[Greenbuilding] Humanure- was composting issues

[Dan Antonioli]

We set up a humanure system this summer on my land in northern  
california. Out of concern for the issues raised here I opted to put  
all the humanure (mixed with sawdust) into used pickle barrels. Used  
pickle barrels are plastic and won't leach. We filled a number of  
them and set them in areas that get lot's of sun. We put a tight  
screen on the lids and then covered them with a piece of used sheet  
metal to keep the rain out over the winter/spring months. Next summer  
we'll transfer them to a dedicated humanure spot where it will sit  
for another year. Neighbors and environmental health authorities can  
still object and complain, but with the humanure contained it makes  
it a bit more difficult for them to accuse you of spreading pathogens  
in the environment. When the humanure leaves the pickle barrels and  
hits the ground it would be fairly easy to sample it and prove that  
there are no pathogens in it.

Dan Antonioli





On Nov 18, 2007, at 9:36 AM, tom wrote:

> There are some horror stories of the authorities coming down hard on
> people composting humanure on the message boards of Jenkins' site,
> however.  Unfortunately it seems essential to keep your whole
> operation quiet, which will be hard if you have close neighbors,
> guests often and/or kids attending school.  You won't get very far
> arguing that having an important natural resource sequestered away in
> a big, expensive underground cement tank is illogical!  At this point
> in time it seems prudent to have a conventional 'waste' system in
> your house, with the humanure/bucket as an (easily concealed)
> "auxillary."  At least that way if you ever have trouble you can pack
> it all away and play dumb.
>
> Everyone ought to read Jenkins' book (and heck, its free to read
> online)!
>
> On Nov 18, 2007, at 11:04 AM, greenbuilding-request at listserv.repp.org
> wrote:
>
>> Joseph Jenkins, who wrote Humanure, openly composts humanure and
>> promotes
>> the practice worldwide.  He doesn't seem to have problems with the
>> authorities.  See his section on Legalities, page 197:
>>
>> http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/downloads/PDF_all%20chapters/
>> chapter_8.pdf
>>
>> Nonetheless, it is probably a good idea to do it quietly.  The sad
>> part is
>> having to put in a septic system that will never be used...
>> -Bob Korves
>
>
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