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  • From: "Kenneth Benway" <ken@arcadiandesign.org>
  • To: "'permaculture'" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Shit
  • Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 04:55:39 -0400

Larry,
Not every home could use this approach or anything even closely
resembling it. How about the people living in high rises, or condo's or
a host of other applications where this approach is not viable.
When it comes to dealing with the shit issue, it will take many design
solutions that are site specific, there is no one size fits all
solution. Your approach might work if we all lived in a utopian vacuum.
Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Tommy
Tolson
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 12:16 AM
To: permaculture
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Shit

Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
>
> Every home could have an attached, two chamber, solar illuminated,
solar heated climate-controlled room into which
> humanure, urine and food scraps are collected & composted and used to
grow grasses that are harvested, dried and used
> as bedding into which wastes are put. Picture a deep bed of dried hay
placed on top of a mixture of good, friable,
> permeable native soil mixed with rock quarry dusts plus a little rock
phosphate. Wastes are put onto the pile, liquified
> with a jet of water (rainwater collected off the roof, pumped with a
solar powered 12vdc electric pump) and allowed to
> seep into the depths of the pile. Eventually the top layers of hay
begin to break down reducing hay particle size. At
> that point a small rotary aerator (motor powered by same photovoltaic
unit) is used to turn new wastes into the pile as
> a water jet dissolves all solids (except food scraps which can be left
on top). Again the slurry soaks into the hay
> bedding. Liquids seeping out of the bottom of the collection unit are
gravity fed to the chamber where grasses are
> grown. The entire unit would be two chambers, enclosed in small
greenhouses; concrete floor and footing, superinsulated
> concrete block walls with glass or polycarbonate glazing with adequate
venting so it will be warm enough in winter and
> cool enough in summer and with adequate solar illumination to keep the
compost alive and aerobic and grow the grass to
> feed the composting chamber. A feature of the composting chamber would
be a side door to allow removal of finished
> compost, just above the soil-rock dust layer - this would be easy to
do. This compost would be the primary fertilizer
> and compost use to grow the grasses as the liquid seeping out through
the soil layer would be very minimal.
> A pedestial with seat and squatting foorests would be positioned a few
feet above the composting chamber. The
> horticultural chamber and this chamber would not be isolated. Odors
would be minimal or nonexistant. As hundreds of
> gallons of rainwater could be collected and stored (or in arid zones
filled with well water) there would be adequate
> water to completely liquify solids in the compost pile after each use.
Lacking solar or grid power to operate a pump and
> compost aerator these processes could be done with a lever operated
high pressure water pump and a hand crank aerator
> - maybe a bicycle connected by chain to a drive shaft powering the
compost turner (both stainless steel). There are many
> excellent design, materials, construction and fabrication options
available for building a system such as this.
>
> Any suggestions for improvements or variations in this design. Its
tempting to build one of these.
>
>
Very good. Well thought out. It sounds like this could easily be sized

for an Intentional Community and move a chunk of people off the status
quo, ecologically insane system all
at once. What's stopping you from building one? I hope you do it.

Tommy Tolson
Austin, TX
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