Taking The 'waste' Out Of Human Waste

[Knothead]

We do it every day.

 

But how many of us think about what happens after we pull the toilet lever?

 

Increasingly, people in Chicago and across the world are. They're questioning the sustainability of a system built on using clean water and a lot of energy to process waste, and reimagining the possibilities for what we flush away.

Call it taking the "waste" out of human waste — a movement that includes transforming sewage sludge into fuel, heating buildings with it, using composting toilets to produce fertilizer. It all adds up to a major point: Change is on the horizon, even if that horizon seems far away.

 

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/ct-x-c-human-waste-1103-20101103%2C0%2C6843191.story

[Moontanman]

I was discussing this the other day with someone. If and or when the phosphorus we need begins to run out graveyards and old septic systems will be mined for this valuable reseorce...

[maikeru]

I was discussing this the other day with someone. If and or when the phosphorus we need begins to run out graveyards and old septic systems will be mined for this valuable reseorce...

 

That's similar to what they did in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe when desperate farmers raided graveyards and nations fought wars over guano. I find the notion that millions, maybe billions of pounds, of phosphate are flushed away out to the sea to be reprehensible. We're mining our soils until they have nothing left to give. Nitrogen is usually easier to add back into system with appropriate measures, but phosphate and micronutrients are invaluable.

[Knothead]

Pee-cycling

 

 

You recycle your household waste. You buy locally grown food, fit low-energy light bulbs and try not to use the car unnecessarily. Maybe you even irrigate the garden with your bath water. But you’ve still got an environmental monster in your house. Your toilet is wrecking the planet.

 

Before you point to the brick you’ve put in the cistern, it’s not about the water – well, not entirely. The big problem is pee. Your pee. Do you flush it away without a second thought? Tsk, tsk. Lose the green halo.

 

http://optimumnutrition.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/pee-cycling/