How to deal with... "waste"

[tortoise]

My response to PM's:

My aunt and uncle have the first "Skycrapper" built in 1979.

Last December Senator William Proxmire awarded his monthly Golden Fleece award to the DOE for spending $1,200 to build and test "an above-ground aerobic and solar-assisted composting toilet," an outhouse elevated 2 yds. or 3 yds. above ground, where the human waste is caught on a wire mesh and exposed to sunlight to aid decomposition. Developer Douglas Elley of Lupus, Mo., plans to market his invention as "The Skycrapper," and he proudly praises "the pleasing and aesthetic moments of meditative contemplation in a small sunlit room perched 6 ft. to 8 ft. above a backyard or garden view."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,952674-2,00.html#ixzz0ZmWBfSRF

It's actually super cute. It's well-decorated, has a beautiful garden view... And never smelled anything from it. It's been very well-accepted by the extended family - but our summer vacations are spent on an island in Canada, where a toilet seat suspended over a hole in the ground makes do. (After 50 years, they upgraded to an outhouse.)

And they do have a conventional toilet in the house as well.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Rant away! As long as you do it nicely

And especially since I agree with you. If we took all our ancestors knowledge & then refined it just a bit, adding our own touches & taught that in middle & high school, I'd feel a lot better about our collective future.

Another thing is the money. If something is truely all natural, you can't patent it. You can't patent a cleaner made with baking soda & vinegar, you can't make tons of money off a cancer cure that works entirely off of herbs. Follow the money, it's where the power lies.

From seeds, fertilizers, meat, milk & veggies, cleaning supplies, paper making, processed foods. Who wins out? Those who have the money to buy the lawyers & advertising firms. Not the little guys.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Thank you tortoise!
I got a laugh out of this, it's a little off topic, but we're there already I think: "We are going after Yankee ingenuity and whatever the Southern equivalent of that is."
It's called Redneck Engineering

**Scampers off to read the rest of the article**

 

[big brown horse]

I have a question. What would you do if one of your "guests" was on a perscription medication and needed to use the loo?

Other that that worry, I am thumbs up for the composting toilet system.

 

[2dream]

Wolf Kim

In response to your rant. LOL Loved it and agree.

Its just so complicated.

So many of todays "inventions" were put into place as time saving devices. Others for sanitary reasons.

More and more people left the farms in search of their dreams or their farms failed 1 year to many. They moved to towns and cities. As towns and cities grew sanitation became an issue during a time when resources were abundant and pollution was not a word commenly used. With more people working jobs, time became and issue. Dishwashers, washing machines, city provide water and sewer services, ect were invented.

Now parents work, kids play soccor/football/baseball/dance lessons/basketball/piano lessons etc. Its constant run, run, run.
No time to deal with green living. Because lets face it. A lot of the things considered SS are time consuming. Feeding livestock, tending a garden, fermenting, baking bread, milking goats/sheep/cows, and tending a compost pile properly. People don't want to make time for the extra work involved when they can run to the store/pop the dishes in the dishwasher/throw the clothes in the dryer/and flush the toilet and never give it a second thought.

Most people don't even know where their food comes from much less where their waste goes. LOL

The majority of the population does not have a clue what an out house was much less what a composting toilet is. Nor do they want to know. There is to much "ugh" factor in that thought.

I predict that this side of green living will be a long time coming for the general populace. I would also venture to guess that no matter how much - Its been composted for two years and is totally safe, heres the research to prove it - information you put out there, the majority of the population would be in an uproar if they were told its going on their food supply as fertlizer.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

BBH, I'm looking that up now, but I think after a certain amount of time, especially in the high heat of the pile, those drugs would break down.

2dream, I think we are all in consensus on that debate. Huge disconnect between real life & normal life.

One of the hardest things about trying to go SS is the hours spent away from my home, away from my family.

When I think about how much I could accomplish with 10-12 hours extra at home (especially in daylight!!) Well, it boggles the mind. DH is floored with stuff, you stay at home moms know what I mean. He can only accomplish so much without me there to help. That's the main reason I think I have such a hard time convincing him of certain things, because of the time involved.

There is a great sidenote in the book about nuns who contacted the author to come & speak about humanure composting.

The Sister's of Humility. They considered that humble & humus both come from the same root and what is more humbling than dealing with your own poop? The job of sewage management in some countries is relegated to "undesirables" I'm recalling a scene in the movie Ghandi (Ben Kingsly, if you haven't seen it, you should) Indira refuses to rake & cover the latrine pits, because it is a job for untouchables. Ghandi threatens to throw her out, because they are a family, where there are no untouchables and everyone must pull their own weight. I'm paraphrasing, & probably don't have the whole scene right, but it's a point.

I'm betting that if we all had to handle our own poop, we'd all be a little more humble. True humility is never a bad thing.

Edited because I left out a whole phrase...

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Okay, BBH. Here's what I'm going to do. The master bath (and only that one at present) will be converted to a sawdust toilet. Only DH & I use that one. Occassionally the kids will need to go when the other is tied up.

Everyone else would be required to use the guest bathroom, which for now, will retain the flush toilet. I say required, but as it's only 10 steps from the living room & mine is at the other end of the house, this is not a big deal.

The only people I have in my home are close friends. No one else comes to see me and I like it that way. Yeah, I'm a recluse, sue me

Now, in a SHTF situation, if I knew someone was somehow still on a drug & the only way for them to poop was in my composting toilet, that load of poop gets buried, in a far corner, far away from water & food supplies. Does this introduce the drug back into the system, yes. But, they are already passing through sewage processors & ending up in the water supplies now. And in that sort of situation, it'd literally be a drop in the bucket. Pun intended

In other words, though, I dunno about it.

 

[big brown horse]

Okay, BBH. Here's what I'm going to do. The master bath (and only that one at present) will be converted to a sawdust toilet. Only DH & I use that one. Occassionally the kids will need to go when the other is tied up.

Everyone else would be required to use the guest bathroom, which for now, will retain the flush toilet. I say required, but as it's only 10 steps from the living room & mine is at the other end of the house, this is not a big deal.

The only people I have in my home are close friends. No one else comes to see me and I like it that way. Yeah, I'm a recluse, sue me

Now, in a SHTF situation, if I knew someone was somehow still on a drug & the only way for them to poop was in my composting toilet, that load of poop gets buried, in a far corner, far away from water & food supplies. Does this introduce the drug back into the system, yes. But, they are already passing through sewage processors & ending up in the water supplies now. And in that sort of situation, it'd literally be a drop in the bucket. Pun intended

In other words, though, I dunno about it.

I think that is a good idea noobie.

 

[valmom]

I can't believe I missed this thread!

I researched composting toilets years ago, and several times since for a toilet to go in the barn so I wouldn't have to go in a stall I love the idea! How much more SS can it get than to close the nutrient loop by composting your own poop as well as the animals? It is logical, it makes sense, there is no downside. Except for my SO. No composting toilet allowed in the house- we are stuck with low flow normal toilet and a septic system that needs to be pumped.

Of course, I am a procrastinator and still haven't gotten around to actually getting one down in the barn. But, it's still a great idea.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Hey val!
Share your research knowledge! I've read humanure handbook & various other blogs about it, plus seen one system in it's starting months. I'm rather excited. Feels weird, being excited by poop...

That would be a great use for a sawdust toilet! Bucket, toilet seat & some sawdust and you're in business

We had such a time getting anyone to come pump out our tank that we gave up & connected to city sewage. Yay extra $15 a month... can you sense the sarcasm?