Hardcore Waste Recycling

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."

Comments

Re:Biomagnification

[sunspot42]

Many of those compounds would also be broken down by the composting process. And if they aren't broken down there, where else in nature are they going to be broken down? If the answer is, "nowhere," then we probably shouldn't be producing such compounds in the first place, should we?

Nightsoil and food

[Once&FutureRocketman]

Although it is common practice in the East to grow food in humanure, most western humanure experts will tell you not to use the stuff on food plants. I follow this rule myself, although I feel comfortable using it to fertilize food (fruit and nut) trees.

Alot of it also depends on the source of the humanure. If you and your family are providing most of it, and you're generally healthy, then you should be OK. But large scale collection for application to commercial agriculture is probably a bad idea.