Slashdot Mirror
Researchers Try To "Close the Nutrient Cycle" Through Better Waste Recycling
An anonymous reader writes "Converting human waste into usable fertilizer may become the next important development in sustainable living. 'Most conventional farms invest in synthetic fertilizer, which requires energy to produce and is associated with many environmental problems of its own. But by separating out human urine before it gets to the wastewater plant, Rich Earth cofounder Kim Nace says they can turn it into a robust fertilizer alternative: a "local, accessible, free, sanitary source of nitrogen and phosphorous."'"
Hmmm... honey, this tastes like sh*t!
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
I believe "nightsoil men" used to sell the human waste they carried away to tanners and farmers. In any case, the idea of using human waste as fertiliser is very a very old one. The massive wastage of human sewage is probably a modern phenomenon.
May the Maths Be with you!
The amount of drugs and toxic things we flush are more of a problem than simply reformulating urine.
Given the penchant for drug use in this state I wonder how much would make it into the food stream?
I wonder what they plan to do about all the neat stuff that we excrete through the kidneys? Stock urine is harmless enough, if distasteful; but the list of drugs and other interesting substances that are either directly excreted, or have metabolites that are, isn't a short one. Probably not something you'd want bioaccumulating...
How long until municipalities have a mandatory yellow box?
Price, Quality, Time. Pick none. What, you thought you had a choice?
I see a business opportunity here. "Please piss here to help feed the hungry" signs are going to finally start selling like hotcakes.
OK so let me get this straight,...you want me to pee on your vegetables?
http://m.slashdot.org/story/140486 (slashdot)
I've been peeing on trees in the forest whenever I go camping for a long time... and they seem to be doing well enough.
I'm fed up of being told that stuff has to happen because of overpopulation.
It's called "phosphorus". Gaah.
Human waste is chock full of pharmaceuticals. Link.
That is funny, because it is already known to be a problem for reprocessed water.
Let's do the same for what we eat, and let's make the humanity sterile, those endocrine thingies only affect pussies.
Dude, go get another cup of coffee or something. The GP addressed all of your points.
C'mon folks!!! Milorganite - since 1925 - "Milwaukee Organic Nitrogen"!
Just like Soylent Green... "It comes from People!!!"
Since epidemiology is well outside my area of expertise, I have to ask: would this be safe?
With artificial fertilizers we don't have to be concerned about the purity of the material, whereas if we were to use natural fertilizers (animal or otherwise) it introduces all of the impurities and other undesirable byproducts that come with waste. And if we're talking about human waste in particular, does that mean this would create a new cycle for pathogens? Or is there a way to process waste to remove pathogens?
Yes, especially in China: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...
Which is part of how they have been "Farmers of 40 Centuries": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...
I've been interested in this from the point of view of space colonies. Biosphere II did this:
http://www.janepoynter.com/doc...
http://www.globalecotechnics.c...
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11...
http://b2science.org/news/1453
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
As did John Todd at Ocean Arks commercially for towns needing sewage treatment:
http://www.oceanarksint.org/in...
Here is another idea though, grinding up rock to make fertilizer, to mimic the way land around volcanoes remains fertile from the volcanic ash:
http://remineralize.org/
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
When we send our fully automatic private space 3D printers to the asteroid belt because of our selfless billionaires, he'll feel pretty silly when the first space harvest comes back from asteroid Branson and asteroid Musk.
Milorganite is manufactured by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. The District captures waste water from the metropolitan Milwaukee area, including local industries such as MillerCoors. This water is then treated with microbes to digest nutrients that are found in it. Cleaned water is then returned to Lake Michigan. The resulting microbes are then dried, becoming Milorganite fertilizers. The Milorganite program is one of the world’s largest recycling efforts.
Now the angry people of the world can say they're "being helpful" when they take a crap on their neighbors lawn. Not so sure the cops would agree, however...
Honestly this has been done for centuries, http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb... and there are tons of books on it.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Back in ancient Japanese times, the smell of feces was referred to as the smell of life. A rather positive spin on things but it's also important to note that they actually did what is being discussed in the article. They used human fecal matter in their farming.
But what about today? The stuff we eat isn't exactly "mostly vegetarian" as was the case in ancient Japan. Also, the stuff we eat isn't entirely natural. Putting the additive and preservative rich fecal matter into the soil might yield less than optimal results. And all the other drugs and stuff we ingest adds to the complication. Finally, the typical pollution we take in will also find its way into our waste. Today's human waste isn't exactly what I would call "entirely natural."
So I hope they do their homework on this. At the very least, feed it to a bunch of worms for processing. If the worms can process it, perhaps it's closer to being safe afterward than if they didn't.
In efforts to expand our recycling program:
Thank you for your mandatory participation in our municipal recycling program.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Here's an analysis we did on how many pounds of wheat (and loaves of bread) could be grown using only the fertilizer contained in one person's yearly urine output. This figure didn't make it into the National Geographic article, but it's really important for understanding the potential for urine recycling to replace synthetic fertilizers at a large scale. Of course urine-derived fertilizer could be applied to any other food or non-food crops, but we thought the huge pile of bread was the more accessible measure.
And if you look closely at the numbers, you'll see one of the most surprising things of all: that nearly 90% of the nitrogen (and 2/3 or better of the potassium and phosphorus) in human waste is in the urine!
Abe Noe-Hays, Research Director, Rich Earth Institute
I whole-heartedly applaud this kind of research.
However, discussing these matters suffers from the same problem as discussing genetically modified organisms in food production: I personally think the technology and research is outstanding and worth public support, but I don't trust companies to do a good enough job considering the long-term effects. Anyone familiar with current business models knows that a year is a long time, and a decade is almost unimaginably long time for current short-term market driven policies. There simply is no market force to safeguard future; short term gains drive our current financial systems completely. Voicing this out causes one to be labelled anti-technology, anti-progress, small-minded conspiracy theorist.
(I brought up genetically modified organisms, because I've waited for the nutritionally enhanced varieties to become available on the market. They haven't. All you get is higher tolerances for specific chemicals, and unsupported claims about higher yields.)
In short, there is nothing wrong about the research or even the idea, I only fear shoddy implementations similar to those in other industries, and the enormous risks associated with long-term damage.
If you have any idea how to clearly voice this dichotomy in a way that does not cause oen to be labelled a luddite, conspiracy theorist, or tin-foil-hat wearing crazy; or to veer the discussion away from the point, I'd be extremely grateful.
Or do you think researchers should never worry about how their research is applied in practice?
"Basil, this coffee tastes like shit!" ...and this isn't actually that bad... a bit nutty..."
"...it is shit, Austin."
"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Researchers Try To "Close the Nutrient Cycle"
I didn't realise it was open. Have they been shooting my poop into space?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Just another attempt at scatological humor.
Waste not, want not, eh?
The Town of Cary sells this already.
This facility takes liquid biosolids, a byproduct of the main wastewater treatment processes, from the North and South Cary Water Reclamation Facilities and converts them, using heat, to a dry BB-sized pellet used as fertilizer. These pellets meet strict state and federal guidelines required to achieve a Class A EQ (exceptional quality) rating and provides the Town with the most options for safe reuse or cost effective disposal.
From 2006–2008, this facility treated an average of 28 million gallons of biosolids per year and produced an average of 3,100 tons of pellets per year for the agricultural market. The waste generated by a typical family in a year is about 100 pounds of fertilizer.
The Town of Cary markets its round fertilizer pellets under the name Cary Enviro Gems.
http://www.townofcary.org/Departments/utilities/wastewatertreatment/Biosolids_Dryer.htm
http://www.milorganite.com/Abo...
DNRTFA :)
First, the government gets to regulate our breathing because it contains a greenhouse gas. Now, they're going to regulate our urine because it contains a precursor to ammonium nitrate!
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
In Victoria, BC, Canada, we dump all our sewage straight into the ocean. Our current treatment is nothing more sophisticated than a 4 mm mesh designed to remove big plastic stuff and pulverize feces into small enough pieces that it isn't recognizable. The pipes go offshore pretty deep so it doesn't end up on the local beaches. A local group brought public attention to this over ten years ago and the local administration has been forced by the Feds to come up with a treatment plan. However, what to do with the treated waste is question due to the pharmaceuticals and other toxins. We're also dealing with a bunch of old farts who think that "it worked well enough for the last 100 years, it will work well enough for the next few decades that I'm alive" because building a treatment plant isn't cheap.
Omnivorous solid waste makes bad fertilizer because of all of the protein waste. The energy wasted to refine human waste into fertilizer would be better spent on increasing the population of herbivorous livestock to produce usable solid waste for fertilizer. It would also have the effect of driving down meat prices, which have been on the dramatic rise for quite a while now.
"Eat recycled food; Its good for the environment, and okay for you."
Farmer digs hole, puts outhouse over it. Problem solved in most cases. The only place this activity should be restricted is where the soil is such that pathogens perk into other people's wells. The governments in most places require fancy septic systems and/or hook-up to sewers...
Maybe they should talk to these guys.. they've been building farming from waste into houses for years.
http://earthship.com/
anti-depressants.. and all the other drugs.. not sure I'd want that fertilizing my food.
I use a composting toilet in my house. I use one of These to seperate out my urine. http://www.ecovita.net/privy50...
Poo goes into a bucket lined with a compostable bag. I sprinkle coconut coir on it. Urine is sterile (and it's what smells bad) so it goes out a pipe and into a greywater system (basically a french drain in the yard).
It works like a charm. The solids are composted for a year to make sure any nasty bugs that might be in there die, and I put the waste on the roses and not the garden. No Problem.
already do this.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
One of the last untapped frontiers for the Moral Police and Insurance companies is tracking the waste products of individuals. It will be rolled out on the promise of health monitoring and driven in wedge-like with the good ol' refrain 'if you've done nothing wrong...'.
It will of course start out targeting minorities getting any type of public assistance as no one (not nearly enough) will care about their rights and privacies.
That's why I only drink grain alcohol...
Using any animal's waste as a fertilizer for its food is a recipe for a health disaster. Some pathogens are extremely hard to denature. Two examples come immediately to mind: Hepititis viruses and CJD prions (a human version of "mad cow"). Even if a process were effective, any failure, even short term, becomes an immediate disaster.
Instead, if waste is to be recycled, it is far better to recycle it as nutrients for a different species, the more different the better. For instance, human waste might fertrilize animal feed for herbivores, which are substantially different in biochemistry. (A better technique, of course, would be to recycle human waste into something useful other than the leading-to-humans food chain and replace the "lost" nutrients with smething newly-synthized. (An example would be replacing h from the bacteria in the root nodes of soybeans or clover.)
(The same applies to plants. For instrance: In our garden we rotate crops: Freshly composted soil might have tomatoes grown in it the first year, then only veggies that aren't susceptible to common diseases of tomatoes the second year, and so on. We'll typically run the soil through a composter again before once more growing tomatoes in it. Leaves from the fruit trees are removed in the fall rather than being allowed to compost beneath them, to eliminate things like apple worms and peach/plum/nectarine leaf-curl fungus. The trees might be fertilized, instead, by composted waste of other vegatables, while the tree leaves are sent to a recycling arrangement far away from our orchard.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Don't you people get it? Read "the tragedy of the commons" you nerds! Everything shared is bad, and making things scarce is adding value.
We, your elected (snicker) officials, are working night and day to make sure that nothing is free or in common, for the good of the species. Unfortunately air and water are proving difficult to get rid of, but our ongoing efforts to increase resource scarcity by converting petroleum and gas reserves into toxic waste are rapidly converting the air and water into unuseable poisons. Don't stand in the way of this great work!
AMERICA!!!!!!
So if recycled people is Soylent Green, recycled waste must be Soylent Brown?
"They looked deep into my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined"