faucets and take a trip to Amsterdam where temp is set and "on" is held while being used.

[breakingpoint]

09:20 PM on 12/07/2009

ick! - They use human waste on crops in Mexico.
We shouldn't be eating foods composted in humanbloody and diseasedstool

[SneathLane]

08:20 PM on 12/07/2009

A large percentage of humans still use human excrement to fertilize their fields, from India to Africa to parts of Europe and South America. Without proper composting, it can spread human diseases, but it's done anyway.

With proper composting - it's great stuff for a garden. It doesn't stink once it's been processed, either.

[jsarets]

07:24 PM on 12/07/2009

Human waste can heated to 250C at 600psi to produce 60% liquid hydrocarbons (gasoline and light diesel fractions), 20% methane, and 20% mineral-rich charcoal by dry mass.

Such hydrous pyrolysis is preferable to aerobic composting in that it doesn't emit carbon dioxide, it produces valuable biofuels, and it leaves a stable mineral-rich charcoal that is fantastic as a soil amendment.

The gaseous and/or liquid hydrocarbons can then be gasified via the Kvaerner process to cleave the hydrogen gas from the solid carbon. The hydrogen can be burned cleanly for energy or used to produce nitrogen fertilizers and other materials, and the solid carbon can be easily sequestered.

Most carboniferous materials, including plastics, can be disposed of in this way. In my view, composting is best done with cellulosic waste and earthworms. Other kinds of waste, especially animal wastes, should be disposed of by hydrous pyrolysis or at least anaerobic digestion.

[gbrooks]

05:59 PM on 12/07/2009

I read his handbook over a year ago, just haven't had the courage to try it yet. I do compost "regular" stuff, but haven't gone to the extreme yet.

[prettyinpink]

05:54 PM on 12/07/2009

Yum.

I can not wait to see what is for dinner.

[Angie Cordeiro]

06:53 PM on 12/07/2009

Why wait to see what's for dinner, you are already showering in water that has most probably gone "through" five to ten people. That's right.