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I'm always a little surprised at how surprised other people are when they hear this. I've been peeing on our compost pile for years. We have a lot of carbons i

I'm always a little surprised at how surprised other people are when they hear this. I've been peeing on our compost pile for years. We have a lot of carbons in the pile (mostly leaves) so adding the nitrogen helps it all break down faster. On my acre plot I've probably gotten three or four cubic yards of compost a year broken down with the help of pee.

aaron695 2y ago
[dead]
27theo 2y ago
Yes it's amusing when people aren't aware of the benefits. I, too, have been peeing on anticorporate's compost pile for two or three years.
- fifticon 2y ago
  I have been peeing on corporate for years, but I am very discrete about it, lest they find out it is me.
  - RandomBacon 2y ago
    Too late, they already ran a DNA analysis on it and partnered with 23andMe, and because your cousin took a DNA ancestry test after receiving a kit as a present four years ago, corporate now knows it was you.
  - anticorporate 2y ago
    Jokes aside, part of my reduced reliance on corporations is growing as much of our food as we can ourselves.
    - Braxton1980 2y ago
      What about the vast majority of people who live in the suburbs or cities? Wouldn't a better solution be regulations so it doesn't matter who is growing the food?
      - anticorporate 2y ago
        It's not either/or. I also strongly support major changes to agricultural and food policy. For what it's worth, my property is suburban. It's a post-war subdivision with rather large lots, we just choose to use most of ours productively. Food and timber for us, native plants for the critters, grass be damned. When we commuted, we lived in a denser area with better transit access, but neither my wife nor I have had a commute since before the pandemic.
        Kon-Peki 2y ago
        > I also strongly support major changes to agricultural and food policy Florida and Illinois, on complete opposite ends of the political spectrum, are the only two states with laws the explicitly prohibit towns and cities from preventing you from using your yard (front, back, side, whatever) as a vegetable garden. They allow for regulations about how big and where your greenhouses/hothouses could be, how much water you use, etc. But nothing that can defacto prohibit you from using your whole yard productively. This is something that should be nationwide. In most places, growing crops in your front yard is either sort-of-tolerated-until-you-make-someone-mad or not at all allowed.
      - michelpp 2y ago
        Sprouting is an excellent and compact way to get some fresh greens into your diet in a small space. No urine required (although I too do dump my urine on my farm hosts' compost). I live in a short school bus with less than 8sqm of space and do my sprouting in a small clear plastic tote. Every day I eat fresh sprouts, usually with something like wild-caught canned mackerel.
      - diggan 2y ago
        > What about the vast majority of people who live in the suburbs or cities? Suburban houses usually have a garden around them, you can grow vegetables and stuff in/on top of those. Plant some fruit trees/bushes as well and you have a start :) Cities are more difficult, unless you have access to a balcony/patio/roof. I know in some local neighborhoods, neighbors have gotten together to create little co-cops, and took over small unused plots and grow some stuff together there. Plots like these for example: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Carrer+del+Doctor+Trueta,+90X,+Sant+Mart%C3%AD,+08005+Barcelona/@41.3934769,2.1971379,151a,35y,289.1h,24.11t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x12a4a3111dc5f21b:0x1a4914cff791bd28!8m2!3d41.3937052!4d2.1967311!16s%2Fg%2F11vq6kkk5b https://www.google.com/maps/place/Carrer+del+Doctor+Trueta,+... Sure, none of these will make you 100% independent when it comes to what you eat, but small differences can add up and also spread the knowledge/ambition for more people to do it.
    - RobRivera 2y ago
      One year I'll go this route. Living in a city I can't really raise anything beyond herbs, however hunting once a year reduces my reliance on factory farming so much.
      - HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago
        When I lived on a standard city lot in Minneapolis, I was growing corn (lost most of it to squirrels), tomatoes, carrots, horseradish (can't kill that stuff), squash and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. And a "natural prairie" section of mostly native grasses and wildflowers. Just depends on how much land you have and how much of your lawn you want to dig up :-)
  - pengaru 2y ago
    nit: discreet
    - DarmokJalad1701 2y ago
      > nit discreet Or maybe fifticon's pee comes out as quantized packets of a fixed size.
      - Cthulhu_ 2y ago
        HN's comment section devolving into discussions about quantum-piss, I'm here for it :D
  - bigstrat2003 2y ago
    I pee on corporate as well, but I do so continuously instead of discretely. I'm peeing on corporate as I type this!
  - ashoeafoot 2y ago
    The plastic bamboo in the foyer grows like crazy.
  - Cthulhu_ 2y ago
    What if peeing on them helps them though? Employee of the year!
littlestymaar 2y ago
> We have a lot of carbons in the pile (mostly leaves) so adding the nitrogen helps it all break down faster I know that nitrogen/carbon ratio is being brought a lot in compost discussions, but AFAIK most of the time people bring that up they are actually talking about bringing water, not nitrogen, to their compost. And regarding this particular comment of yours about “nitrogen helping it break down” I suspect this is another instance of it. Dry leaves aren't a favorable environment for fungi and bacteria to grow, so adding water will definitely speed up the process a lot, while I'm not convinced adding nitrogen would have any effect in that regard. Peeing on a compost pile is still good because it ads nitrogen to the compost itself, part of which will end up in the plant you give it, but it's probably less effective at it than peeing on the plants directly, because some of it will evaporate over time.
- diggan 2y ago
  > Dry leaves aren't a favorable environment for fungi and bacteria to grow, so adding water will definitely speed up the process a lot Nor is an environment without sufficient nitrogen, IIRC, especially since dry leaves are really carbon-rich. I'm guessing it would be easy for parent to test if it's the water, the nitrogen or both that helps the most. Science your way to an answer, as long as you're logging metrics should be easy enough :)
  - anticorporate 2y ago
    Since there were a couple of comments asking about water content, yes, we also keep our compost moist through adding water when needed (I also live in a rather moist region of the US). The previous owners of our property "gifted" us an above-ground pool that makes for a lousy swimming spot but a great water collection tank. We rarely have to use municipal water for anything garden-related.
- krunck 2y ago
  No, nitrogen is very important. The carbon to nitrogen ratios is crucial for optimal composting.[1] Yes, compost must be moist to decompose. And peeing on the compost adds required moisture and nitrogen. Don't pee on your plants. It can chemically burn some of them. Not to mention peeing on your lettuce is just gross. My compost is for dealing with kitchen waste: veggie and fruit scraps, coffee grounds etc. It it so nitrogen rich that I need to add leaves to it regularly to keep the C/N ratio where it needs to be or it goes "sour". [1] https://compost.css.cornell.edu/chemistry.html https://compost.css.cornell.edu/chemistry.html
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
RajT88 2y ago
Did not realize this. I will have to try it! Late at night of course, my compost pile is by the road. Anyone know if exposing yourself on your own property is considered public indecency? Asking for a friend.
- johnisgood 2y ago
  Pee in a cup or jug at home and take it outside.
- anonymous_sorry 2y ago
  I tend to relieve myself into a watering can in the privacy of the shed.
- mc32 2y ago
  Isn't that what pisspans are for? You don't do it out in the open. If you have a farm, cattle would probably produce much more though.
  - User23 2y ago
    I believe that there are barn designs that capture urine.
    - bigstrat2003 2y ago
      As far as I've seen that's just normal barn design. Cows relieve themselves (both ways) into a gutter that runs behind their stalls, and then when you clean the gutters it all gets spread onto the field.
      - Cthulhu_ 2y ago
        Or they stand on grating and it falls down there. ...this had led to a number of accidents, the latest I recall was where the floor collapsed and dozens of cows ended up in the cesspit below. Others involve people falling in and dying from the fumes.
- 2y ago
debacle 2y ago
I've heard mixed things. Most folks recommend keeping human + pet waste out of compost. It depends on how hot your pile is and how quickly you move it into your garden.
- inanutshellus 2y ago
  I believe that's referring to feces, not urine. Most household (cat, dog, and human) feces is full of meat which draws the wrong kind of insects to the pile. Urine though is okay and, arguably, beneficial to breaking down compost. The only hard part is figuring out how to wave at your neighbors while fertilizing your compost heap. Do you wave with your off-hand or hot-swap as necessary? Decisions decisions...
  - debacle 2y ago
    The only neighbors in eyeshot of my compost pile are the ducks, and I don't think they really mind.
nonethewiser 2y ago
I think people would be even more surprised to learn how common it is to use processed sewage for fertilizer. Human waste. In California, 76% of processed sewage goes to farming. 86% in Colorado. https://investigatemidwest.org/2024/08/07/fertilizer-from-human-waste-faces-scrutiny-but-remains-a-profitable-industry/ https://investigatemidwest.org/2024/08/07/fertilizer-from-hu... And its not just the US https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/02/sewage-sludge-containing-human-waste-uk https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/02/sewage-s... >Spreading the sludge on farmland is banned in the Netherlands, where incineration is preferred, but allowed in the UK. Dutch water authorities are eyeing the UK as a possible destination for their sewage
- xolox 2y ago
  In some places in the US the use of sewage sludge to fertilize farm land is turning into a shit show of epic proportions (sorry couldn't resist ;-) due to severe PFAS contamination: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/27/climate/epa-pfas-fertilizer-3m-forever-chemicals.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/27/climate/epa-pfas-fertiliz... https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/pfas-in-fertilisers-blamed-for-killing-livestock-in-texas-and-wreaking-havoc/4020874.article https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/pfas-in-fertilisers-blam... I have to say I'm kind of happy were not doing this in the Netherlands, because PFAS are a horrible class of chemicals that are causing all sorts of issues in nature as well as human health (obviously the two are intricately linked). I'm kind of ashamed to hear that the Netherlands are trying to get rid of their sewage in the UK though... Edit: Upon reading the investigatemidwest.org article I see that it's about the exact same subject, apologies if my reply is perceived as noise.
beebaween 2y ago
Favorite part of my morning - like food waste I compost, why would I pay to use water to send back all of my urine nutrients back to my local water municipality?
- Cthulhu_ 2y ago
  I feel the same way about our green waste, it's at least 5 full bins a year with the seasonal trimming / garden cleanup, leaf collections and kitchen scraps. I mean we only have a small garden but it still feels like we're donating it to someone else. Same with paper and nowadays plastics / recyclables. I want to say they can have the value of it because they come and collect it regularly, but we pay county taxes for that too.

aaron695 2y ago

[dead]

27theo 2y ago

Yes it's amusing when people aren't aware of the benefits. I, too, have been peeing on anticorporate's compost pile for two or three years.

fifticon 2y ago
I have been peeing on corporate for years, but I am very discrete about it, lest they find out it is me.
- RandomBacon 2y ago
  Too late, they already ran a DNA analysis on it and partnered with 23andMe, and because your cousin took a DNA ancestry test after receiving a kit as a present four years ago, corporate now knows it was you.
- anticorporate 2y ago
  Jokes aside, part of my reduced reliance on corporations is growing as much of our food as we can ourselves.
  - Braxton1980 2y ago
    What about the vast majority of people who live in the suburbs or cities? Wouldn't a better solution be regulations so it doesn't matter who is growing the food?
    - anticorporate 2y ago
      It's not either/or. I also strongly support major changes to agricultural and food policy. For what it's worth, my property is suburban. It's a post-war subdivision with rather large lots, we just choose to use most of ours productively. Food and timber for us, native plants for the critters, grass be damned. When we commuted, we lived in a denser area with better transit access, but neither my wife nor I have had a commute since before the pandemic.
      - Kon-Peki 2y ago
        > I also strongly support major changes to agricultural and food policy Florida and Illinois, on complete opposite ends of the political spectrum, are the only two states with laws the explicitly prohibit towns and cities from preventing you from using your yard (front, back, side, whatever) as a vegetable garden. They allow for regulations about how big and where your greenhouses/hothouses could be, how much water you use, etc. But nothing that can defacto prohibit you from using your whole yard productively. This is something that should be nationwide. In most places, growing crops in your front yard is either sort-of-tolerated-until-you-make-someone-mad or not at all allowed.
    - michelpp 2y ago
      Sprouting is an excellent and compact way to get some fresh greens into your diet in a small space. No urine required (although I too do dump my urine on my farm hosts' compost). I live in a short school bus with less than 8sqm of space and do my sprouting in a small clear plastic tote. Every day I eat fresh sprouts, usually with something like wild-caught canned mackerel.
    - diggan 2y ago
      > What about the vast majority of people who live in the suburbs or cities? Suburban houses usually have a garden around them, you can grow vegetables and stuff in/on top of those. Plant some fruit trees/bushes as well and you have a start :) Cities are more difficult, unless you have access to a balcony/patio/roof. I know in some local neighborhoods, neighbors have gotten together to create little co-cops, and took over small unused plots and grow some stuff together there. Plots like these for example: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Carrer+del+Doctor+Trueta,+90X,+Sant+Mart%C3%AD,+08005+Barcelona/@41.3934769,2.1971379,151a,35y,289.1h,24.11t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x12a4a3111dc5f21b:0x1a4914cff791bd28!8m2!3d41.3937052!4d2.1967311!16s%2Fg%2F11vq6kkk5b https://www.google.com/maps/place/Carrer+del+Doctor+Trueta,+... Sure, none of these will make you 100% independent when it comes to what you eat, but small differences can add up and also spread the knowledge/ambition for more people to do it.
  - RobRivera 2y ago
    One year I'll go this route. Living in a city I can't really raise anything beyond herbs, however hunting once a year reduces my reliance on factory farming so much.
    - HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago
      When I lived on a standard city lot in Minneapolis, I was growing corn (lost most of it to squirrels), tomatoes, carrots, horseradish (can't kill that stuff), squash and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. And a "natural prairie" section of mostly native grasses and wildflowers. Just depends on how much land you have and how much of your lawn you want to dig up :-)
- pengaru 2y ago
  nit: discreet
  - DarmokJalad1701 2y ago
    > nit discreet Or maybe fifticon's pee comes out as quantized packets of a fixed size.
    - Cthulhu_ 2y ago
      HN's comment section devolving into discussions about quantum-piss, I'm here for it :D
- bigstrat2003 2y ago
  I pee on corporate as well, but I do so continuously instead of discretely. I'm peeing on corporate as I type this!
- ashoeafoot 2y ago
  The plastic bamboo in the foyer grows like crazy.
- Cthulhu_ 2y ago
  What if peeing on them helps them though? Employee of the year!

littlestymaar 2y ago

> We have a lot of carbons in the pile (mostly leaves) so adding the nitrogen helps it all break down faster I know that nitrogen/carbon ratio is being brought a lot in compost discussions, but AFAIK most of the time people bring that up they are actually talking about bringing water, not nitrogen, to their compost. And regarding this particular comment of yours about “nitrogen helping it break down” I suspect this is another instance of it. Dry leaves aren't a favorable environment for fungi and bacteria to grow, so adding water will definitely speed up the process a lot, while I'm not convinced adding nitrogen would have any effect in that regard. Peeing on a compost pile is still good because it ads nitrogen to the compost itself, part of which will end up in the plant you give it, but it's probably less effective at it than peeing on the plants directly, because some of it will evaporate over time.

diggan 2y ago
> Dry leaves aren't a favorable environment for fungi and bacteria to grow, so adding water will definitely speed up the process a lot Nor is an environment without sufficient nitrogen, IIRC, especially since dry leaves are really carbon-rich. I'm guessing it would be easy for parent to test if it's the water, the nitrogen or both that helps the most. Science your way to an answer, as long as you're logging metrics should be easy enough :)
- anticorporate 2y ago
  Since there were a couple of comments asking about water content, yes, we also keep our compost moist through adding water when needed (I also live in a rather moist region of the US). The previous owners of our property "gifted" us an above-ground pool that makes for a lousy swimming spot but a great water collection tank. We rarely have to use municipal water for anything garden-related.
krunck 2y ago
No, nitrogen is very important. The carbon to nitrogen ratios is crucial for optimal composting.[1] Yes, compost must be moist to decompose. And peeing on the compost adds required moisture and nitrogen. Don't pee on your plants. It can chemically burn some of them. Not to mention peeing on your lettuce is just gross. My compost is for dealing with kitchen waste: veggie and fruit scraps, coffee grounds etc. It it so nitrogen rich that I need to add leaves to it regularly to keep the C/N ratio where it needs to be or it goes "sour". [1] https://compost.css.cornell.edu/chemistry.html https://compost.css.cornell.edu/chemistry.html

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

RajT88 2y ago

Did not realize this. I will have to try it! Late at night of course, my compost pile is by the road. Anyone know if exposing yourself on your own property is considered public indecency? Asking for a friend.

johnisgood 2y ago
Pee in a cup or jug at home and take it outside.
anonymous_sorry 2y ago
I tend to relieve myself into a watering can in the privacy of the shed.
mc32 2y ago
Isn't that what pisspans are for? You don't do it out in the open. If you have a farm, cattle would probably produce much more though.
- User23 2y ago
  I believe that there are barn designs that capture urine.
  - bigstrat2003 2y ago
    As far as I've seen that's just normal barn design. Cows relieve themselves (both ways) into a gutter that runs behind their stalls, and then when you clean the gutters it all gets spread onto the field.
    - Cthulhu_ 2y ago
      Or they stand on grating and it falls down there. ...this had led to a number of accidents, the latest I recall was where the floor collapsed and dozens of cows ended up in the cesspit below. Others involve people falling in and dying from the fumes.
2y ago

debacle 2y ago

I've heard mixed things. Most folks recommend keeping human + pet waste out of compost. It depends on how hot your pile is and how quickly you move it into your garden.

inanutshellus 2y ago
I believe that's referring to feces, not urine. Most household (cat, dog, and human) feces is full of meat which draws the wrong kind of insects to the pile. Urine though is okay and, arguably, beneficial to breaking down compost. The only hard part is figuring out how to wave at your neighbors while fertilizing your compost heap. Do you wave with your off-hand or hot-swap as necessary? Decisions decisions...
- debacle 2y ago
  The only neighbors in eyeshot of my compost pile are the ducks, and I don't think they really mind.

nonethewiser 2y ago

I think people would be even more surprised to learn how common it is to use processed sewage for fertilizer. Human waste. In California, 76% of processed sewage goes to farming. 86% in Colorado. https://investigatemidwest.org/2024/08/07/fertilizer-from-human-waste-faces-scrutiny-but-remains-a-profitable-industry/ https://investigatemidwest.org/2024/08/07/fertilizer-from-hu... And its not just the US https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/02/sewage-sludge-containing-human-waste-uk https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/02/sewage-s... >Spreading the sludge on farmland is banned in the Netherlands, where incineration is preferred, but allowed in the UK. Dutch water authorities are eyeing the UK as a possible destination for their sewage

xolox 2y ago
In some places in the US the use of sewage sludge to fertilize farm land is turning into a shit show of epic proportions (sorry couldn't resist ;-) due to severe PFAS contamination: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/27/climate/epa-pfas-fertilizer-3m-forever-chemicals.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/27/climate/epa-pfas-fertiliz... https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/pfas-in-fertilisers-blamed-for-killing-livestock-in-texas-and-wreaking-havoc/4020874.article https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/pfas-in-fertilisers-blam... I have to say I'm kind of happy were not doing this in the Netherlands, because PFAS are a horrible class of chemicals that are causing all sorts of issues in nature as well as human health (obviously the two are intricately linked). I'm kind of ashamed to hear that the Netherlands are trying to get rid of their sewage in the UK though... Edit: Upon reading the investigatemidwest.org article I see that it's about the exact same subject, apologies if my reply is perceived as noise.

beebaween 2y ago

Favorite part of my morning - like food waste I compost, why would I pay to use water to send back all of my urine nutrients back to my local water municipality?

Cthulhu_ 2y ago
I feel the same way about our green waste, it's at least 5 full bins a year with the seasonal trimming / garden cleanup, leaf collections and kitchen scraps. I mean we only have a small garden but it still feels like we're donating it to someone else. Same with paper and nowadays plastics / recyclables. I want to say they can have the value of it because they come and collect it regularly, but we pay county taxes for that too.