Humanure - Composting Toilet...

[SigP510]

ppppppppppp

[meaty-btz]

HUman waste is a very risky fertilizer. Transmissible diseases and the use of human waste for fertilizer is responsible for many an outbreak in history.

[SigP510]

True.

Honestly, I wasn't thinking of this as an amendment for edible plant soil...
Just as means to handle the waste if the water goes out for an extended period.

Better than digging a hole or building a latrine.

[Chaparral]

Stuff like that can be worked into the ground around fruit trees or bushes. Root and vegetable crops where the edible part come in contact with the soil, not so much. You could also use that for things like squash, pole beans, tomato etc so long as the plants are trained up a trellis and the fruits don't come in contact with the soil. Growing grain crops like corn or wheat should be ok too.

There was a book out there somewhere "Farmers of 40 Centuries" that discussed this practice as it's been done for 4000 years in China.

[Kid Stanislaus]

Yeah, they've got them "honey pots" they use to haul the sewage out to the rice fields. Our guys got a good exposure to that practice in Viet Nam.

[Californio]

Old but Good Book that covers Composting and Sanitation

http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0203cat/020302rodale/020302intro.html

[Dreaded Claymore]

HUman waste is a very risky fertilizer. Transmissible diseases and the use of human waste for fertilizer is responsible for many an outbreak in history.

The Toolbox For Sustainable City Living, a fantastic book (that will probably get me no love from the more politically outspoken folks on this forum), says that if human crap is stored for a period of two years, all the fecal coliforms will die, because they cannot survive that long without a host body. It says that nasty odors indicate too little carbon and/or too much moisture, and can be remedied by adding more carbonaceous material, such as sawdust, dead leaves, straw, or shredded paper. I suppose ash would probably work too.

It also quotes a guy named Joseph Jenkins, author of The Humanure Handbook,

[meaty-btz]

Quite right, I suppose I was more being cautionary. Use care. Lack of care is what really caused all the problems with human waste in the past. Bio-waste is actually good for manuring. Though herbivores arguably produce the most useful or something, though.....

[Cali-Shooter]

I think I'd rather use something else as compost, like bunny droppings that collect under their cage if you raise them. As for the call of nature during a SHTF/WROL situation and the plumbing doesn't work, I'd rather go outside with a roll and an entrenching tool...

[meaty-btz]

Bunny Poop does amazing things in gardens. Seriously, we used it almost excursively..

The production levels that occurred with proper use was.. well better than any chem fertilizer you could think of.

[DannyInSoCal]

I'd fill that thing in a good eating weekend.....

[Dreaded Claymore]

Quite right, I suppose I was more being cautionary. Use care. Lack of care is what really caused all the problems with human waste in the past. Bio-waste is actually good for manuring. Though herbivores arguably produce the most useful or something, though.....

In the past? Try "for all time." I think I read somewhere that improper handling of feces is what causes most disease in the world. Don't worry, your caution is entirely warranted.

I just think that ultimately, a waste management infrastructure that is energy- and chemical-intensive because it starts by turning clean water into poopy water is ultimately more trouble than it's worth, and that we can live just as comfortably by composting our crap as long as we exercise some due diligence.