"ken cohen" wrote in message
om...
On our allotment there is no functioning toilet, and my thoughts have
recently turned to the topic of composting human manure. I've been
checking out various things on the internet, and composting human
faeces seems to be fraught with all kinds of difficulties.

When we camp with no facilities we dig a long drop - essentially a dry
toilet. If solid matter is deposited it's covered with a small amount of the
soil which was dug out to make the hole. Liquid waste isn't covered.

We used to do this regularly and frequently in the garden of a primitive
dwelling on the NY Moors. The garden was, sadly, uncultivated, it was
obviously extremely fertile.

But some
people are suggesting that it makes a lot of sense to focus more on
keeping urine separate from faeces, and using it as a rich
bacteria-free source of nitrogen, pottasium and phosphorus. You need
to dilute it with water (one suggestion was 1:8) before it is usable.

There are always new thought on any matter. Keeping them separate would be
difficult, I'd have thought. At the very least it would take some unnatural
organisation.

But is it then usable immediately? Anyone tried it? Isn't there
going to be a serious problem with smell?

We use a man-made liquid activator in the compost bin at home and there's no
smell and we've had no contamination problems - I only use the compost on
our organically grown vegetables.

For many years this same liquid was sprayed on the ground round the rhubarb.
Nowadays it's sometimes directed towards the area round the gooseberries and
redcurrant bushes. They grow very well and there's no smell.

I'll add that our hens (two) fertilise the garden indiscriminately. There
are those who say that their deposits are far too 'strong' for direct
application to the soil but it was when we noticed that the fertility of the
garden had risen so dramatically after their efforts that we started to grow
more vegetables.

We eat very well.

Are there any legal issues
to be considered?

Probably - there always are. But I shan't tell if you don't.

Check out the Centre for Alternative Technology at
http://www.cat.org.uk/index.tmpl

They have done a lot of research into this idea and now publish a book
about
it called "Lifting the Lid"

And they have their own processes which they use in their growing areas.

It's impressive. Do visit CAT if you can, you'll get information on a huge
variety of subjects, not just this one.

Mary


--
Howard Neil