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#1
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Is it OK to put poop on a garden?
Thalocean2 wrote:
Yes, it is a problem with human waste as well. That's why the human waste that is spread all over farms in many states is first spun to remove the heavy metals. It's a natural part of humans, dogs, cats etc. waste and when it's concetrated to one small area, (your garden) the heavy metals can and do build up to toxic levels. Do a quick search and look at all the court case documents where farmers are sueing because their fields are ruined... 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. |
#2
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Is it OK to put poop on a garden?
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. http://www.apfn.org/apfn/waste.htm |
#3
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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/ |
#4
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Is it OK to put poop on a garden?
Thalocean2 wrote:
[ref: spinning human waste before applying it to fields] http://www.apfn.org/apfn/waste.htm Thanks for the reference. It does refer to sewage sludge and states "At the state-of-the-art West Point Treatment Plant in Seattle, raw sewage is digested, heated and spun, until it's just right for shipment to the fields." The article goes on to say that there is some concern being expressed by Cornell University researchers and describes problems arising from the practice and in particular from the actions of one farmer. A quick check on Google for "heavy metal" sludge spin yielded a large number of references to rock bands or political spin on sludge questions. I found no other reference to (physically) spinning the sludge, although I did not look at all 1000 listed links due to lack of time. I would point out that the purpose of spinning is not specified in the article. I suspect that the purpose is to separate the liquid and solid components (not necessarily the organic and heavy metal components) since the stuff that is spread on fields is the solid component. The liquid component is probably 99% water, and adds weight to the sludge, so they want to dry it as much as possible before paying someone to truck it somewhere. For the record, I am *not* in favor of using sewage sludge on food-producing land. The reason is that I consider the material inadequately controlled, particularly in the heavy metal category. However, I believe that the heavy metals in sewage sludge come from our hands, not from some other part of our anatomy. It's the other stuff we put down the drain that is the problem. |
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