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Hardcore Waste Recycling

Posted by michael on from the yep-it's-friday dept.

erf writes "Ok, recently we've had a story posted on composting, followed by one on recycling wastewater into snow. Enough with the amateur hour stuff, how about the real thing? Joseph Jenkins has been thermophilically composting all of his family's food waste and sewage into compost for his garden for 24 years. Yes, he eats the food out of that garden too. All you need is a bucket, some sawdust, and a compost bin. You can read all about it in the Humanure Handbook. The squeamish might want to begin with the section on fecophobia."

2 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Prions by stendec · · Score: 5, Informative
    pathogens only have a limited viability outside the human body, and given enough time, will die even in low-temperature compost.

    What about prions? They're well known for their relatively high resistance to normal inactivation methods used to sterilize against typical microbial pathogens (e.g. irradiation, boiling, dry heat, treatment with acids or proteases). It's been shown that an infected rat brain needs to be autoclaved at 132 degrees C for 4.5 hours to be sterlized. I don't think your typical composter will do that. Neither will these things 'die' if you leave them out there long enough - for the simple fact that they're not living organisms - they're just sterically modified isoforms of regularly expressed human proteins. Of course, transmissible spongiform encephalopathies are pretty rare - and indeed, it isn't even certain how much risk humans are at from mad cow disease. But if your composting material is infected with scrapie-form prions, then, well, I'd be a bit concerned. Particularly in light of BSE: what if it's passed on from the cow to its feces, which is then used as composting manure?

  2. Re:Not bad at all, very good in fact! by QAChris · · Score: 5, Informative
    DIRT may or may not contain organic matter, but dirt is not organic, it is mineral.

    Human shit as well as cat shit and dog shit contain numerous microorganisms which are potentially dangerous to humans. E. Coli is only one of many. To kill these microorganisms, the compost must reach temperatures over 160 Deg F and stay there for an extended period of time.

    Sewage is not generally dumped directly in large bodies of water, it first passes through SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTS (AKA Wastewater Treatment Facilities) where much of the nastiness is removed. The problem is disposing of the Stuff that was removed. The options being incineration, landfill, and composting. Just don't put that compost on veggies!