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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] human urine as fertilizer

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  • From: Dick Pierce <dickpiercedesigns@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] human urine as fertilizer
  • Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:45:26 -0500

Thanks for the dialogue, interest and opinions. I'm afraid that I didn't say
it well enough - Martha's Vineyard is a small island off the coast of Mass.,
USA. The overwhelming majority of sewage is processed by septic systems at
individual homes, no island-wide septic/sewage. "Individual" in my
context is meant to convey an individual household.

I fully agree that Bears do it [right], and humans can also - pee/poop in
the woods. The "cat scratch" is also an elegantly simple way of nature worth
emulating. And, the Orchard Toilet is a good model from this. I'm all for
difusing waste into nature and natural processes - want us all to move
toward that. Also believe fervently, as you do, in moving away from large
quantities of human waste that is collected [and neglected or] handled by
industrial processes.

My start on this path is to separate my [individual] urine and use it to
help my comopst along - a very individual-family and natural process - or to
dilute it and use it as fertilizer on our family garden. My plan is to move
away from [or never join] large, industrial processes for anything. I also
plan to read/study further on what is and stays in urine and what is and
stays in poop - both good/bad and what Nature can/does break down to
good/harmless and what it can not.


On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 8:31 AM, nepal <nepal.roade@googlemail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 6 Mar 2009 12:02:58 -0600
> Dick Pierce <dickpiercedesigns@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I became a real disciple of urine-diverting to fertilizer and compost
> > piles while teaching on Martha's Vineyard this summer. Their Island
> > Report and now Comprehensive Island Environmental Plan reports that
> > 80-90% of the nitrate pollution that severely reduces and threatens
> > their shellfish in their ponds and tidal pools comes from human urine
> > via island-wide septic systems. (I was ready to blame industry, but
> > alas, they have none.
>
> That would depend on your *definition of industry. Any man made system
> that processes on a scale larger than the single individual is industry*
> (to nature and the natural) as it is nature that has to 'deal' with the
> result!
>
> What is an island wide septic system but industry?
>
> >I would also blame the golf courses, but the
> > report exonerates them. It's human pee that's ruining an industry and
> > threatening species,
>
> No it is not! It is a poorly understood/designed/functioning industrial
> processing of large amounts of urine that is the problem. If the urine
> was not interfered with in *any* way at all it would simply fall to
> ground and be recycled the way nature designed it.
>
> Nature is not the problem, mankind with his silly mind is the problem.
>
> > and septic and sewage systems do not, or do not
> > do an effective job of, removing nitrates. I'm now on one of the
> > committees and lobbying for incentives for urine diverting toilets.
>
> and is an industrialised system.
>
> nepal.
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