Question by Max Power: can you recycle human waste?
what if a hardcore recycler who recycles everything they can from aluminum cans to those cardboard cores inside those paper towels and anything else that can be recycled wants to help the earth by taking a step even further by seeng if recycling their snot, boogers, toenails, fingernails, urine, hair, feces, or even any pieces of their eyelashes or eyebrows will in any way further help the environment?
What would happen if they tried that?
Would it in any way help the environment?
Also, what would you think of someone who did that or is in the midst of trying to do that?
Best answer:
Answer by jamesbergen50
And you have never heard of outhouse water? 100% recycled from the sewage system. It did not sell well for some reason. Field nutrients that farmers use? Were doing it now. Japan is the leader in it right now. Water is in short supply today here. And if you are trying it you are going up against some big names. Monsanto, Coke, and others. California has the strictest laws concerning reusing water. Look at the Great Lakes pact. And see how much must be recycled there in the future. Good area to get into. Has a good future. Go for it!
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Human waste can and is being recycled into clean, cheap, renewable natural gas and fueling cities and vehicles. San Antonio, TX is doing it, This technology has been know since the 70’s, but, supposedly has been suppressed by Big Oil/Coal/Gas & Nuclear because they feared loss of their monopolies in our country. Google: Human Waste as Fuel, San Antonio, to find out.
they use it for ferterlizer on golf courses. i saw it on the history channel.
It’s called fertilizer.
Yes, sewage treatment facilities around the US recycle human waste into sterile drinking water.
As well, in space they have a recycling system that recycles human waste into water that can be used for reusing the toilets or drinking water. I know what you could be thinking “Is this water clean and safe”, it passes through a vigorous amount of tests before it is served to humans to drink. Yes it is very safe and sterile, in cities about 85% of drinking water A.K.A Tap water, comes from sewage treatment facilities. Yep. Amazing no?
Human hair, nail clippings, boogers, etc can be composted with regular kitchen waste in an outdoor compost bin or indoor worm compost bin. If you have an outdoor compost, adding urine helps the balance of nitrogen!
Composting human feces is possible if done in a specific way. The Humanure Handbook provides lots of great information on general composting, the process, and how to compost human waste as well. I spent some time on a goat farm in New Mexico where this process was used. No one got sick, and they planned to use the compost in the orchard rather than directly on vegetable plants.
In a nutshell, all “bad” bacteria dies at temperatures over 130 degrees F. If human waste is kept at this temperature for 7 days, the bacteria that causes diarrhea, dysentery, and other waste-related diseases will die. Thermophilic, or “good,” bacteria will live happily, breaking down the waste and other things into usable compost.
All or most of that would make good ingredients in fertilizer.
Then you can grow some food in there.
Then you eat the food.
Rinse, repeat.
the mass never gets destroyed…how could it not get recycled?
yeah
There are already composting outhouse toilets. If treated right so that disease is not spread, then this is a very good and natural thing to do.
Night soil is human manure that is used as fertilizer in the Orient. That accounts for the number of infestations of liver flukes, Schistosoma, and other parasites affecting the people there. However, raw sewage that goes through even just secondary treatment yields a sludge that can be utilized as a soil amendment and at least two cities sell it (milorganite from Milwaukee and philorganic from Philadelphia).
Yes. You can recycle the waste of any animal and use it for fertilizer.
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/08/03/phosphorus-sewage.html