FECOFRIGGINFOBIA
There seems to be an irrational fear among fecophobes that if you don’t die
instantly from humanure compost, you’ll die a slow, miserable, and wretched
death, or you’ll surely cause an epidemic of something like the plague and
everyone within 200 miles of you will die, or you’ll become so infested with
parasitic worms that you’ll no longer be recognized as human (your head will
look like spaghetti).
These fears exist perhaps because much of the information in print concerning
the recycling of humanure is confusing, erroneous, or incomplete. For example,
when researching the literature during the preparation of this book, I found it
surprising that almost no mention is ever made of the thermophilic composting of
humanure as a viable alternative to other forms of on-site sanitation. When
“bucket” systems are mentioned, they are also called “cartage” systems, and are
universally decried as being the least desirable sanitation alternative. For
example, in A Guide to the Development of On-Site Sanitation by Franceys
et al., published by the World Health Organization in 1992, “bucket latrines”
are described as “malodorous, creating a fly nuisance, a danger to the health
of those who collect or use the nightsoil, and the collection is environmentally
and physically undesirable.” This sentiment is echoed in Rybczynski’s (et
al.) World Bank funded work on low-cost sanitation options, where it is stated
that “the limitations of the bucket latrine include the frequent collection
visits required to empty the small container of [humanure], as well as the
difficulty of restricting the passage of flies and odors from the bucket.”
YET ANOTHER TIP FROM THE INFAMOUS
MR. TURDLEY
 |
PRESSURE TREATED LUMBER SHOULD NEVER
BE USED TO MAKE COMPOST BINS
Or for anything else, either, when the
lumber is soaked with chromated copper arsenate. CCA saturated
lumber would be more appropriately called “cancer-soaked” lumber
rather than euphemistically referred to as “pressure
treated.”
Both arsenic and chromium have been
classified as human carcinogens (causing cancer) and are suspected
mutagens (causing mutations). The poisons in cancer-soaked lumber
are widely documented to leach into the soil and rub off onto skin
and clothing.
Such material has no place in organic
gardens or compost bins. You can’t even safely burn cancer-soaked
lumber to get rid of it — it produces highly toxic fumes and ash. Be
very careful when getting sawdust from a lumber yard. It may contain
highly toxic cancer-soaked
sawdust! | |
I’ve personally used a sawdust toilet for 20 years and it has never caused
odor problems, fly problems, health problems, or environmental problems. Quite
the contrary, it has actually enhanced my health, the health of my
family, and the health of my environment by producing healthy, organic food in
my garden, and by keeping human waste out of the water table. Nevertheless,
Franceys et al. go on to say that “[humanure] collection should never be
considered as an option for sanitation improvement programmes, and all existing
bucket latrines should be replaced as soon as possible.” Say what?
Obviously Franceys et al. are referring to the practice of collecting
humanure in buckets without a cover material (which would surely stink to high
heaven and attract flies) and without any intention of composting the humanure.
Such buckets of feces and urine are presumably dumped raw into the environment.
Naturally, such a practice should be decried and strongly discouraged, if not
outlawed. However, rather than forcing people who use such crude waste disposal
methods to switch to other more prohibitively costly waste disposal methods,
perhaps it would be better to educate those people about resource
recovery, about the human nutrient cycle, and about thermophilic
composting. It would be more constructive to help them acquire adequate and
appropriate cover materials for their toilets, assist them in
constructing compost bins, and thereby eliminate waste, pollution, odor, flies,
and health hazards altogether. I find it inconceivable that intelligent,
educated scientists who observe bucket latrines and the odors and flies
associated with them do not see that the simple addition of a clean organic
cover material to the system would solve the aforementioned problems, and
balance the nitrogen of the humanure with carbon.
Franceys et al. state, however, in their aforementioned book, that “apart
from storage in double pit latrines, the most appropriate treatment for on-site
sanitation is composting.” I would agree that composting, when done
properly, is the most appropriate method of on-site sanitation available to
humans. I would not agree that double pit storage is more appropriate than
thermophilic composting unless it could be proven that all human pathogens could
be destroyed using such a double pit system, and that such a system would
produce no unpleasant odor, and would not require the segregation of urine from
feces. According to Rybczynski, the double pit latrine shows a reduction of
Ascaris ova of 85% after two months, a statistic which does not impress
me. When my compost is finished, I don't want any pathogens in it.
Ironically, the work of Franceys et al. further illustrates a “decision tree
for selection of sanitation” that indicates the use of a “compost latrine” as
being one of the least desirable sanitation methods, and one which can only be
used if the user is willing to collect urine separately. Unfortunately,
contemporary professional literature is rife with this sort of inconsistent and
incomplete information which would surely lead a reader to believe that
composting humanure just isn’t worth the trouble.
On the other hand, Hugh Flatt, who, I would guess, is a practitioner and not
a scientist, in Practical Self-Sufficiency tells of a sawdust toilet
system he had used for decades. He lived on a farm for more than 30 years which
made use of “bucket lavatories.” The lavatories serviced a number of visitors
during the year and often two families in the farmhouse, but they used no
chemicals. They used sawdust, which Mr. Flatt described as “absorbent and
sweet-smelling.” The deciduous sawdust was added after each use of the toilet,
and the toilet was emptied on the compost pile daily. The compost heap was
located on a soil base, the deposits were covered each time they were added to
the heap, and kitchen refuse was added to the pile (as was straw). The result
was “a fresh-smelling, friable, biologically active compost ready to be
spread on the garden.” 3
|
 From a Public Radio Commentary
“People are saying
that the Year 2000 computer problem could foul up a lot of stuff we
usually depend on, all at once. I thought I’d give this Y2K Practice Day a
try. Turn off the heat, lights, water and phones. Just for 24 hours. The
day before Practice Day, I complained to Larry, telling him that I was
bitterly disappointed not to try out an emergency toilet. This complaining
really paid off. Larry, who’s also a writer researching Year 2000
emergency preparedness, phoned a man named Joe Jenkins, author of a book
called the Humanure Handbook. Joe reassured my husband of the safe,
sanitary, and uncomplicated method for composting human waste. His
solution is based on 20 years of scholarly study. It turns out that the
thermophilic bacteria in human waste, when mixed with organic material
like peat moss or sawdust, creates temperatures over 120 degrees
Fahrenheit, rapidly killing pathogens just as Mother Nature intended.
We grew bold and
daring and decided to use our emergency five gallon bucket with the toilet
seat, layering everything with peat moss. Larry spent maybe a half hour
building a special compost bin. This was right up his alley, since he
already composts all the kitchen scraps, yard, and dog wastes.
Surprisingly, I found
myself liking that little toilet. It was comfortable, clean, with no odor,
just a slightly earthy smell of peat moss. The soul-searching came when I
contemplated going back to the flush toilet.
By coincidence, I
recently heard a presentation by the director of the local waste treatment
facility. He was asked to address the issue of Year 2000 disruptions and
explain what preparations were being made. In a matter-of-fact voice, he
described what a visitor from another planet would undoubtedly consider a
barbaric custom. First, we defecate and urinate in our own clean drinking
water. In our town, we have 800 miles of sewers that pipe this effluent to
a treatment facility where they remove what are euphemistically called
solids. Then they do a bunch more stuff to the water, I forget exactly
what. But I do remember that at one point, they dose it with a potent
poison — chlorine, of course — and then they do their best to remove the
chlorine. When all this is done, the liquid gushes into the Spokane River.
At this meeting was a
man named Keith who lives on the shores of Long Lake, down river from us.
Keith was quite interested to know what might occur if our sewage
treatment process was interrupted. The waste treatment official assured
him that all would be well, but I couldn’t help reflecting that Keith
might end up drinking water that we had been flushing. I like Keith. So I
decided to keep on using my camp toilet.
My husband is a
passionate organic gardener, at his happiest with a shovel in his hand,
and he’s already coveting the new compost. He’s even wondering if the
neighbors might consider making a contribution. I’m just grateful the kids
are grown and moved out, because they’d have a thing or two to say.”
Judy Laddon in WA
(excerpted with
permission) |
Perhaps the "experts" will one day understand, accept, and advocate simple
humanure composting techniques such as the sawdust toilet. However, we may have
to wait until Composting 101 is taught at the university, which may occur
shortly after hell freezes over.
In the meantime, those of us who use simple humanure composting methods must
view the comments of today’s so-called experts with a mixture of amusement and
chagrin. Consider, for example, the following comments posted on the World Wide
Web by an “expert.” A reader posted a query on a compost toilet forum website
wondering if anyone had any scientific criticism about the above mentioned
sawdust toilet system. The expert replied that he was about to publish a new
book on composting toilets, and he offered the following excerpt:
“Warning: Though powerfully appealing in its logic and simplicity, I’d
expect this system to have an especially large spread between its theoretical
and its practical effectiveness. If you don’t have a consistent track record
of maintaining high temperatures in quick compost piles, I’d counsel against
using this system. Even among gardeners, only a small minority assemble
compost piles which consistently attain the necessary high temperatures . . .
Health issues I’d be concerned about are 1) bugs and small critters fleeing
the high-temperature areas of the pile and carrying a coat of pathogen laden
feces out of the pile with them; 2) large critters (dog, raccoons, rats . . .)
raiding the pile for food and tracking raw waste away; and 3) the inevitable
direct exposure from carrying, emptying, and washing buckets.
Some clever and open-minded folk have hit on the inspiration of
composting feces . . . by adding them to their compost piles! What a
revolutionary concept! . . . Sound too good to be true? Well, in theory it is
true, though in practice I believe that few folks would pass all the little
hurdles along the way to realizing these benefits. Not because any part of it
is so difficult, just that, well, if you never ate sugar and brushed and
flossed after every meal, you won’t get cavities either.”4
Sound a bit cynical? The above comments are entirely lacking in scientific
merit, and expose an “expert” who has no experience whatsoever about the subject
on which he is commenting. It is disheartening that such opinions would actually
be published, but not surprising. The writer hits upon certain knee-jerk fears
of fecophobes. His comment on bugs and critters fleeing the compost pile coated
with pathogen-laden feces is a perfect example. It would presumably be a bad
idea to inform this fellow that fecal material is a product of his body, and
that if it is laden with pathogens, he’s in very bad shape. Furthermore, there
is some fecal material probably inside him at any given moment. Imagine that —
pathogen-infested fecal material brimming with disease-causing organisms
actually sitting in the man’s bowels. How can he survive?
When one lives with a humanure composting system for an extended period of
time, one understands that fecal material comes from one’s body, and exists
inside oneself at all times. With such an understanding, it would be hard to be
fearful of one’s own humanure, and impossible to see it as a substance brimming
with disease organisms, unless, of course, one is diseased.
The writer hits upon another irrational fear — large animals, including rats,
invading a compost pile and spreading disease all over creation. Compost bins
are easily built to be animal-proof. If animals are a problem, the problem can
be remedied by lining a compost bin with chicken wire, or surrounding the
compost with pallets, straw bales, or similar barriers. In 20 years of humanure
composting, we have never had a problem with animals, have never seen a rat in
our compost, and our compost bins are not wire-lined. We have had dozens of
skunks, possums, and raccoons in our chicken house, but never in our compost
pile 50 feet away. It seems that the thermophilic composting process itself
makes the organic material undesirable for larger animals, including dogs.
The writer warns that most gardeners do not have thermophilic compost. Most
gardeners also leave critical ingredients out of their compost, thanks to the
fear-mongering of the ill-informed. Those ingredients are humanure and urine,
which are quite likely to make one’s compost thermophilic. Commercial composting
toilets almost never become thermophilic. Does the author also condemn those? As
we have seen, it is not only the temperature of the compost that destroys
pathogens, it is retention time. The sawdust toilet compost pile requires a
year’s construction time, and another year’s undisturbed retention time. When a
thermophilic phase is added to this process, I would challenge anyone to come up
with a more effective, earth-friendly, simpler, low-cost system for pathogen
destruction.
Finally, the writer warns of “the inevitable direct exposure from carrying,
emptying and washing buckets.” I’m not sure what he’s getting at here, as I have
carried, emptied, and washed buckets for 20 years and never had a problem.
|
|
“We’ve been joyfully composting for some time already, and
adding our humanure since this spring. Your book was immensely
informative, helping to dispel some of those culturally imposed
myths of fecophobia! Please know that the book is being eagerly
passed about and many of our friends have also begun composting
humanure, too! Again, thank you for all the years and time you and
your family have spent experimenting and actively composting! Your
work has been a great asset to our path of a simpler, sustainable
and self-reliant lifestyle. We believe we are the keys to changing
the dominant paradigm and healing the Earth. Thank you, thank you
for the book!” B.C. and J.S. in
AK | |
Other recent experts have thrown in their two cents worth on the sawdust
toilet. A book on composting toilets (also about to be published as I write
this), mentions the sawdust toilet system.5
Although the comments are not at all cynical and are meant to be informative, a
bit of misinformation manages to come through. For example, the suggestion to
use “rubber gloves and perhaps a transparent face mask so you do not get
anything splashed on you” when emptying a compost bucket onto a compost pile,
caused groans, a lot of eyes to roll, and a few giggles when read aloud to
seasoned humanure composters. Why not just wear an EPA approved moon suit and
carry the compost bucket at the end of a ten-foot pole? How is it that what has
just emerged from one’s body can be considered so utterly toxic? More
exaggeration and misinformation existed in the book regarding temperature levels
and compost bin techniques. One warning to “bury finished compost in a shallow
hole or trench around the roots of non-edible plants,” was classic fecophobia.
Apparently, humanure compost is to be banned from human food production, never
mind the human nutrient cycle. The authors recommended that humanure compost be
composted again in a non-humanure compost pile, or micro-waved for
pasteurization, both bizarre suggestions. They add, “Your health agent and your
neighbors may not care for this [sawdust toilet composting] method.”
I have to scratch my head and wonder why the “experts” would say this sort of
thing. Apparently, the act of composting one’s own humanure is so radical
and even revolutionary to the people who have spent their lives trying to
dispose of the substance, that they can’t quite come to grips with the
idea. Ironically, a very simple sawdust toilet used by a physician and his
family in Oregon is featured and illustrated in the above book. The physician
states, “There is no offensive odor. We’ve never had a complaint from the
neighbors.” Their sawdust toilet system is also illustrated and posted on
the internet, where a brief description sums it up: “This simple composting
toilet system is inexpensive both in construction and to operate and, when
properly maintained, aesthetic and hygienic. It is a perfect complement to
organic gardening. In many ways, it out-performs complicated systems costing
hundreds of times as much.” Often, knowledge derived from real-life
experiences can be diametrically opposed to the speculations of “experts.”
Sawdust toilet users find, through experience, that such a simple system
can work remarkably well.
|
|
“My
wife and I have just finished reading your handbook and found it an
inspiration in our pursuit of alternative living styles. Our system
is up and functioning very well for us and already building our
future garden bedding. We have discovered a certain level of
‘alienation’ when ‘friends’ have discovered our system. Although not
particularly concerned about this ‘friendship purification process,’
we would like to network with other like-minded people to share
ideas and experiences. If you have the fortune of knowing anyone
using your technique in Eastern Washington-Northern Idaho area,
would you please extend to them our invitation of friendship? Thank
you for your book and your leadership into the rather solitary world
of fecal familiarity.” K.K. and A.K. in WA
“I
line the solids bucket with newspapers so that I don’t need to rinse
it out.” A.E. in
Australia | |
What about “health agents”? Health authorities can be misled by
misinformation, such as that stated by the above authors. Health authorities,
according to my experience, generally know very little, if anything, about
thermophilic composting. Many have never even heard of it. The health
authorities who have contacted me are very interested in getting more
information, and seem very open to the idea of a natural, low-cost, effective,
humanure recycling system. They know that human sewage is a dangerous pollutant
and a serious environmental problem, and they seem to be surprised and impressed
to find out that such sewage can be avoided altogether. Most intelligent people
are willing and able to expand their awareness and change their attitudes based
upon new information. Therefore, if you are using a sawdust toilet and are
having a problem with any authority, please give the authority a copy of this
book. I have a standing offer to donate, free of charge, a copy of the
Humanure Handbook to any permitting agent or health authority, no
questions asked, upon anyone’s request — just send a name and address to the
publisher at the front of this book.
Well-informed health professionals and environmental authorities are aware
that “human waste” presents an environmental dilemma that is not going away.
| “Just a note to thank you for sending the gratis copies of Humanure
to our local supervisors and health director. A small but significant step
forward is shown by the article on the reverse side and no doubt your book
played a part [a newspaper article titled “Law Would Back Waterless
Toilets” was copied on the back of the letter]. This victory may not seem
like much but, believe me, getting these troglodytes to change their minds
on anything is nothing less than a miracle! R.W. in
CA |
The problem, on the contrary, is getting
worse. Too much water is being polluted by sewage and septic discharges, and
there has to be a constructive alternative. Perhaps that is why, when health
authorities learn about the thermophilic composting of humanure, they realize
that there may very likely be no better solution to the human waste problem.
That may be also why I received a letter from the US Department of Health and
Human Services praising my book and wanting to know more about humanure
composting, or why the US Environmental Protection Agency wrote to me to praise
the Humanure Handbook and order ten copies (and re-order more later), or
why the PA Department of Environmental Protection nominated Humanure for
a public-awareness environmental award in 1998. Fecophobes think composting
humanure is dangerous. I will patiently wait until they come up with a better
solution to the problem of “human waste.” I expect there will be a few cold days
in hell before that happens.
Source: The Humanure Handbook. Jenkins
Publishing, PO Box 607, Grove City, PA 16127. To order, phone:
1-800-639-4099.
http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/
