Humanure and the Human Nutrient Cycle

In summary, the conversation between Dan Sabbath and Mandel Hall in End Product discusses the importance of returning all organic residues, including human excrements, back to the soil to maintain a sustainable agricultural process. However, there is a lack of understanding about the "human nutrient cycle" and the benefits of using humanure for agricultural purposes. This leads to the wasteful practice of discarding humanure and other organic materials into landfills, causing pollution and loss of soil fertility. Despite the potential benefits, there is a reluctance to use humanure due to concerns about the contamination of sewage with hazardous materials. However, when kept out of the sewers and properly processed, humanure can be a valuable resource for composting with other organic materials, such
  • #1
skywise
21
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For the living, three things are inevitable: death, taxes, and sh1t."
Dan Sabbath and Mandel Hall in End Product

http://www.weblife.org/humanure/images/fig2-4.jpg [Broken]

When crops are produced from soil, it is imperative that the organic residues resulting from those crops, including animal excrements, are returned to the soil from which the crops originated. This recycling of all organic residues for agricultural purposes should be axiomatic to sustainable agriculture. Yet, spokespersons for sustainable agriculture movements remain silent about using humanure for agricultural purposes. Why?

Perhaps because there is currently a profound lack of knowledge and understanding about what is referred to as the "human nutrient cycle" and the need to keep the cycle intact. The human nutrient cycle goes like this: a) grow food, b) eat it, c) collect and process the organic residues (feces, urine, food scraps, and agricultural materials), and d) return the processed organic material back to the soil, thereby enriching the soil and enabling more food to be grown. The cycle is repeated, endlessly. This is a sustainable process that mimics the natural cycles of nature and enhances our ability to survive on this planet. When our food refuse is instead discarded as waste, the natural human nutrient cycle is broken, creating problems such as pollution, loss of soil fertility, and abuse of our water resources.

We in the United States each waste about a thousand pounds of humanure every year, which is discarded into sewers and septic systems throughout the land. Much of the discarded humanure finds its final resting place in a landfill, along with the other solid waste we Americans discard, which, coincidentally, also amounts to about a thousand pounds per person per year. For a population of 250 million people, that adds up to nearly 250 million tons of solid waste personally discarded by us every year, at least half of which is valuable as an agricultural resource.

The practice we humans have frequently employed for waste disposal has been quite primitive - we dump our garbage into holes in the ground, then bury it. That's called a landfill, and for many years they were that simple. Today's new "sanitary" landfills are lined with waterproof synthetic materials to prevent the leaching of garbage juice into groundwater supplies. Yet, only about one third of the active dumps in the US have these liners.4 Interestingly, the lined landfills bear an uncanny resemblance to gigantic disposable diapers. They are gargantuan plastic lined receptacles where we lay our crap to rest, the layers being carefully folded over and the end products of our wasteful lifestyles buried as if they were in garbage mausoleums intended to preserve our sludge and kitchen trash for posterity. We conveniently flush our toilets and the resultant sewage sludge is transported to these landfills, tucked into these huge disposable diapers, and buried.

This is not to suggest that sewage should instead be used to produce food crops. In my opinion, it should not. Sewage consists of humanure collected with hazardous materials such as industrial, medical, and chemical wastes, all carried in a common waterborne waste stream. Or in the words of Gary Gardner (State of the World 1998), "Tens of thousands of toxic substances and chemical compounds used in industrial economies, including PCBs, pesticides, dioxins, heavy metals, asbestos, petroleum products, and industrial solvents, are potentially part of sewage flows." Not to mention pathogenic organisms. When raw sewage was used in Berlin in 1949, for example, it was blamed for the spread of worm-related diseases. In the 1980s, it was said to be the cause of typhoid fever in Santiago, and in 1970 and 1991, it was blamed for cholera outbreaks in Jerusalem and South America, respectively.

Humanure, on the other hand, when kept out of the sewers, collected as a resource material, and properly processed (composted), makes a fine agricultural resource suitable for food crops. When we combine our manure with other organic materials such as our food discards, we can achieve a blend that is irresistible to certain very beneficial microorganisms.

The US EPA estimates that nearly 22 million tons of food waste are produced in American cities every year. Throughout the United States, food losses at the retail, consumer, and food services levels are estimated to have been 48 million tons in 1995.6 That would make great organic material for composting with humanure. Instead, only 2.4% of our discarded food was being composted in the US in 1994; the remaining 97.6% was apparently incinerated or buried in landfills.7

In 1998, industrial countries were only reusing 11% of their organic garbage.8 The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group made up primarily of western industrial countries, estimates that 36% of the waste in their member states is organic food and garden materials. If paper is also considered, the organic share of the waste stream is boosted to nearly an incredible two thirds! In developing countries, organic material typically makes up one-half to two-thirds of the waste stream.9 According to the EPA, almost 80% of the net discarded solid waste in the US is composed of organic material.

http://www.weblife.org/humanure/images/fig2-6.jpg [Broken]

It is becoming more and more obvious that it is unwise to rely on landfills to dispose of recyclable materials. Landfills fill up, and new ones need to be built to replace them. The estimated cost of building and maintaining an EPA approved landfill is now nearly $125 million and rising. The 8,000 operating landfills we had in the United States in 1988 had dwindled to 5,812 by the end of 1991. By 1996, only 3,091 remained.

In fact, we may be lucky that landfills are closing so rapidly. They are notorious polluters of water, soil, and air. Of the ten thousand landfills that have closed since 1982, 20% are now listed as hazardously contaminated Superfund sites. A 1996 report from the state of Florida revealed that groundwater contamination plumes from older, unlined landfills can be longer than 3.4 miles, and that 523 public water supplies in Florida are located within one mile of these closed landfills, while 2,700 lie within three miles of one.11 No doubt similar situations exist throughout the United States.

Organic material disposed of in landfills also creates large quantities of methane, a major global-warming gas. US landfills are "among the single greatest contributors of global methane emissions," according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. According to the EPA, methane is 20 to 30 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse (global warming) gas on a molecule to molecule basis.

Tipping fees (the fee one pays to dump waste) at landfills in every region of the US have been increasing at more than twice the rate of inflation since 1986. In fact, since then, they have increased 300% and are expected to continue rising at this rate.


http://www.weblife.org/humanure/images/fig2-7.jpg [Broken]

In developing countries, the landfill picture is also bleak. In Brazil, for example, virtually all (99%) of the solid waste is dumped into landfills, and three-fourths of the 90,000 tons per day ends up in open dumps.14 Slowly we're catching on to the fact that this throw-away trend has to be turned around. We can't continue to throw "away" usable resources in a wasteful fashion by burying them in disappearing, polluting, increasingly expensive, landfills.

As a result, recycling is now becoming more widespread in the US. Between 1989 and 1992, recycling increased from 9 to 14%, and the amount of US municipal solid waste sent to landfills decreased by 8%.15 The national average for the recycling of all materials in US cities had jumped to 27% by 1998.16 Composting is also beginning to catch on in a big way in some areas of the world. In the United States, the 700 composting facilities in 1989 grew to more than 3,200 by 1996. Although this is a welcomed trend, it doesn't adequately address a subject still sorely in need of attention: what to do with humanure, which is rarely being recycled anywhere in the western world.

If we had scraped up all the human excrement in the world and piled it on the world's tillable land in 1950, we'd have applied nearly 200 metric tons per square mile at that time (roughly 690 pounds per acre). In the year 2000, we'll be collecting significantly more than double that amount because the global population is increasing, but the global land mass isn't. In fact, the global area of agricultural land is steadily decreasing as the world loses, for farming and grazing, an area the size of Kansas each year.17 The world's burgeoning human population is producing a ballooning amount of organic refuse which will eventually have to be dealt with responsibly and constructively. It's not too soon to begin to understand human organic refuse materials as valuable resource materials begging to be recycled.

http://www.weblife.org/humanure/images/fig2-9.jpg [Broken]

In 1950, the dollar value of the agricultural nutrients in the world's gargantuan pile of humanure was 6.93 billion dollars. In 2000, it will be worth 18.67 billion dollars (calculated in 1975 prices).18 This is money currently being flushed out somewhere into the environment where it shows up as pollution and landfill material. Every pipeline has an outlet somewhere; everything thrown "away" just moves from one place to another. Humanure and other organic refuse materials are no exception. Not only are we flushing "money" away, we're paying through the nose to do so. The cost is not only economic, it's environmental.

Source: The Humanure Handbook. Jenkins Publishing
http://www.weblife.org/humanure/chapter2_1.html [Broken]
 
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Biology news on Phys.org
  • #2
hey... why can't I post images? the tags don't work.. :confused:

Those links interspersed through the text are illustrations and charts that go with the text...
 
  • #3
skywise said:
hey... why can't I post images? the tags don't work.. :confused:

Those links interspersed through the text are illustrations and charts that go with the text...[/QUOTE]

On this forum, it maynot work... :smile:
Your post is long, so much information, I like it much... :smile:
 
  • #4
hey thanks Vance! It's not my words, I hope I made that clear enough. That piece was written by Joseph Jenkins.

I feel it's really important that people start rethinking how we deal with our shi*t. In a world were water is increasingly becoming a major issue, pooing in perfectly good drinking water is utter ridiculousnessness. There are alternatives that are not only enviromentally friendly but also potentially quite profitable!
 
  • #5
Very worthy topic to raise IMO skywise. I haven't actually read Joseph Jenkins book, but I had heard about it. I'm starting to make those sort of changes in my own lifestyle at the mo - I want to set up a composting space in the garden etc.. I'd like to post more on this topic once I'm read more on it, and when I have the time, but for the mo..
 
  • #6
Isn't humane waste one of the most dangerous promoters of disease? I mean, since it comes from the human body it is a particularly good breeding ground for organisms that can infect the human body, no?

I think a wiser plan would be to use human waste to fertilize crops to feed livestock. Then let the livestock fertilize the food crops. This should mitigate the risk from the crop, though it doesn't help the farmers who have to work with the waste. Their task could be risky, I think.
 
  • #7
The notion of using human waste for "manure" aside, as far as I know, soil - as opposed to water - is the safest, and most appropriate, medium in which to despose of human waste. So, even if you don't use it for manure soil is still the best place to put waste. I can post some salient quotes from a book I have on "Soil Chemistry" when I have the time. If this is the case (i.e. soil is the most appropriate place for our waste), then the fact that we build elaborate (and probably expensive) "sewer" sytsems to transport it to an almost entirely "inappropriate" place (i.e. water) is, well, as far as I can tell..."stupid".
In relation to whether or not it is suitable for using as fertilizer/manure/whatever on soil, I don't know. I suspect that, once it is composted for long enough, so that enzymes are allowed to act on it, that it is. But I confess that I'm only guessing. Someone else might be able to answer that for you.
 
  • #8
Here is a relevant quote on waste deposition in soil:

"Chemical pollution is the diversion of chemical elements from the natural biogeochemical cycles. The carbon, nitrogen, and phosphate in municipal wastes released to streams and lakes are removed from the plant-soil cycle, which is the source of the nitrogen and much of the phosphate. If those substances were instead put back directly into the soils from whence they came, much less pollution would result. Air and water only slowly convert their wastes back into their natural sites in plants and soils. Soil, on the other hand, has enormous surface area and microbial catalytic activity plus oxygen and water with which to deactivate pollutants. Soil degrades most wastes quickly and returns the components to their natural cycles, thereby minimizing environmental disturbance."
(Soil Chemistry, Hinirich L. Bohn, 3rd Edition, pp. 11-12)

But, again, in relation to the question: is human waste suitable as manure - and, if so, after how long a period of composting? - I have to confess ignorance.
 
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  • #9
SamLuc, you're right, human waste would be dangerous to use as a compost for food crops because it harbors bacteria that infect humans. Waste from other animals can't be used without first composting either because it can also contain parasites that infect humans.

Landfills aren't that bad of a place to put waste. The problem with landfills is when toxic chemicals get into them, otherwise, they really aren't much more than a giant compost heap.

This concern about water usage is a little extreme. First, most of the water is reclaimed at the sewage treatment plant. Once the waste water is cleaned, it is returned back to rivers. Most of the water used to feed animals gets returned to the Earth rather quickly in the form of urine, a portion gets used by humans in the form of dairy products, the rest is consumed in the meat. There is no net loss. The same goes for crops. Most of the water used to irrigate crops is lost to evaporation, which means it returns to the atmosphere and turns into rain somewhere else. The problems we have with water is that it isn't always in the place where we'd like it to be, but we haven't lost it. When one place is suffering a drought, another is flooded. With human waste, it does eventually return to the soil, but for health reasons, we try to have that happen away from our own food sources. Most animals keep their food separate from their waste, and that's a good strategy for good health.
 
  • #10
Hi Moonbear. I've just read one of the relevant sections of Joe Jenkin's book. It's a section entitled 'FECOPHOBIA AND THE PATHOGEN ISSUE' - which you can read http://www.weblife.org/humanure/chapter6_2.html [Broken]. He makes two points/claims:
(i) "most pathogens only have a limited viability outside the human body, and given enough time, will die even in low-temperature compost", and
(ii) 'thermophilic' composting can induce temperatures sufficient to kill remaining pathogens,

As an aside, I'd like to say that I enjoy his style of writing, regardless of whether all his claims are 100% correct - maybe they are I don't know - he clearly has a good sense of humour.

But back to the point. This isn't a topic I know a lot about. It's probably good to hear both sides of the argument, so I'll look into it more when I have a chance. If you have any further comments, feel free...
 
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  • #11
Wouldn't the first step just be to use farmed animal manure? They produce MUCH more than we do.

edit:

This would do a lot more to address both nutrient depletion and pollution problems. It would reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers. Animals eat and poop a lot more than we do. Over half the grains consumed in the US are used for livestock. Most of that gets turned into livestock poop. There are huge pollutions problems associated with livestock manure. Just read about the fecal "lagoons" and the spills that have happened in North Carolina. Getting rid of animal agriculture would do much more to preserve soil quality.
 
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  • #12
Joeseph Jenkins has been composting his family's humanure for 20 years and using the humus produced by the process to fertillize his vegetable garden. The composting process is thermophillic, as SamLuc said, with temperatures as high as 150 deg F. After the compost pile is done being added to, it is allowed to sit undisturbed for one year. He claims, backed up by other sources, that this kills 99% of all pathogens.

I don't think the concern about water usage is extreme at all.
According to the afore mentioned book-
Even after the contaminated water is treated in wastewater treatment plants, it may still be polluted with excessive levels of nitrates, chlorine, pharmaceutical drugs, industrial chemicals, detergents, and other pollutants. This "treated" water is discharged directly into the environment.

A visit to the local library for a cursory review of sewage pollution incidents in the United States yielded the following:

*In the mid 1980s, the 2,207 publicly owned coastal sewage treatment works were discharging 3.619 trillion gallons per year of treated wastewater into the coastal environment.20

*More than 2,000 beaches and bays in twelve states were closed in 1991 because of bacterial levels deemed excessive by health authorities.

*In 1991, the city of Honolulu faced penalties of about $150 million for some 9,000 alleged sewage discharge violations that were recorded since 1985.21

*In 1991, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency fined Cincinnati's Metropolitan Sewer District $170,000, the largest fine ever levied against an Ohio municipality, for failure to enforce its wastewater treatment program.22

*In 1991, California was required to spend $10 million to repair a leaking sewer pipeline that had forced the closure of twenty miles of southern California beaches. The broken pipeline was spilling up to 180 million gallons of sewage per day into the Pacific Ocean less than one mile offshore, resulting in a state of emergency in San Diego County. This situation was compounded by the fact that a recent heavy storm had caused millions of gallons of raw sewage from Mexico to enter the ocean from the Tijuana River.23

*Environmental advocates sued the city of Portland, Oregon in 1991 for allegedly discharging untreated sewage as often as 3,800 times per year into the Willamette River and the Colombia Slough.24

*In 1992, the US EPA sued the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts for failing to install secondary sewage treatment at a plant which discharges wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, and for fourteen years of raw sewage spills and other discharges.25

*In April of 1992, national environmental groups announced that billions of gallons of raw waste pour into lakes, rivers, and coastal areas each year from combined sewers. Such sewers carry storm water and sewage in the same pipe and tend to overflow during heavy rains, causing many cities to suffer from discharges of completely untreated sewage.26 Combined sewers are found in about 900 US cities.27

*In 1997, pollution caused at least 4,153 beach closings and advisories, 69% of which were caused by elevated bacterial pollution in the water. The elevated bacteria levels were primarily caused by storm-water runoff, raw sewage, and animal wastes entering the oceans. The sources of the pollution included inadequate and overloaded sewage treatment plants, sewage overflows from sanitary sewers and combined sewers, faulty septic systems, boating wastes, and polluted storm water from city streets and agricultural areas.28

It is estimated that by 2010, at least half of the people in the US will live in coastal cities and towns, further exacerbating water pollution problems caused by sewage. The degree of beach pollution becomes a bit more personal when one realizes that current EPA recreational water cleanliness standards still allow 19 illnesses per 1,000 saltwater swimmers, and 8 per 1,000 freshwater swimmers.29 Some of the diseases associated with swimming in wastewater-contaminated recreational waters include typhoid fever, salmonellosis, shigellosis, hepatitis, gastroenteritis, pneumonia, and skin infections.30

While composting farmed animal manure is important, I don't think we should discount the enormous amount of human excrement created in the US. Polluting our precious waters with it is truly senseless.

Landfills aren't just like big compost piles.. Many of them are enclosed in gigantic plastic wrappers. These are more like huge disposable diapers. A good compost pile doesn't leach into groundwater. Landfills that aren't enclosed in plastic wrap often leach and are full of things that simply DON't decompose. That is not the way a compost pile works.

I can't recommend Jenkin's book enough. It's very well cited.
Incredibly, it's online almost in it's entirety. http://www.weblife.org/humanure/default.html [Broken]
 
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  • #13
The environmental damage from farmed animal manure should not be underestimated:
http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/environment.html
 
  • #14
Yeah, skywise, I live in a seaside town, and the water close to our shore has become so badly-polluted that I no longer swim in it.

I checked out that link Dissident Dan - some of the pictures are absolutely disgusting. Animal waste is obviously a venerable, although separate, issue.
 
  • #15
A post from http://www.isasurf.ie/index.php?page=environment [Broken] website (ISA - Irish Surfing Association):

Water Quality
The water quality at many breaks in Ireland is unacceptable posing a hazard to surfers and other water users. Raw or partially treated sewage is being discharged into the sea all around our coastline. Many towns do not have wastewater treatment facilities. Under the new water framework directive of the EU, wastewater treatment facilities must be installed. Another bit of legislation under the same directive states that all information should be disseminated to the public during times of higher health risk to the bather, (and now thanks to SAS, it also includes other water recreational activities like surfing).
 
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1. What is humanure?

Humanure is a term used to describe human waste, specifically feces and urine, that can be used as a fertilizer for plants.

2. Why is it important to consider the human nutrient cycle?

The human nutrient cycle is important because it allows for the sustainable use of human waste as a resource instead of simply disposing of it. This reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers and helps to close the nutrient loop in the environment.

3. Is humanure safe to use as fertilizer?

When treated properly, humanure can be safe to use as fertilizer. However, it is important to follow proper guidelines and regulations to ensure that any potential pathogens are eliminated.

4. What are the benefits of using humanure as fertilizer?

Using humanure as fertilizer can provide numerous benefits, such as reducing water and air pollution, improving soil health and fertility, and reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers. It can also be a cost-effective and sustainable option for agriculture and gardening.

5. How does the process of composting humanure work?

The process of composting humanure involves collecting and treating human waste with organic materials, such as sawdust or straw, to create a nutrient-rich compost. This compost can then be safely used as a fertilizer for plants. Composting helps to break down any potential pathogens and allows for the safe use of human waste as a resource.

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