Home » Posts tagged 'humanure'
Tag Archives: humanure
Humanure Part 2: Dealing With It
HUMANURE PART 2: DEALING WITH IT
In part 1(1) of this article I explored a little into why humanure is beneficial to the planet, including the need to replenish our aquifers and for people to have access to safe drinking water, the high phosphorous content of human poo compared to the finite and dwindling supply of phosphate rock as an agricultural product, and the reconnection of the ‘human nutrient cycle’ (2). In this part I will look more deeply into the different ways you can safely use humanure, and make some practical suggestions for beginning the process of redressing the human nutrient balance, even while we live within an unbalanced system.
Ways to deal with our crap
In ‘The Humanure Handbook’ (2) , Joseph Jenkins points out that we as a species have four different ways to deal with human excrement:
- To treat it as a waste product and dispose of it – this includes all water-based sanitation techniques such as flush toilets. As mentioned in part 1, this method ends up contaminating water even if the sewage is later treated, exacerbates the spread of water-borne diseases, and ignores the principle of ‘Produce No Waste’.
- To use it unprocessed in agriculture – at the time of the Handbook’s publication (1999) this was apparently still a common practice in parts of Asia (2). As you may guess, spreading unprocessed human waste on fields can be quite a large health risk because of the pathogens which are present in fresh humanure. This practice, euphemistically known as ‘night soil collection’ (3) , has apparently now been banned in many countries although there are some reports of people continuing to use fresh human waste, or ‘faecal sludge’ on their crops, for example in India (4) .
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Humanure is No Laughter Matter, Part 2: The Easy-Does-It Instructions
Humanure is No Laughter Matter, Part 2: The Easy-Does-It Instructions
So, it would seem with one mountain of humanure now behind us—that, without a doubt, we should be composting human feces and urine (and, some would say, will eventually have no real choice in the matter)—it is now time to address exactly how this movement should begin. For those who missed last week’s article, please feel free to hit the pause button for a recap or simply press on knowing that we adequately explained that bathroom composting is a world must-do.
In urban settlements, the cities proper, where back gardens don’t exist and life is more or less walled-in, there are ready-made composting toilets suitable for the run-of-the-mill, high-rise apartment. These are stand alone, often electrically run, designs that deal with excrement right away, typically drying it out and leaving behind but of miniscule fraction of what originally exited. This, of course, works fine and is a viable solution for urban, suburban and even rural situations.
However, this article is meant for those of us who are in less urban circumstances. We are talking the ¼ acre or more crew with compost bins of our own, a penchant for growing edible landscapes, and a realized pursuit, at least in part, of the agricultural side of self-sufficiency. For those folks, missing out on humanure compost is something that can (and should) be remedied ASAP and easily.
THE ONE-PARAGRAPH REVISION OF WHY IT’S THE TIME FOR CHANGE
Human feces and urine are valuable cycles within the natural system. By taking them out of it via flush toilets, we are leaving the land depleted of useful nutrients, essentially taking out the soil-replenishing part of the garden to mouth to soil back to the garden circle. We are also wasting a massive amount of fresh water and seriously polluting our landscapes and water sources, including lakes, rivers, oceans, and underground springs.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
