permaculture

["Lisa Rollens" <rollens@fidnet.com>]

Dick,  Have you read Solviva, by Anne Edey?  You can also get additional 
info at solviva.com  She designed a flushable composting toilet...right 
there on Martha's Vineyard, that seems to be a great solution to the 
problem.  Black water drains away and solids go into a carbon source 
(chopped leaves) with earthworms.  Apparently everything decomposes at an 
incredible rate, even in winter.  As a matter of fact, I think I am going to 
send for the plans and try it.  Down here in southern MO we have Karst 
topography and the soil drains too well...right down to the underground 
water...nitrogen and all. Check it out.  Lisa


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dick Pierce" <dickpiercedesigns@gmail.com>
To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 9:45 AM
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.