"John Savage" wrote in message
om...
"Gello" writes:
I was wondering if and how many of you have any experience
with
humanure.

It is in use in Australia. Formerly, Sydney disposed of its
sewage into
the sea, causing long dark plumes offshore down the coast and
leading to
pollution of the beaches when it got washed up during storms.
Now, solids
are filtered out, dried and sterilised by leading-edge
technology, and
sold as fertiliser. Most is composted before being spread
around on parks,
lawns, plantations and the home yard by landscapers. You do
catch your
breath when passing a park or yard where the fertiliser has
been spread,
but the odour vanishes after a few days. Its composition is
closely
monitored to ensure there are no problems of chemical
contamination. The
recycling/reuse of sewage sludge has been more successful than
anyone
originally dared hope, and it's a model that the world is
starting to
follow. I think microwaves are used in the drying/sterilising
process.

Microwaves - that's cool.

AFAIK, a week of 150 degrees F will kill the human pathogens, and
time/aging take care of it, too, wrt humanure.

The problem with the night soil thing in Asia is 2-fold, as I see
it. It isn't aged/composted/heated to kill the bad stuff, and a
lot of those people don't have a good clean source of drinking
water, so their water's contaminated by it.

flick 100785

--
John Savage (news address invalid; keep news replies in
newsgroup)



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