[Greenbuilding] Compost issues

[Speireag Alden]

Sgrìobh sat jiwan ikle-khalsa:

>i'm very attracted to the humanure concept. i first encountered it 
>at a friend's house. he used 5 gallon buckets and built his pile 
>"out back" far enough so smell issues wouldn't reach the house, if 
>they were to develop. and far enough from his vegetable garden to 
>avoid pathogen concerns.

     Smell is not an issue.  I can stand next to my active compost 
pile and smell nothing.  I have a sensitive nose.  When you open the 
pile, you smell rich compost, a delightful smell.  When you add the 
buckets to the pile, you smell a somewhat sickly-sweet smell of human 
manure which has sat for a day or two, but it no longer smells like 
excrement.

     Even if you built your pile against your neighbors' house's wall, 
they would only smell something when you added to the pile, and then 
only as you were adding it.  Once you cover it, it smells like a 
regular compost pile topped with straw.

>my house is in a suburb of DC and has very close neighbors.  many of 
>them garden, but few have compost piles. partially due to rat 
>problems.  i found managing my compost pile well enough prevents 
>rodent activity.

     We certainly have mice in the area.  I see their tracks under the 
snow when I move things.  I have never seen any evidence that they're 
in the pile.  I think they don't like it when it's hot, and when it's 
cooled off and in the curing phase, it no longer contains anything to 
interest them.

     On the other hand, the neighborhood dogs might like to get into 
it.  I sometimes had something investigate the pile for the fresh 
deposits, which include kitchen waste (meat and bones).  But not 
since I secured the pile.

>do you need a lot of space or special maintenance?

     The pile itself needs perhaps five feet on a side, if you use 
straw bales to contain it.  You need a bit of space to set buckets 
down, and a water source to rinse them.  It's pretty compact.  I grew 
up in suburbia, with a small back yard, and we could easily have had 
a humanure pile.

>(greywater systems aren't allowed here. maybe the humanure pile is 
>psuedo-illegal, as well.)

     It may be straight-up illegal, but if you do it right so that no 
one is ever annoyed, that will never be an issue.

-Speireag.

-- 
A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true 
value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary 
pain.
--Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)