3 ms·
Fwiw, urine is a natural fertilizer. Yet we piss it away, literally. And as far as I know, human waste and animal (i.e., dog) waste are compostable; as is coffe
by chiefalchemist 3y ago
Fwiw, urine is a natural fertilizer. Yet we piss it away, literally. And as far as I know, human waste and animal (i.e., dog) waste are compostable; as is coffee grains, and other kitchen scraps.
Such plenty and availability could be an advantage for urban farming. Perhaps every many-story building could devote a floor or two to such "recycling"? Given how much excess commercial space there is it's not that crazy of an idea. That is the floors for recycling would find a place in the market's excess.
- spiderfarmer 3y agoPhosphates are already won and reused from grey water in The Netherlands: https://www.nieuweoogst.nl/nieuws/2021/02/24/ruim-baan-voor-fosfaat-uit-rioolwater https://www.nieuweoogst.nl/nieuws/2021/02/24/ruim-baan-voor-...
- meindnoch 3y agoimagine the smell
- vincnetas 3y agoThere are more stinky chemical processes that our industry does, this does not mean that you have to go and smell them. I see no problem here if the smell is properly contained.
- yardie 3y agoUrine is full of phosphates that are good for plants. Up to a point my neighborhood has a lot of dead trees and bushes from dog walkers burning (chemically) them. Human and animal waste is compostable but only at industrial scale. They have to brought to a high temperature to kill bacteria and then aerobic bacteria has to be introduced to begin the process. This is not something your backyard composter can do. It’s why only allow pant matter. Composting animal waste is so much harder.
- chiefalchemist 3y agoAren't there toilets that turn human waste into compost? Isn't that the ideal goal of the Gates' Foundation challenge?
- red-iron-pine 3y agothere is a reason it is a 'challenge'. they'll kind of do that, but not without specialized treatments, lots of dirt, and lots of worms. and those critters may not work in all climates.
- stOneskull 3y agoyeah, straw in a container under the toilet works. the straw absorbs it up. then you can use it on fruit trees. humanure.
- tstrimple 3y agoI was looking into composting toilets for a while when I was day dreaming about a camper van build. Based on what I saw, the systems which use peat moss are very effective at composting human waste and virtually eliminating all the smells. The key to these systems is to separate solid matter from the liquid which is where the "sewage" smells tends to come from. A number of the systems I looked at used urine diversion to keep the solids more dry and speed up composting.
- cameronh90 3y agoI have a "hotbin" composter that maintains around 60c and have had success composting animal manure for decorative plants. However, I wouldn't use it for the vegetable garden, personally.
- mahogany 3y ago> Human and animal waste is compostable but only at industrial scale. Not true! Plenty of people use composting toilets, for example people without plumbing (e.g. off grid houses) or homesteaders that embrace a re-use philosophy. You can do it at home - it's not that hard and it doesn't even smell if done right. Completely safe to use for trees and decorative plants if you keep it separate, but some people mix all their compost together and use it for everything. (If you want do the latter, you should probably read a little bit of compost literature first.)
- Cthulhu_ 3y agoI know our wastewater is processed; I'm sure they extract the useful parts of the sewage already, else it'd be a waste of good resources.
- kevin_thibedeau 3y agoMilwaukee harvests sewage sludge into Milorganite fertilizer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milorganite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milorganite