Redefining "waste"
When one thinks about how to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle, using a composting toilet is not necessarily the first thing that comes to mind. But maybe it should be.
When one thinks about how to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle, using a composting toilet is not necessarily the first thing that comes to mind. But maybe it should be. Composting humane excrement – often termed “humanure” – can help to conserve water, return nutrients to the soil, and keep bacteria out of our ground water.
Recently, one of my housemates instituted a “humanure” experiment in our household. That’s right: we don’t use the standard porcelain flush-toilet to dispose of our waste. Rather, we save the 1.5 to 5 gallons per flush and compost our waste with the simple tools of buckets, sawdust, and straw.
Granted, if you’re going to start a humanure system, you’ve got to do it right -- the waste has to be composted properly. This means that the compost must either generate enough heat to effectively break down pathogens, or enough time must pass – usually a year or longer – for biological processes to occur.
It’s a simple system that closes the loop by turning our “waste” into fodder for new life. Essentially, we are redefining the concept of waste each time we use the toilet – er, bucket.
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