Human 'waste'

I want to start living a self sufficient lifestyle and was just wondering, can you compost human waste? Could you get into trouble for doing this? If it worked it would seem like a really good idea unless...

Dude... Thats sick! Thanks like smoking your own shit.

...sounds like a good way to catch Hep.!!!! STOP THAT SHIT MAN!

I understand they used to grow very big vegetables out by the outhouse... in Michigan

Cool, so you can catch Hep C from your own shit! Wow, you learn something new every day! He he, just playin' with ya!

Of course I probably won't do this, I'm just entertaining the idea. Just asking myself what ifs.

CLOSETGROWTH said:

Dude... Thats sick! Thanks like smoking your own shit.

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Well that's what most people here do anyway!

Edit: Just for the record, I'm not that disgusting. It was just a curiosity, or passing thought! I was only half serious.

Anyone heard of Jenkem before? I've heard of some reputable papers doing legit articles on this new 'drug' being abused by people on low incomes.

Well, I have heard of farmers (USA corn/soybean) buying or getting free sewage sludge (Treated) from sewage treatment plants and putting that on their fields as a cheaper form of fertilizer. I think they use raw sewage in Asia for the rice patties.

Can it be done? Yes, but that idea is taboo to many. We put animal shit on things all the time for fertilizer and never give it a 2nd thought. When it comes to human shit, that is where the gut reaction of taboo kicks in.

Artificial emotion said:

Well that's what most people here do anyway!

Edit: Just for the record, I'm not that disgusting. It was just a curiosity, or passing thought! I was only half serious.

Anyone heard of Jenkem before? I've heard of some reputable papers doing legit articles on this new 'drug' being abused by people on low incomes.

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i heard of that jenkem b4 seen it on a documentry its widespread in parts of africa and isnt all that new.

i like a buzz and will take most anything but i draw the line at fermenting my own shit and sniffing it to get wasted!

I don't think it is safe or good for your plants. The reason being our digestive tracts and our diets. Notice most fertilizers we use come from animals that have a veg diet or insect diet but very little "meat". Cows, bats, sea birds, etc.
Human "manure" can contain a lot of nasty stuff harmful to us including harmful bacteria, pathogens, and overall is not good for plants as far as nutrient levels.
There is a way to use it for the most part safely but it requires composting it and letting it sit for a year or more. The composting of it creates heat which "should" kill off harmful pathogens.
Overall IMO I wouldn't recommend it at all.
On a side note Human urine can be very good for your plants providing you drink plenty of water, eat a healthy balanced diet, and dilute it with plenty of water. Urine is an excellent source of Nitrogen as well as significant quantities of dissolved phosphates and potassium. However, Urine contains a lot of salts which over time can cause problems and though technically organic concentrations of heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and cadmium, commonly found in solid human waste, are much lower in urine (though not low enough to qualify for use in organic agriculture under current EU rules).

Good luck and good growing.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_urine#cite_note-EcoEngNewsletter1-11

EF, hit it spot on. The biggest risk in my opinion would be the high mercury levels. The heat from compost isn't hot enough to kill everything, unless you do it under very controlled conditions, and test for disease afterwards. Otherwise you might just create a breading ground for harmful pathogens. And you don't want to be the guy on CNN for causing a new form of swine flu.

Artificial emotion said:

I want to start living a self sufficient lifestyle and was just wondering, can you compost human waste? Could you get into trouble for doing this? If it worked it would seem like a really good idea unless...

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yes you can actually, isn't that what you are asking?

Look into septic tank starter bacteria

Read about Black Soldier Fly larva.

You wont give your self hep C. Read about the Hunza people, they are isolated and live off the land. They don't seem to get sick too badly. Actually, many people believe they live longer than most people.

I'm not telling you to do this with out understanding what you must do first. You must make sure it is composted as opposed to partially composted.

Look into steady state composting tubes. They are like a gut that digests stuff. you put it in the top (composting items) and it comes out the other end when done, not in a batch like some worm bins. You can buy them pre-built.

I have seen different layers hosting different bugs... Like the top is BSF and worms where below them. When stuff comes out of the bottom of this, it is composted. I put meat, crap, dead animals, egg whites, etc in it. The final product has no putrid smell at all.

If you're compost smells like crap at all, redo it, and find out where you went wrong.

You can't cut a log into your garden if that's what you're asking. If you're serious you should check out composting toilets. You could also speed up the process using manufactured worms to get rid of the pathogens. I'm going to use one in my future house for the green appeal. Down where I live when there's rain they have to start pumping raw sewage into the ocean because they can't keep up wth the supply. Besides, when they treat human waste they just dehydrate it and take the solid waste to the dump. I mean, it's got to go somewhere and the amount coming in is greater than amount coming out. 'Till then I'm following the "yellow mellow" rule. Nitrogen cycle, y'all.

In season 1 FX series 30 days with Morgan Spurlock featured a commune which lived completely "off the grid". They composted all waste feces and urine.

http://vod.fxnetworks.com/fod/play.php?sh=thirtydays

A lot of manures/guanos we buy are from animals which have carnivores/omnivores. Some bats eat fruit but most eat insects. Got a mosquito problem build a bat house. Sea gulls eat fish and chickens eat anything. So unless you live on a processed food diet that should be a problem.

One of the problems with composting human waste is the high temperatures needed to destroy pathogens present in human feces also destroy beneficial bacteria. So one would have to mix it into other complimentary compost (high brown content). It would be a pain in the ass!!!!!

Most humans eat too much meat based proteins. That makes our waste pretty much useless for anything other than biodiesel or fish feed. Yes certain fish eat our waste. Most tilapia (a popular fish in restaurants) is grown by feeding it human shit. Lots of privately owned waste water treatment plants also farm this fish...kind of fucking sick if you ask me.