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  • From: trevor william johnson <john2116@msu.edu>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Composting toilets
  • Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 16:11:03 -0400

i was just reading the humanure handbook this morning by joseph jenkins. i did not read anything about vitamins or antibiotics but it seems that the composting process would expose them to the right combo of micro organisms /high temps that would wither break them apart, use them as food or stabilize them into hummus molecules. jenkins has been using humanure to fertalize his vegetable garden for 30 years now and he lets all sorts of strangers use his compost toilet. i imagine many of those people use vitimans and antibiotics and jenkins does not seem to have a problem with it. i looked up antibiotics in the intex of the humanure handbook and it only mentions antibiotics produced by some thermophilic antinomycetes and mesophilic bacteria. he says that theoretically the antibiotics help kill the human pathogens in the humanure. it says noting about oral antibiotics. I also herd a recent story on npr that was about some micro organisms that can eat the antibiotics and live off of them. if i remember correctly the organisms are found in soil. so maybe what your trying to get rid of will actualy help your compost. the solution is embedded in the problem.

trevor
On May 26, 2008, at 2:10 PM, DGilsen@aol.com wrote:

It seems to me that it will take longer to get into the water table but it
will over the years get into the water table .... and be there forever. I did
a little study on my own. I found that the few medications I take are, it
seems not very easy to get rid of. Distilling the urine produced "water" but
it also contained trace amounts of antibiotics and the vitamins I take.
Scary I thought that distilling would remove all that ....but it didn't. I don't
know what will work.
Any suggestions folks?
Carol




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