the things people get up too

[di]

I mentioned on Mikey's compost loo thread about my sisters FIL....he used to dig little holes beneath his orange trees & dispose of any "waste" in them!

[snuffer]

A good 20 / 25 years ago I used to buy a product called Black Gold. This was a compost made from sewage. It's main selling point was that it was cheap. (Well it would have to be wouldn't it?). Most of the chaps on the allotments used it. Must say it worked a treat. As I recall it had no smell to it and looked very like an ordinary well sieved home made compost.

I might be wrong but I'm sure I remember Dick Strawbrige on one of the first series of 'It's Not Easy Being Green' visiting a chap that made his own Humanure and I'm sure he himself has a home built composting toilet. He does say that the resulting compost is only used on the flower beds though.

[FROSTYFRECKLE]

I feel like barfing but I have heard of it before. A friend of a friend grew up in Port William and it was common to pooh in buckets then use it to feed the plants Thank goodness I had my porridge at 5 this morn

[shirlthegirl43]

Someone I knew bought a sort of granules from the sewage works and put it on her whole garden - she had fantastic veggies and her soil was beautiful.

Not sure if it is connected in any way but she was a real loony

[Polly Fouracre]

This really would be a "green" way of dealing with human waste and, just maybe, I wouldn't be too sqeamish were it not for anti-biotics, hormones from oral contraceptives. steroids etc. that stay in the compost. As it is, no thanks!!

[Alison]

The farmers don't spread raw sewage on the fields, it's a by product of sludge production known as biosolids which has undergone a level of treatment and there are very strict regulations about it - for pretty obvious reasons. I appreciate the fact that some farmers don't stick to it and I'm not about to started p**ing in a bucket but it's not as basic as you'd think.

[Alison]

This really would be a "green" way of dealing with human waste and, just maybe, I wouldn't be too sqeamish were it not for anti-biotics, hormones from oral contraceptives. steroids etc. that stay in the compost. As it is, no thanks!!

Personally I'm more worried about all that stuff which gets into the rivers everyday at the outfall of each wastewater treatment works, there is significant evidence that fish and other wildlife are being affected by the hormones in the pill in particular.

[bobleponge]

If you have ever been fortunate enough to go to Kabul, you will know that humanure is the only way the citizens have of having adequate fertilisers for their soil.
The stuff is stored at the edge of the farmers fields until rotted down enough, and then chucked onto the land and dug in by hand. The population of this city has expanded exponentially since the end of the Russian war, so they must be doing something right.
There most certainly is a downside to it however. A group of Canadian scientists found that the air in Kabul has the highest fecal matter count anywhere in the world, and, as Kabul is deep inside a mountainous bowl, the wind never gets in to clear it. The view up to the mountains is spectactular, but when you climb up them, and look down into the city, the view of the thick brown cloud is quite repulsive.

[janeyo]

Rigt am off to cancel holiday to Kabul.... lol

[Flummery]

It used to be called 'nightsoil' and used on farmers' fields in this country. We've just got more squeamish.