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Human Shit is good Fertiliser

There was a study conducted in Japan once upon a time that indicated the amount of protein and other nutrients present in sewage was off the charts. If a way could be found to process that sewage in order to make it safer and less prone to the transmission of parasites and other diseases, it would represent a huge amount of resources that could be returned to the Earth much more quickly than otherwise.
 

Klompen

Active member
You have to keep in mind that large-scale "biosolid" sources from sewage systems have all sorts of bizarre contaminants in it. People pour all sorts of weird stuff down the drains. These "biosolid" producers are relying on those things being under certain thresholds, but I wouldn't feel comfortable using them on food crops.
 

Dog Star

Active member
Veteran
Biodynamics are centered on cow shit,not on human excrements...

that just proof that World going in wrong direction and there is sure a lack of cows
involved in these...
 
Biodynamics are centered on cow shit,not on human excrements...

that just proof that World going in wrong direction and there is sure a lack of cows
involved in these...
Yet the same nutrients and materials are there, we just haven't discovered the best techniques to make such materials safe for use.


In the Japanese study, there was even mention of attempting to separate these materials to such an extent as to make the nutrients such as the protein safe for direct human consumption.


"This sewage is full of meat!" was a quote from one of the researchers as he gazed into his microscope.


Our planet is already beyond a sustainable population, in order to avoid total population collapse and the deaths of billions of people, "food recycling" will have to become a daily reality.
 

Gypsy Nirvana

Recalcitrant Reprobate -
Administrator
Veteran
Is it beyond the pale of human decency that one day we may be nourished by a Turd-Burger?


Maybe there will be no other choice? - but to recycle our own bodily wastes and get creative in the kitchen with it.

<cue the heavy retching sounds>

Yet the same nutrients and materials are there, we just haven't discovered the best techniques to make such materials safe for use.


In the Japanese study, there was even mention of attempting to separate these materials to such an extent as to make the nutrients such as the protein safe for direct human consumption.


"This sewage is full of meat!" was a quote from one of the researchers as he gazed into his microscope.


Our planet is already beyond a sustainable population, in order to avoid total population collapse and the deaths of billions of people, "food recycling" will have to become a daily reality.
 

luposolitario

Senior member
the hen makes the shit more good (for my personal expi), but also cow and horse do not joke, when I did out growing , I made a mix of hen poo-horse-rabbit, no disease or parasite. to use mine I'm doubtful, maybe I care more ethics personal.
one thing and put hen dry poop inside a 50 liter tank, the human one would be a shitty situation, find a space ..put uman shit to dri ...
the game is not worth the candle in small quantities, at least treating a large quantity would be safer at the level of health, personal choice for all , the Japanese were smart to be suicide bombers, I'm not surprised if I cook shit...
 

mr.brunch

Well-known member
Veteran
I always thought they used human waste to fertilise fields during fallow years when they aren’t producing food crops, just grasses to feed cattle etc.
Then the remains get ploughed in the following year?
 

Dog Star

Active member
Veteran
I always thought they used human waste to fertilise fields during fallow years when they aren’t producing food crops, just grasses to feed cattle etc.
Then the remains get ploughed in the following year?


Yes,you are right... they still does this at mine country but a praxis
is not very smart since they dont aerate liquid manure before they
give it to soil and cause of smell of these technique as fields for
days stink really bad.. river of shit sprayed on fields..
thats not a best nutrients for plants neither..

toilets use all kind of chemicals like freshners,then people if they have closed pipes use different acid based products to clean toilet
pipes,then people use medicaments of all kind inside their body,anti-biotics,all kind of chemical crap,this goes to sewage...

i dont get how anybody can think this can be great nutes for plants its a huge mystery to me...

thats definitly bad praxis and not understanding a knowledge on manures.

People on another hand have different bacterial gut flora than cows for instance... cow eat grass that is already colonized with great
amount of beneficial organismes,if pasture is clean and cows are "free range" this can great affect a quality of manure..

Humans have really dangerous bacteries in their guts beside beneficial ones,Clostridium difficile a superbactery that infects humans can survive 6 month spores outside in most extreme conditions,heat,acid enviroment,cold.. and be prepared for attack on new host..

I will never use human manure for plant growing but i sees there is a great amendments that are much cleaner and safer for production of food or medicine as we does..

Maybe i will use human manure to fertilize woods,trees that dont bear fruits that are for consumation,only then by mine personal
standards..
 

aridbud

automeister
ICMag Donor
Veteran
No thanks...human excrement. Same goes with using women's menses as fertilizer....that thread was hot here a year or more ago.
 

Elmer Bud

Genotype Sex Worker AKA strain whore
Veteran
You have to keep in mind that large-scale "biosolid" sources from sewage systems have all sorts of bizarre contaminants in it. People pour all sorts of weird stuff down the drains. These "biosolid" producers are relying on those things being under certain thresholds, but I wouldn't feel comfortable using them on food crops.


G `day K

The new thing in Oz is analysing sewerage water to see what drugs the community is using .
Lots of hormones from birth controls and lots of meth it seems .

Good for targeting law enforcement .

Thanks for sharin

EB .
 
Is it pretty? Nope, but the sheer reality of an overpopulated world will lead to this area being explored sooner rather than later. Look at the fiction Judge Dredd as a good example, "eat recycled food, good for the environment, and good for you..." When the oil starts to run out, and petrochemical fertilization is no longer viable, science will have to find new ways to keep the crops going. Do I hope some miracle comes along and prevents the world from collapsing into resource wars and famine? Yep, but at this point it doesn't seem likely.
 

BerrySeal

Member
I've got a good nose for quality fertilizer. Once I didn't eat anything but beans and herbs for 3 days and you could tell it was some quality shit. But.. The 2 part fermentation process to remove pathogens has stopped me from proceeding.

When I was in the shitty city of phx, I couldn't keep rabbits or chickens and no clean cove gunk (more boats than fish), no access to natural fed cattle (they feed em stale gummy worms and expired pizza rolls in Az i think).. Humanics was tempting. But I just went with veganics, plant ferments. Basically the same just removing the butthole from the equation.

Another funny thing about phx is they use cow shit, chicken and biosolids on the farms. You got these million dollars homes that smell like sun baked sewer sludge in the cool nights and no one complains. Unless they think it's weed they're smelling. Once they find out its a burning manure pile they're okay with it.

Modern people.. I think [organic] Cannabis deficiency is a real US epidemic. Nothing else could bring the people back to nature like some [organic] Space Queen. On a related note I heard dogs will stop eating turds if you spray their arthritis-inducing dog food with micro nutes (Anderson84, Swanson Ultra, etc). Its just a rumor though I haven't don't a side by side with pics.
 

baduy

Active member
sewage...


Humans have really dangerous bacteries in their guts beside beneficial ones,Clostridium difficile a superbactery that infects humans can survive 6 month spores outside in most extreme conditions,heat,acid enviroment,cold.. and be prepared for attack on new host..

I will never use human manure for plant growing but i sees there is a great amendments that are much cleaner and safer for production of food or medicine as we does..

Maybe i will use human manure to fertilize woods,trees that dont bear fruits that are for consumation,only then by mine personal
standards..
If uncompletely composted no type of manure is safe, for instance sheep and cow fresh manure can give you liver flukes. It's all about the temperature of your pile. Industrial cattles are stuffed with antibiotics and all type of shit all their lives and their manure is also full of it. I'd rather use one year old manure from the backyard toilet of a vegan jehova witness than fresh industrial cow manure that will fill my weed with antibiotics. East asians have been using human manure for generations in their fields without health issues.
To each is own
 

Gypsy Nirvana

Recalcitrant Reprobate -
Administrator
Veteran
Yes....in some dystopian future - they might even be mining the sewers for minerals - Apparently there is enough cocaine down the London sewers to start your very own cartel with.

<cue the Mariachi band>

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/04/cocaine-london-sewers-highest-level-europe-drug-uk


Is it pretty? Nope, but the sheer reality of an overpopulated world will lead to this area being explored sooner rather than later. Look at the fiction Judge Dredd as a good example, "eat recycled food, good for the environment, and good for you..." When the oil starts to run out, and petrochemical fertilization is no longer viable, science will have to find new ways to keep the crops going. Do I hope some miracle comes along and prevents the world from collapsing into resource wars and famine? Yep, but at this point it doesn't seem likely.
 

Microbeman

The Logical Gardener
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Sewer cartels and turd burgers. Made my morning.

Seriously, the collection point is key, as Teddy so eloquently expressed. Effluent flushed to a huge central processing plant will likely never be healthy. There is however real potential for individual household collection of self-waste and composting/vermicomposting.

This points to more than only the recycling of our waste but humans returning to acceptance of responsibility for their own impact on the earth.

These types of actions have transformative powers on the human attitude.
 

MJPassion

Observer
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I wonder what Paul Stamets would say on this subject?
Too bad he's not here on IC.

I'd be willing to bet that mushrooms could do for shit what they can do for hydrocarbons.

Then we could feed the mushroom compost to our beloved plants.
 

Itsmychoice

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
I was made aware of this when two trailers dumped a 12” deep lane wide trail for miles down a local highway. The sewage plant in the city sells it to local farms for cheap. The representative for the sewer company kept saying how it’s “treated” and worry free. It looked and smelt just like pooo and all my mind could think about was the worst case scenarios of what people shit and put in toilets. I felt real bad for the guy who wreaked his motorcycle in it and laughed at the thought of how many cars drove through and parked in their garage. It was reported as manure. Humans can’t be trusted to keep this kind of system good. I could care less what the process is, there are too many unknowns in a city’s waste collection, but I have no doubt we all have had things grown in fields fertilized with human shit without knowing it. I will be more careful from now on.
 
I wonder what Paul Stamets would say on this subject?
Too bad he's not here on IC.

I'd be willing to bet that mushrooms could do for shit what they can do for hydrocarbons.

Then we could feed the mushroom compost to our beloved plants.
At the toxic US Superfund sites they often conduct research on microbes that can break down materials that we currently have no conventional means of dealing with, it might end up being the case that human compost becomes just as usable as plant compost, once the right microbe colonies are discovered and introduced. Progress is almost always a good thing, sometimes it just smells a little nastier than we would like.
 

Microbeman

The Logical Gardener
ICMag Donor
Veteran
At the toxic US Superfund sites they often conduct research on microbes that can break down materials that we currently have no conventional means of dealing with, it might end up being the case that human compost becomes just as usable as plant compost, once the right microbe colonies are discovered and introduced. Progress is almost always a good thing, sometimes it just smells a little nastier than we would like.

The Japanese already have a formula which hypothetically accomplishes this. It is called EM and in my world it worked.
 
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