Humanure

I see from the zeitgist, that ten members have The Humanure Handbook in their libraries.

I've been experimenting with the practice at my new home in Kentucky for the past year. There are others in the community who use this method full-time, but my use is only weekends, since I work in another place right now.

I'm using 5 gallon bucket rotation and have been storing the waste, covered with sawdust, in a black plastic trashcan, mixing it with yard waste. It compacts down well, and there has never been any odor. I've gone to using a separate bucket for urine and disposing that daily.

I'm nearly ready to build an open compost pile for the aged material.

Any other experiences out there?

I've never heard about this book, but I've wondered about the concept time and again.  I use a fertilizer that is composed of various types of manure, bone, and blood, so where's the harm in using human waste?  I've also read the blogs of women who use their own menstrual blood for fertilizer.

Because of the potential for disease pathogens to survive, it's recommended that the compost only be used for ornamentals.
That's a personal call. At this point I would not be feeding anyone else if I used the compost for food production. Since I've got so much else to do, there's no garden at present. But there will be, perhaps even next year.

At the Zen temple I stayed at it was standard practice to humanure. I heard that it works here because of the (largely) vegetarian diet. Otherwise the refuse is not fit for usage.

2wonderY, how are you finding it?

The question hadn't come up before for me, so I'm googling other opinions. I consume little meat, but I'm not vegetarian. I see that odor might be more offensive from meat-eaters and more importantly, there might be hormone products, pathogens, antibiotics, heavy metals(?)
Using an adequate amount of sawdust takes care of any odor.

I'm just about to build an open compost bin for the aged materials. I know a couple of families who process all of their waste in this manner, and I've visited their compost bins and handled the materials - it's just like any other aged compost.

So I haven't gone through the whole cycle yet.

My water source is rainwater into a cistern, so water conservation is the main impetus for the humanure route.

The county required a septic tank installed before I could get my electric permit and they were inflexible about it. (The other families live in another county and own more land, so their requirements were different.)

I couldn't find much on the question of omnivore humanure question, but one thoughtful blogger mentioned "mycoremediation" as a possible strategy to address the sorts of chemicals that might pass through the alimentary canal of humans in general, such as medicines, antibiotics, recreational drugs. The fungus-amongus.

I found another interesting book related to this topic:
Liquid Gold spells out the ridiculousness of flushing human liquid wastes through wastewater treatment- being a hazard to the environment and costing money (and clean water!) to neutralize while farmers are paying for nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers produced with imported energy.

It discusses old and new techniques to recover this resource safely and productively. Programs in Sweden, Denmark, Wales, Nepal and Mexico are on the cutting edge. A sustainable future may include peeing into new containers rather than a bowl of water.

Photo examples of plant growth using urine as fertilizer are compelling, and safety concerns are included.

I discovered a title that addresses the more commercial/corporate management of human waste, but is still accessible to the non-specialist - Reusing the Resource: Adventures in Ecological Wastewater Recycling

I showed it to the person in my office who underwrites loans to rural water and sewer entities, and I was pleased that she borrowed it from me for a few days.

There were some interesting examples of new ideas being implemented around the world.

2wonderY - I hope she makes good use of it!

I recently ran across a reference to black soldier fly larvae used to process all sorts of organic waste, even manure. I can't figure out how it might be done safely, as the system needs to be an open one, allowing adults access to the pile, but also to the outside. How do you keep normal flies (house, deer and horse fly varieties) from infesting and being a problem.

Multiple web postings on harvesting the larvae to feed to poultry. Another LTer says she has seen them in her garden compost pile in North Carolina. They seem to be very seasonally controlled by temperature.

A few universities are experimenting in using them to process farm manures.

I'm interested. Does anyone here have any experience or knowledge?

There is a major "ick" factor.

I'm still waiting to pick up on people's experience. ^^;

I've been turning my first open compost pile this spring, and finding it mostly done. I added weeds last year with woody stems, and those stems haven't composted yet. You'll note from a posting above, that I started the open pile last summer, but the contents had been in a closed black trash bin from the previous year, and had been baking in the sun for a year. I have noticed a mold growth within the closed bins. I've seen this sometimes within my yard waste compost piles, too, and I'm taking it as an indication that the microbiological activity is on the right track.

I planted pine seedlings yesterday and used some of the compost in some of the holes, or as top-dressing. It had a healthy compost odor and consistency. I handled it without gloves, and worried briefly, as I noticed an open scratch on my hand. Today, the scratch is completely healed.

It's not about Humanure except in part, but, The Big Necessity is an interesting read about human waste disposal around the world.

Just found this group. I started my humanure system a year ago, straight into an outdoor pile covering with old hay/straw. Last summer black soldier fly larvae showed up, but haven't had a housefly problem. The pile definitely does not get hot enough--with a small household we're still adding to the first pile--so I'm looking at the long slow composting rather than the quick. There aren't enough plants here that I consider "weeds" that I'd pull up just to compost, so I haven't added any greens. Maybe now that the snow's melted & the pile has some size to it I'll see some heating.

I didn't think turning the pile was recommended, but obviously it worked for you.

I don't know that I'd consider mold in the closed bins as being on the right track. Yes, it shows it's not sterile. But there's good mold & bad mold. I'd just say it indicates poor air flow--obvious in a closed bin. Can't assume it's something that'll mycoremediate.

This was a good mold - the white cobwebby kind, not the black slime mold.

Glad you found us, Juniper. It'll be good to exchange experiences.

You're right, I just was curious to see what progress had been made, to see whether it was done.

My system is just part-time. Weekends and occasional longer stays. Is yours full-time? Is there any official notice you need to avoid?

Mine is/was full time. I made a quick change in my life & just moved. I still own the property, haven't decided on it's future. I re-installed a toilet so it could be sold (or usable for brief visits without time to fuss with emptying buckets). If I do get back for longer, I can go back to using the system. The pile will just age quietly in place.
Yes, there is official rulings against anything but septic system, so I'll still have to have my septic pumped out every 3 years by state law, but the pile is tucked back by some old sheds, & my neighbors don't seem to explore their adjoining woods. I'm in an old development of couple acre lots.

I've started doing stop-and-grab manuveurs on trash night in town. I can collect very decent firewood and garden clippings/leaves to add to my piles. It's handy that some people buy the big paper bags that are specifically marketed for garden waste.

Hello,

Here via random clicking on links via google on 'humanure black soldier fly.' Full time humanure composter here but only for about a year now. I suspect the seasonal changes will take care of a lot of the residents in my pile come winter time; possibly not - I live in Virginia so it's possible the heat of the pile will help with life through the winter. It's been weeks since I checked the pile temperature; it was getting pretty hot but now I tend to check more by sight and smell since all the beneficial critters are hard at work inside.

By the Humanure Handbook, it says to allow the compost to age for a year and I'll give mine some time but it seems healthy and earthy all ready at 9 months. We'll use it for our own food once it has aged out (again, not recommended by the book but it has to be better than some of the poison that's setting in bags at Lowes). We (myself, wife, kid) are all vegetarian so I can't comment on the odors and additives associated with meat eaters and humanure composting, but I have my pile in my yard about 15 feet from my SQF gardens and it has an earthy compost smell with minimal effort. I cover with whatever is around - last years dried leaves from an adjoining woodland gathered at a fence line, grass clippings, and old straw bale, weeds. I have a second pile that is a mix of humanure and chicken coop shavings and manure, no odor from this either but it's only into its second month. I wouldn't had added the shavings this early as I use a deep litter method in my coop; but a mix of a forgetful in-law not latching the coop while I was on vacation and a small family of raccoon caused carnage inside the coop - litter, droppings, and a few remains from a few chickens went into the second compost pile. The only foul odor I ever have with the compost pile is on occasion when adding new humanure - if I've allowed the bucket to set out for a while (I use rotating 5 gallon buckets and sometimes will allow a few buckets to fill before I add; this means the first bucket sets around for a week or more sometimes) I'll have a slight septic-ish smell that lasts only until I add the cover material. Like the poster above, sometimes I'll move the compost around to make sure it's healthy and after a day or two, there is no odor at all except what you would expect from a compost pile.

Moral of the story I suppose is that Humanure composting is relatively easy if you simply read the book. I don't even know that you need to read the book so much as a quick outline. I monitored my pile religiously for the first 6 months or so - first out of fear of trying something new and potentially unhealthy; then out of interest as it started working. Now it's casually as I'm confident in the health of the pile although new life from whatever insect or such has arrived brings back a level of interest from time to time as they're discovered.

Hi! Welcome and glad you found us.

I too found that odor is completely dependant on adding enough cover material.
I use sawdust for cover in the 5 gallon bucket. And it can sit inside for weeks without any problems. I invested in some stretchy plastic covers that close off the buckets entirely.

It looks like this


and is called a Saver Lid (TM) and costs about a dollar and a quarter retail.

Not precisely on-topic, but close enough...

In China, Bill Gates Encourages the World to Build a Better Toilet

Bill Gates believes the world needs better toilets.

Specifically, toilets that improve hygiene, don’t have to connect to sewage systems at all and can break down human waste into fertilizer.

So on Tuesday in Beijing, Mr. Gates held the Reinvented Toilet Expo, a chance for companies to showcase their takes on the simple bathroom fixture. Companies showed toilets that could separate urine from other waste for more efficient treatment, that recycled water for hand washing and that sported solar roofs.
…
Mr. Gates’s efforts to bring the discussion of toilets into the mainstream have legitimized a topic that many have avoided talking about for decades, said Jack Sim, the founder of the World Toilet Organization, a Singapore-based nonprofit organization committed to improving toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide.

“The subject of toilets has been a neglected subject for some time,” Mr. Sim said. “The Gates Foundation is part of this momentum of breaking the taboo.”

The Water in Your Toilet Could Fight Climate Change One Day
Matt Simon | 01.23.19

...Worldwide, wastewater treatment facilities account for 3 percent of electricity consumption and contribute 1.6 percent of emissions.

...On its own, a person’s poop is carbon neutral (save for emissions from growing and transporting food)

...Except that the wastewater treatment facilities need energy to operate. There might be a way to tweak this process, however. Some microbes, like bacteria and microalgae, feed on CO2 itself. “They would eat up the organic carbon and then convert the CO2 into chemicals, for example ethanol,” says Princeton University environmental engineer Zhiyong Jason Ren*...So one potential fix would be to replace the typical microbes used in wastewater treatment with these CO2-guzzlers. “You treat wastewater but also you reduce CO2 into something more valuable.”

...you (could also) pump CO2 from, say, a fossil fuel power plant into enclosed tanks full of wastewater...to produce valuable chemicals (like ethanol) to sell off.

...Another idea would be to use wastewater byproducts, aka “sludge,” to produce biochar, a kind of carbon-rich charcoal. When added to soil, biochar can improve crop yields, and as a nice bonus, it boosts how much CO2 the soil absorbs. Or we might turn artificial wetlands into their own facilities of sorts: Pump the wastewater into one of these engineered wetlands, and plants would convert it into biomass, thus reconstituting CO2 as vegetation...

https://www.wired.com/story/the-water-in-your-toilet-could-fight-climate-change-...

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* Lu Lu et al. 2018. Wastewater treatment for carbon capture and utilization (review). Nature Sustainability volume 1, pages750–758 (14 Dec 2018)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-018-0187-9

A paradigm shift is underway in wastewater treatment as the industry heads toward ~3% of global electricity consumption and contributes ~1.6% of greenhouse gas emissions. Although incremental improvements to energy efficiency and renewable energy recovery are underway, studies considering wastewater for carbon capture and utilization are few. This Review summarizes alternative wastewater treatment pathways capable of simultaneous CO2 capture and utilization, and demonstrates the environmental and economic benefits of microbial electrochemical and phototrophic processes. Preliminary estimates demonstrate that re-envisioning wastewater treatment may entirely offset the industry’s greenhouse gas footprint and make it a globally significant contributor of negative carbon emissions.

Peecycling - will it become mainstream? The NYT features the practice in Vermont and Niger:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/17/climate/peecycling-farming-urine-fertilizer.h...