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Old 19-03-2003, 05:32 PM
paghat
 
Posts: n/a
Default Is it OK to put poop on a garden?

In article , Dwight Sipler
wrote:

I assume that by human waste, you mean sewage sludge, since the
collection of human waste is basically only done at sewage treatment
plants (except for a very few outback places that still use privies).
The occurrence of heavy metals from sewage sludge is not necessarily
related to heavy metals in human waste. The heavy metals in the sewage
comes from people's practice of dumping everything down the drain in
addition to human waste.

Moreover, the availability of animal waste in large quantities (thank
you McDonalds and Col. Sanders) would render the collection of human
waste not economically feasible on a large scale outside of the sewage
treatment plants.

I have never heard of anyone spinning human waste before applying it to
fields, and I don't believe that spinning or centrifuging sewage sludge
containing heavy metals would separate them out. This process would be
extremely expensive and time consuming since the sludge would have to be
liquefied so that the heavier particles would be mobile enough in the
soup that they could settle out. The centrifuging equipment would be
costly and the same result could be obtained by letting the liquid
settle for an extended period of time. I am open to any references you
might be able to supply for this practice.


The problem of heavy metals in municiple waste & sludge is monitored &
ameleorated by several methods. Citizens should be on top of it lest
government decide to do it badly during money-crunch times. Often the
organic pollutants are very easy to remove; the heavy metal components are
more expensive to get rid of & any really polluted municiple wastes should
be rejected for compost purposes. Still & all, any attempt to key the
source of heavy metals in municiple sludge & waste to carnivores & pets is
so absurd it outdoes the usual level of superstitious horror of cat & dog
poo. The problem has to be nipped at the ACTUAL key sources of industrial
waste, flushed consumer products, fertilizers, pesticides, & machine
pollutants (chiefly automobiles).

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/