permaculture

["Elijah Smith" <elijah@hilobay.com>]

Thanks for the comprehensive replies, everyone!  It's given me a lot to
follow up on.

One thing I wanted to point out - the composting process and the worm
composting method are qualitatively different ways processing waste - that
is, one relies on the activity of microorganisms, while the other relies on
worms to eat the stuff and create worm droppings.  I like the worms, because
they are faster, they don't take as much management as a compost heap, and
if it's been eaten by the worm, it's pathogen-free (from what I've heard) -
no "wait for seven years for the ascaris worms to be sure to be dead" stuff.

Anyway, I'm on a septic pit system with a flush toilet now, and one of these
days I'm going to start by putting a wormbox underneath the toilet.  It will
drain back to the septic pit, but the solids will be composted and used as
potting soil or whatnot.  Down the road we'll get a wetlands processing the
liquids.

I've also heard of having the incoming pipe be directable into two areas, so
you can move the waste to a different area, wait a few weeks for the first
to comost, remove it, redirect the waste back into the first area, etc.  The
worms can move between the chambers.

Here's another idea I've been kicking around: Have a collection tray for
chicken shit under the chicken coop, at a slight tilt.  Run water over the
tray daily, and allow it to continue into drip line irrigation in the garden
(?).  Remove solids for your bananas.

 Elijah

----- Original Message -----
From: "Pacific Edge Permaculture + Media" <pacedge@magna.com.au>
To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2002 2:47 PM
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Worms eat my crap?


>
>
> > From: Felicity Wright <flickwright@ozemail.com.au>
> > Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 11:06:24 +0000
> > Subject: Re: [permaculture] Worms eat my crap?
>
> > We are in the process of buying their mini stand alone model ('oh no,
> > that's just a bucket, mum!' say the kids) so we can stick it straight in
> > the existing toilet space and trial the system for ourselves. When the
> > base is full you swap it for another and leave the original one to
> > compost - plus worms, they recommend.
>
> Stuart White trialled this with his home-made research model in suburban
> Lismore. He used wheelie bins as the receptacle. I understand the project
> was successful.
>
> Stuart is now a research fellow at the Australian Technology Park in
> Redfern, Sydney.
>
> ...Russ
>
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