Humanure already has a tough time in becoming an acceptable practice in modern society. It is taxing enough to produce outside of the cramped cities, but next to impossible to produce within them; according to Joe Jenkins, author of The Humanure Handbook, it takes two years of composting your poop with table scraps and other carbon-rich absorbent materials to kill the pathogens and produce efficient, truly man-made fertilizer. Saving two years’ worth of shit in the city will be very difficult when you’re paying a premium per square foot.
Most people think it’s a terrible idea to compost your own waste product, inasmuch as it’s been proven to be particularly worthwhile fertilizer. We tend to not care about that matter, instead simply accepting that our own poop is nasty and best eliminated and forgotten about.
Still, it’s a very green idea, will save 1/3rd of your yearly water use, and if you are a grower, it’s nitrogen rich and full of other nutrients. If done correctly, it is said to not smell. And the hippies will adore you for it (a mixed blessing).
If you are the least bit curious about processing your own feces, there is an abundance of material out there helping to guide the way.
• Humanure [wikipedia.org]
• The Humanure Handbook [weblife.org]
• Compost Humanure [journeytoforever.org]
• Backyard Gardener: Few people attempt this kind of composting [post-gazette.com]
• Phoenix Composting Toilet System [compostingtoilet.com]
(Image: journeytoforever.com)
It’s a great and noble idea and all, but I just couldn’t do it, even if I lived in the country and it could be far, far away from the house. It’s my POO. I don’t want to ever have my hands in it, even to tend a garden, and even if it is 2 years old. It just seems gross for it to be human poo, i’d much rather buy cow crap, or get a goddamn cow. (bonus: cows are cute! and you can milk them!)
Much love to those who want to do this though! Just don’t invite me to help you garden.
I’m with you, Susie. My sister the eco-warrior brought along a bucket-crapper much like the one pictured when we went to Burning Man last year, though it was more for the ease of being able to avoid the stinking portapotties. I couldn’t use it, even with the promise that the sawdust would kill the stink.
Like you said, “It’s my POO.” I don’t like having it in me or near me, and I actually enjoy watching it disappear down the toilet; it’s reassuring that I’ll never have to deal with it again. Well, not for another six hours or so, anyway.
I have a friend in Texas who composts her family’s poo. I’ve asked her to contribute something on topic this week; maybe it’ll be an expansion of this subject.
I’m fine with this. But not indoors.
I don’t think it bothers me so much the idea of composting my own waste, as odious, pun intended, as that practice seems.
I’m more concerned with other people attempting this procedure.
I don’t trust the general populace to drive competently or avoid hitting the toilet seat when they’re peeing, the very idea of the vast unwashed masses, let alone hippies, playing with their own poo is unsettling, noble idea or not.
He was harvesting a big tomato…
A photo like the one for this story does not do composting toilet systems justice. There are “homemade” compost toilets, which can have aesthetic issues (such as the bucket with a seat jobbie shown). But, a manufactured system is not the same and can look quite “normal.”
It seems to be there MUST be an easier way!
Those of you who find composting your POO repulsing need to think about this: Would you rather compost your poo or drink it? Many times when you flush your waste down the toilet it goes into a septic system where it is mixed with water and the solids settled out into a vault. This water then goes into a leach fields where it leaches through the soil and into the ecosystem. Many septic systems are not maintained properly and the fecal coluform count at the effluent of the systems is FAR above the acceptable levels. where does this fecal coluform wind up? In your water supply!
Composting your own poo does not mean you are handling your “crap” nor does it mean that it has to sit around for 2 years. If you use a self-contined system like a BioLet (www.biolet.com) it will compost the material in a couple of months. These types of systems set up the ideal environment to minimize the amount of time needed to compost the material. The you just pull out a tray of “dirt” once every couple of months and dump it in your flower garden.
Personally, I would rather carry out a tray of dirt than drink my poo!
The manufactured commercial composters are quite pricy. If they get used frequently, they will fill up before the deposited material has composted. They require electricity for the fan that dries out the material. The bucket toilets make the most sense to me. You need a good cover material like sawdust to kill the odor and balance the nitrogen/carbon ratio. You need to find a way to transport the buckets to a collection/composting center in your local area. Maybe, in the future, we will employ professionals to come to our home and “harvest” our humanure.
Water scarcity will become more and more of problem as drought becomes more frequent and glaciers continue to melt. Also, as the price of oil continues to rise, there will be more of a need to find substitutes for fossil fuel based fertilizers and pesticides. Humanure compost doesn’t need to be used on veggie crops, it can used to fertilize trees or grow biofuel feedstock for example.
In humanure solidarity -bill