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Holy Crap
I was just forwarded this article from the New York Times by an alternative energy list I'm on.
Its called the PeePoo, and its a biodegradable plastic bag with urea crystals in it to sterilize human waste and make it bioavailable. It will cost as much as a plastic bag, which some slum dwellers are currently using.
I have mixed feelings about humanure. Its actually a subject that hits REALLY close to home for me. I recently had a representative from a local, family owned soil company in Southern California. They offered to donate soil to our Chefs Du Potager project, but when I asked him what type of soil he said much of their stuff was composted biosolids, or sludge.
Growcology is looking to eventually become organically or biodynamically certified, and human sludge is one of the amendments that can compromise that certification process. I told him we couldn't use that, but their potting soil product (which we unwittingly featured in our Tabletop Gardens video) contains no humanure and would be great for our plots if they could spare it.
He said he'd get back to me, he had to go up to San Francisco that evening.
I didn't hear from him again until this morning, but over the weekend an organic farmer on the board of Growcology called me to say that there were protests this week in San Francisco over free 'Organic' compost that had been given out to city residents.
"Organic" compost that contained human biosolids, which is barely regulated by the EPA and can potentially contain huge quantities of VOACs, heavy metals, steroids, etc.
So now I don't know what to think. I found this article corroborating what our board member told me, but not implicating the particular company we were dealing with. So now I don't know if I should deal with them at all, if they are decietfully marketing their products and spreading potential toxins.
I am personally conflicted beyond just wanting free soil, because philosophically I believe all biological waste SHOULD be composted and recycled through the closed-loop system that is our planet. To just throw away rich nutrients is wasteful.
However, our current lifestyles integrate countless toxic materials into our diet, our medicine, our homes, and our work. As long as people are treating their bodies and homes worse than we treat landfills, the stuff coming out of us will be useless as an eventual nutrient.
Someday compost toilets and technologies like the PeePoo will be much more prevalent, but hopefully those using them won't be filling themselves and the compost bags full of toxins. Its worth re-examining our diets and healing practices, but that is a luxury the people in Africa and India who'll recieve these bags don't have...
photo source: A Design Mafia
Its called the PeePoo, and its a biodegradable plastic bag with urea crystals in it to sterilize human waste and make it bioavailable. It will cost as much as a plastic bag, which some slum dwellers are currently using.
I have mixed feelings about humanure. Its actually a subject that hits REALLY close to home for me. I recently had a representative from a local, family owned soil company in Southern California. They offered to donate soil to our Chefs Du Potager project, but when I asked him what type of soil he said much of their stuff was composted biosolids, or sludge.
Growcology is looking to eventually become organically or biodynamically certified, and human sludge is one of the amendments that can compromise that certification process. I told him we couldn't use that, but their potting soil product (which we unwittingly featured in our Tabletop Gardens video) contains no humanure and would be great for our plots if they could spare it.
He said he'd get back to me, he had to go up to San Francisco that evening.
I didn't hear from him again until this morning, but over the weekend an organic farmer on the board of Growcology called me to say that there were protests this week in San Francisco over free 'Organic' compost that had been given out to city residents.
"Organic" compost that contained human biosolids, which is barely regulated by the EPA and can potentially contain huge quantities of VOACs, heavy metals, steroids, etc.
So now I don't know what to think. I found this article corroborating what our board member told me, but not implicating the particular company we were dealing with. So now I don't know if I should deal with them at all, if they are decietfully marketing their products and spreading potential toxins.
I am personally conflicted beyond just wanting free soil, because philosophically I believe all biological waste SHOULD be composted and recycled through the closed-loop system that is our planet. To just throw away rich nutrients is wasteful.
However, our current lifestyles integrate countless toxic materials into our diet, our medicine, our homes, and our work. As long as people are treating their bodies and homes worse than we treat landfills, the stuff coming out of us will be useless as an eventual nutrient.
Someday compost toilets and technologies like the PeePoo will be much more prevalent, but hopefully those using them won't be filling themselves and the compost bags full of toxins. Its worth re-examining our diets and healing practices, but that is a luxury the people in Africa and India who'll recieve these bags don't have...
photo source: A Design Mafia
Views: 46
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Comment by Jenn on March 10, 2010 at 6:02am
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Nick, first off, the aces on the blog title. Secondly, this is probably the best thing I've learned about on here! Whoever came up with this is genius. I had no idea that pathogens could be killed if given long enough in a hostile environment created from ammonia. Infectious disease is the number one cause of mortality in the world and a good deal of that can be attributed to poor sanitation. I'm finding I'm learning so much great information about environmental health from all the ecologically-focused folks on here. Thanks for sharing! Now if only I didn't have a brown thumb...
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Comment by Murray Blore on March 10, 2010 at 6:50am
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I reckon this Peepoo product is actually quite impressive. Nick, you're looking at it from an agricultural perspective - in which case I agree with you that it would likely be harmful. But thats if you bury the stuff under your veggie garden. Is the focus not more to just get rid of the peepoo ? Give it a place to biodegrade that's not outside your backdoor where pathogens will go airborne. I wonder how quickly all of the bad stuff breaks down when placed in a suitable environment (which is what the bag is creating), and will it be broken down sufficiently before it reaches the local water-source.
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Comment by Nick Heyming on March 10, 2010 at 6:55am
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Murray, I totally agree! I guess I didn't wrap it up well enough (lol), I should have finished the blog saying how promising humanure is and how products like Peepoo are going to really help in sanitation worldwide. I WILL have a compost toilet before I die, and I'd love to be a pioneer in making biosolids safe for complete closed loop food production. But currently, its infeasible for all the reasons I listed...
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@a.v.koshy I agree we should hold everyone to the same standards. Unfortunately, so-called 'developing' nations actually often have a more evolved concept of health than the USA. Here, we treat the symptoms of problems with expensive, complex chemicals that persist in the environment long after the sniffles and coughs are gone, whereas in traditional settings, they treat the problem and the wh*** body with herbs and diet to affect it.
There are innumerable disadvantages to the way we do it. Toxic poo is one of them.
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