Why am I talking shit?

This post is being blogged in response to a question I have been asked a couple of times, and specifically in response to one particular person. It relates to my dedication to Humanure.

A very large poo

So to start at the start... what is Humanure?

Putting it simply, this is the process of taking all the output from human life (you don't call it waste because it isn't) and composting it into an amazingly fertile earth. This is NOT to do with night soil (which is untreated feces being spread onto the soil ala China and India) but is the process whereby many different inputs are broken down by a wholly natural process into a beneficial substance.

The biggest problem people seem to have with it is that it at least partially involves collecting your feces and then eventually putting the result onto your vegetable garden. This (to fecophobes - yes, there is a name) is too distasteful to even contemplate. For this reason Humanure is not a solution for everyone. It is, however, proven to be totally safe and actually probably safer than the standard western method of shitting and pissing into clean water and then throwing chemicals at the resultant sludge.

I have spent a lot of time reading blogs and sites about Humanure and the best one I have found is the Humanure Handbook which is available to read for free on the site, or very cheap to buy as a download. Even if you feel you are not interested in having a Humanure system, or any other type of composting toilet, I would recommend this book for the breadth of knowledge it will impart and the excellent way it is written.

Briefly put the Humanure system works as follows.

An attractive looking Humanure toilet

Your toilet has a collection system rather than a removal system, normal a large tub on wheels. Next to your toilet you will have some material such as saw dust and when you use the toilet in stead of flushing you will cover up your doings with the saw dust. There is a simple way of knowing if you have put enough covering; if it still smells, you haven't. The balance of excrement to covering is important as you don't want to have too much nitrogen to your carbon; the covering provides this balance.

Once a week or so you will empty the receptacle into your outside collection point where you cover with slightly more substantial materials such as hay or rice stalks and then it is best to cover with chicken wire to stop large animals from disturbing it. Once again the trick to putting enough covering is to see if you can still smell it.

A three zone outside collection point

Neither of the collection points should smell or attract flies and if they do you need to use more covering.

My pattern will be to have three outside collection points. I will fill the first one in year one, then leave it while I fill the second and third sections and only after it has been sat for a full two years will I bring it out to use as compost on my land. All the books suggest that you don't have to leave it for two years and it is safe after one year (or rather, it is safe after about 14 days, but fully decomposed after a year) however I'm going to be cautious I think while I learn.

You collect all your biological waste this way so any bones from the roast chicken, toilet paper, urine, cat and dog shit etc can all be collected and put into the compost bin.

This works well with a gray water collection system as your rigor in keeping biological waste out of your sink drain (which you should do anyway with normal western style sewage as no end of problems are caused by people just flushing everything down the sink) will mean that you can use all the water that comes through the sink can go onto the garden or through a drainaway system.

I will be aiming to plumb in a shower, a couple of sinks and a washing machine and that is the extent of the plumbing, and to take the output of all these utilities into my gray water soak away.

Waste not want not.

Lovely looking compost ready for growing

The picture of the toilet on this page was found via google docs on this excellent blog which I highly recommend you read.