Presentation Slides

Humanure: A Topic to Challenge Existing Paradigms
Dr. Daniel M. Fernandez, Chair, Division of Science and Environmental Policy; co-Chair Campus Sustainability Committee, CSUMB: [email protected]
Joseph Jenkins, President, Joseph Jenkins, Inc.: josephjenkins.com
Success is pooping what you want; happiness is wanting what you poop.
Ingrid Bergman
Q: What is Humanure, anyway?
Well, here is what it is not:
Waste
It is the compost that is created from fecal matter and urine that we naturally
eliminate from our bodies.
Q: Why would anyone ever want to do that?
A: There are many reasons. Some are described below
1) High Water Use
-Typical person flushes the toilet about 2500 times per year.
-Average flush water per household: 160 gallons per day (about 40 gallons per person, just in flushing).
-All for the quick removal of about a half pound of feces per person and about 1 quart of urine.
2) Lack of adequate facilities
2.6 billion people in the world lack adequate sanitation. Open air feces surrounds the environment of 4 in 10 people.
Do you expect such communities to be using precious and limited water as a medium to transport their excretions?
Perhaps the best chance for improved facilities for these individuals will be via humanure composting systems.
Also of note: Inadvertent consumption of feces
(average 10 grams/day/person in areas with Open
Air Defecation) causes 1 in 10 illnesses worldwide.
(George, 2008, The Big Necessity)
If all of the excretions of everyone
worldwide could be collected daily,
they would amount to over 8 million
metric tons of matter per day, greater
than the weight of 2 Empire State
buildings (that’s daily!!)!
3) Periodic infrastructure failure, e.g.
-In 2004, 850 billion gallons of untreated wastewater and storm sewer
water were released as combined sewer outflows.
-Between 3 and 10 billion gallons of untreated wastewater from sanitary
sewer overflows are released each year in the US.
- In January 2005 22% of US coastal waters were deemed unsuitable for
fishing.
4) Misplaced nutrients
Our excretions are full of nutrients. Releasing
these nutrients inappropriately is expensive,
wasteful, and destructive.
Resulting diarrhea is particularly harmful to children
From www.esbynyc.com
From http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?sid=aErNiP_V4RLc&pid=newsarchive
So, then, why don’t we regularly compost what we eliminate from our bodies?
5) Infrastructure collapse during catastrophic events
2) History and convenience of existing infrastructure
1) Disgust
location
Paris
Statements from Hurricane Katrina survivors:
Bathrooms had no lights, making people afraid to enter, and the stench from backed-up toilets
inside killed any inclination toward bravery.
Miles of built sewer
systems
Photo from
www.ooze.com/sewer/howto.html
1500 miles
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/commonwealth_games/delhi_2010/9025666.stm
New York City
Photo taken by Mike Lerch
(Note that there is no neutral word for what humans produce
at least once a day almost unfailingly. )
(George, 2008, The Big Necessity)
3) Concern about pathogens –
Here is some of what can be
found in feces:
London Area
Photo from
wikipedia.com
6000 miles
The people lived in terrible conditions with not enough bathrooms, food, medicine for the
injured etc. The heat and odor were horrific. An American reporter and his crew were in the
dome and taped much of what was going on. He was extremely choked up at what he witnessed
and wondered himself when help was coming and did everything in his power to get that help.
(from Associated Press 9/3/2005 re: Conditions in New Orleans Superdome following Hurrican Katrina; http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9175611/ns/us_newskatrina_the_long_road_back/t/superdome-evacuation-completed)
37,000 miles
Photo from
wikipedia.com
Information from George, 2008, The Big Necessity
4) Not knowing that it can be done.
From Jenkins, 2005, The Humanure Handbook
So, what about these concerns?
Cryptosporidium parasites in
intestine
Note that a properly maintained
humanure system will have the right mix
of carbon, nitrogen and plenty of
thermophilic bacteria such that
temperatures generated will kill all
pathogens given sufficient time.
Ascaris (roundworm)
(photo from www.electroherbalism.com)
(photo from animal.discovery.com)
So, aerobic (“with air”) composting destroys
human pathogens, converting human
excrement into a hygienically safe and valuable
material. It also gets quite hot – naturally!!
Behold the Compost! Behold it well! ….. It grows such sweet
things out of corruptions… It gives such divine materials to men,
and accepts such leavings from them at last…..
Composting yields a valuable end product:
humus.
Composting prevents environmental pollution
and creates fertile soil.
Walt Whitman (from Logsdon, Holy Shit, 2010)
E-Coli bacteria (normally
found in feces).
(photo from wikipedia.com)
The world of manure is as close to
you as your colon. You can’t get
away from it.
Salmonella virus
(photo from www.healthhype.com)
References:
(Gene Logsdon)
The Humanure Toilet
So, what is in what we excrete, besides the microbiological populations in feces?
Urine: lots of nitrogen (plus many other nutrients and elements including phosphorus, potassium and calcium)
Feces: lots of carbon (plus many other nutrients and elements, including potassium, phosphorus and calcium)
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PhosphComby.jpg
All humans worldwide produce about 50 million tons of recoverable
phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium per year (Logsdon, 2010). Assume
$0.50/lb for fertilizer – around $50 billion per year. Much gets flushed away,
treated with chlorine, and many of the nutrients leach. Relatively little are
recovered, and those that are recovered come at high cost.and lesser value.
-A “humanure toilet” is a “collection toilet.”
-Excrement, or “humanure,” is collected prior to coming into
contact with soil or water.
-It is covered with a carbon-based material, such as sawdust.
-The collected toilet material is then moved to composting
area and subjected to thermophilic composting.
-A properly maintained composting area is covered
appropriately and does not smell.
Simplicity
-All urine is collected in the toilet along with feces.
-All toilet paper in collected in the toilet.
-A humanure toilet is used like any flush toilet
except there is no flush and no water.
-The user covers his/her deposit with a cover
material after using the toilet.
-No electricity is needed.
-No water is needed.