permaculture

[sinergyinaction@netscape.net]

 Hi 
is there any risk associated with using (diluted) pee in the garden from 
people (unnknowingly) having some kind of urinary infections, carrying 
potentially harmful bacterias?
What about the pee of people taking medicines? can this substances build up 
(as for the antibiotics mentioned in an earlier email)
in plant tissues and be ingested by people?
Thanks for this discussion
Cheers
Antonio


 


 

-----Original Message-----
From: Dick Pierce <dickpiercedesigns@gmail.com>
To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 3:45 pm
Subject: Re: [permaculture] human urine as fertilizer










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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>


-- 
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