[permaculture] Composting toilets

Nick Ritar nick at milkwood.net
Thu May 22 23:09:37 EDT 2008


Not sure about the ability of giardia to survive for 12 months in compost
and even if it did i don't think anyone would suggest putting the compost in
direct contact with their food. (Although Mr Jenkins does seem to skate
pretty close the the wind on this)

Always best to use that kind of compost on your fruit trees rather than you
root vegetables.

On the topic of Giardia's ability to survive a compost, this study by the
University of Arizona and University of South Florida seems to suggest that
after 175 days the baddies are just about anihilated. So after 365 you have
to be getting pretty safe.

*On the topic of giardia's ability to survive in compost I found this study
by the Finnish Agricultural Chemistry Department.*
*The occurrence of enteroviruses, Giardia cysts, Cryptosporidium
oocysts and Salmonella
were determined in municipal composted domestic solid waste, and solid waste
to which extra diapers had been added to increase their concentration 2-4
fold (6.6-7.7% by weight) above that found normally in municipal solid waste
before composting. The compost was tested at various periods of time during
aging (101-203 days). No enteroviruses or protozoan cysts or oocysts were
detected in any of the samples collected during this period. One sample out
of 19 collected (after 175 days aging) was positive for Salmonella. These
results suggest that enteric pathogens were destroyed during the composting
process, or were present in numbers below the detection method (i.e. one
organism per 40-50 g of compost) used in this study. *
http://wmr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/13/4/315

*
*
As for water pollution. Totally agreed! You should definitely ensure that
your compost system should be flood proof and incapable of polluting nearby
water.

It would be excellent if all the dodgy municipal sewerage systems and the
millions of "approved" home septic (anaerobic) sewerage systems world wide
did the same.

Nick

On Thu, May 22, 2008 at 10:38 PM, Mathew Waehner <waehner at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think Giardia would have no problem surviving a year in a refrigerator,
> or ordinary soil.
>
> What I found missing from Joseph Jenkins excellent humanure book was the
> need to isolate your manure pile from water systems and protect it from
> potential torrential rains or floods.  You would want to do that even with
> perfectly sterile manure to prevent nutrient pollution and eutrophiciation
> in the water.
>
>
>
>
> On 5/22/08, T Remiarz <tomasremiarz at cooptel.net> wrote:
> >
> > sounds like wheeliebins have been waiting for this all their lives! we
> > created a very similar system to hamish's for dealing with the humanure
> of
> > activist gatherings in this country.
> >
> > x t
> >
> > ---------------------------------
> > ---------------------------------
> >
> > Tomas Remiarz - GreenLand Services
> >
> > Ecological Restoration
> > Woodland Creation and Management
> > Permaculture Design and Practice
> >
> >
> >
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-- 
nick ritar

life - http://www.milkwood.net
work - http://www.milkwoodpermaculture.com.au
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