David Hare-Scott wrote:
....
I admire your idealism to a degree. The problem is that you are so absorbed
with it you give no time to the practicalities of whether your proposal can
be done in various places or circumstances and what the cost may be.

the costs will vary by location.

if you have your own land and easy access to
fairly dried shredded materials then the continuing
cost is nearly zero. the start up costs are some
buckets, a redesigned toilet so the buckets can
fit under and a change in habits.

if you live in the city, that is different
but it isn't impossible. change the toilets
to be composting buckets, have the person
move the bucket when needed to a collection
point, pay someone to take those buckets to
a composting site and rinse them out, return
them with the next round of picking up the
next lot. about the same start up costs
(buckets and different designed toilet) other
than needing materials (shredded paper, sawdust,
leaves, bark, etc. still all work).

what costs are avoided by using a composting
system? i thought i was pretty clear. pumping
water costs, cleaning up polluted water costs,
pipes and pumps maintenance costs, billing and
collecting bill costs.


You
complain that nobody is listening

funny, i don't recall complaining in that post,
i went back and re-read it, nope, still don't see
complaints of being ignored in there.


but make no effort to address the big
issues with implementing your plan, until you can show that it can work and
maintain public health and that the benefits outweigh the costs of a large
scale implementation you are just ****ing on the lemon tree.

when the power goes out and stays out for
a few weeks in a large city then what? you
think those toilets are going to be clean
and maintaining public health? put a cover
on a bucket of sawdust and human waste and
leave it for a few weeks and it's not going to
smell the greatest when opened but it won't
kill anyone either.

at least under a simple system of composting
the human waste is still able to be dealt with.
with a large and complex system, once the power
goes out, then people are up shit's creek when
the water stops flowing.

the problem isn't that it is impossible to
change, it's just that we have a large embedded
system with all the inertia and costs and people
are trained to use that and accept it. when it
stops working, causes other problems (poor
water quality), or becomes too expensive i think
it a good idea to think about alternatives.


songbird