When the trucks stop and the toilets back up, what will you do with your waste? This is your post-collapse primer for managing without magic pipes or municipal grace. Because food + water = well, poop... and what you do next might just save your life.
There is always the choice of a biogas digester. It's an artifact of civilization, but should last a long time. https://www.frenergy.co.nz/biogas-biodigester-plant-prices/ The link is to a source in NZ, but there are probably plenty in Australia too.
A compost toilet is not the best way to go, in my opinion. If you have not heard of the Humanure Handbook by Jenkins, you should get it.
An eco-village near me collects all waste, urine and feces, in 55 gallon drums, lets it sit for a few months and then uses it on bananas or any other tree crop that is harvested only from the tree. Nasty smell, but they say it works well. They get lots of rain to wash it in to very permeable soil though.
My family has collected and used urine for years. It should be diluted before use, but 10:1 is not needed. We can use 2:1 on trees or bananas and 4:1 on root crops with no problem. Just don't overdo it on any individual plant. A 5-gallon bucket at 4:1 is enough for about 10 sweet potato plants. We do have wood chip mulch though.
Brilliant information in that link, Joe. Thank you! Geoff has looked at a bunch of commercial options, but most use a bag, and given ember attack is our biggest threat, we're not keen to invest in anything embers will easily destroy. But, these systems look great.
Also, glad to have the book reference, and to hear your experiences. Gold dust!
Thanks for saying this out loud. I live in an apartment in a city. Citizens will need to figure out alternatives for surviving as our infrastructure declines.
I'm old enough to remember the "outhouse" at our family home and how to save greywater for the garden.
Our grandparents wasted nothing. We can relearn these basic living skills
"An apartment in a city" is a living situation least likely to successfully adapt to a low energy future. All modern cities require numerous core functions of modernity to support their populations. Without them, cities die.
If governments are effective, rationing will keep city folk alive for some time while modernity is crumbling, but the time will come when cities are unliveable. Those who leave a city early will have the best chance of making a living in the country. Get out while you still can.
Urine is mostly nitrogen. Stove ash has no nitrogen, but has a lot of phosphorous and potassium.
Fill 1/3rd of a 20 litre (5 gallon) bucket with stove ash. Top it off with water. Stir vigorously for a few minutes. Then, let it settle for a week or so.
Now, carefully pour the water off without disturbing the solidified ash any more than necessary. Add one part of the stove ash solvate , one part urine, and eight parts water (1:1:8).
Now, pump that directly through your drip-line to deliver a balanced 1:1:1 fertilizer directly to your plants!
I live in a rural, off-grid homestead where the state isn't watching me too closely. I'm able to compost anything and everything that can be composted. I sequester it in steel garbage cans lined with contractor bags for a year, then mix it 50-50 with native dirt sequestered in raised beds. After a second year, I've got the best garden soil you can imagine.
That's cool, Oakie! Can I ask ('cause I am a full blown compost 'nerd'), do you fill your bins then just let them sit, to effectivly rot down? With water ...? I am super keen to hear more. I pretty much compost 'anything and everything' too. It's remarkable, actually, how fast things disappear in a well made compost pile.
Yes, I let them sit and rot down, sealed off from flies and rodents. There's a mixture of feces and wood shavings (from the bin toilet), paper, cardboard, food waste, etc. I don't normally mix urine in the bin toilet, using it on the garden or just dumping it somewhere in nature instead. However, I do add some urine along the way to give it extra moisture and nutrients, not enough to make it a slurry.
I would do hot composting, but my environmental constraints make it challenging: long cold winters, and an arid region with little water, moisture in the air, or spare vegetable matter to include in the pile.
Sounds even easier than the Korean techniques explained in JADAM Organic Farming by Youngsang Cho. This method adds the organic matter to a small water tank for anaerobic digestion and then distribution by piping the water to the plants. I have not tried it, but it looks very easy. They do the same with human excreta, which is reported to be the best of all. I wonder about carbon loss from the CH4 produced by anaerobic microbes.
What is the nature of your compost after a couple of years? Is it easy to handle and relatively odor free?
I made a mistake. What is the nature of the material after the FIRST year, right as it is coming out of the can? And what do you do to seal the opening of the contractor bag? I would think it difficult to seal it up airtight or even fruit fly tight.
Are steel cans necessary for any reason other than keeping critters out? I live in a tropical marine environment and heavy duty plastic cans are rat-proof and hold up better against the salt air.
I also wonder whether this method could be used in warmer climates. Anaerobic bacterial production of methane might be so fast that the bag, if airtight, might burst.
It probably does lose out on some of benefits of aerobic decomposition by doing anaerobic decomposition the first year. As I said above, I'm working under certain constraints, and this seemed the best and easiest way to go about things.
After a couple of years, it's just very nice garden soil. Smells lovely. There is very little remaining original material, if any, and then only things like chicken bones.
There is always the choice of a biogas digester. It's an artifact of civilization, but should last a long time. https://www.frenergy.co.nz/biogas-biodigester-plant-prices/ The link is to a source in NZ, but there are probably plenty in Australia too.
A compost toilet is not the best way to go, in my opinion. If you have not heard of the Humanure Handbook by Jenkins, you should get it.
An eco-village near me collects all waste, urine and feces, in 55 gallon drums, lets it sit for a few months and then uses it on bananas or any other tree crop that is harvested only from the tree. Nasty smell, but they say it works well. They get lots of rain to wash it in to very permeable soil though.
My family has collected and used urine for years. It should be diluted before use, but 10:1 is not needed. We can use 2:1 on trees or bananas and 4:1 on root crops with no problem. Just don't overdo it on any individual plant. A 5-gallon bucket at 4:1 is enough for about 10 sweet potato plants. We do have wood chip mulch though.
Brilliant information in that link, Joe. Thank you! Geoff has looked at a bunch of commercial options, but most use a bag, and given ember attack is our biggest threat, we're not keen to invest in anything embers will easily destroy. But, these systems look great.
Also, glad to have the book reference, and to hear your experiences. Gold dust!
Thanks for saying this out loud. I live in an apartment in a city. Citizens will need to figure out alternatives for surviving as our infrastructure declines.
I'm old enough to remember the "outhouse" at our family home and how to save greywater for the garden.
Our grandparents wasted nothing. We can relearn these basic living skills
"An apartment in a city" is a living situation least likely to successfully adapt to a low energy future. All modern cities require numerous core functions of modernity to support their populations. Without them, cities die.
If governments are effective, rationing will keep city folk alive for some time while modernity is crumbling, but the time will come when cities are unliveable. Those who leave a city early will have the best chance of making a living in the country. Get out while you still can.
"And don’t waste your pee. Dilute it 1:10…"
Do you heat with wood?
If so, you can take this further!
Urine is mostly nitrogen. Stove ash has no nitrogen, but has a lot of phosphorous and potassium.
Fill 1/3rd of a 20 litre (5 gallon) bucket with stove ash. Top it off with water. Stir vigorously for a few minutes. Then, let it settle for a week or so.
Now, carefully pour the water off without disturbing the solidified ash any more than necessary. Add one part of the stove ash solvate , one part urine, and eight parts water (1:1:8).
Now, pump that directly through your drip-line to deliver a balanced 1:1:1 fertilizer directly to your plants!
Wow, Jan! I had no idea. We have plenty of ash. I'll give this a shot. Fantastic.
I live in a rural, off-grid homestead where the state isn't watching me too closely. I'm able to compost anything and everything that can be composted. I sequester it in steel garbage cans lined with contractor bags for a year, then mix it 50-50 with native dirt sequestered in raised beds. After a second year, I've got the best garden soil you can imagine.
That's cool, Oakie! Can I ask ('cause I am a full blown compost 'nerd'), do you fill your bins then just let them sit, to effectivly rot down? With water ...? I am super keen to hear more. I pretty much compost 'anything and everything' too. It's remarkable, actually, how fast things disappear in a well made compost pile.
Yes, I let them sit and rot down, sealed off from flies and rodents. There's a mixture of feces and wood shavings (from the bin toilet), paper, cardboard, food waste, etc. I don't normally mix urine in the bin toilet, using it on the garden or just dumping it somewhere in nature instead. However, I do add some urine along the way to give it extra moisture and nutrients, not enough to make it a slurry.
I would do hot composting, but my environmental constraints make it challenging: long cold winters, and an arid region with little water, moisture in the air, or spare vegetable matter to include in the pile.
That's cool! Thank you for sharing.
Sounds even easier than the Korean techniques explained in JADAM Organic Farming by Youngsang Cho. This method adds the organic matter to a small water tank for anaerobic digestion and then distribution by piping the water to the plants. I have not tried it, but it looks very easy. They do the same with human excreta, which is reported to be the best of all. I wonder about carbon loss from the CH4 produced by anaerobic microbes.
What is the nature of your compost after a couple of years? Is it easy to handle and relatively odor free?
I made a mistake. What is the nature of the material after the FIRST year, right as it is coming out of the can? And what do you do to seal the opening of the contractor bag? I would think it difficult to seal it up airtight or even fruit fly tight.
Are steel cans necessary for any reason other than keeping critters out? I live in a tropical marine environment and heavy duty plastic cans are rat-proof and hold up better against the salt air.
I also wonder whether this method could be used in warmer climates. Anaerobic bacterial production of methane might be so fast that the bag, if airtight, might burst.
It probably does lose out on some of benefits of aerobic decomposition by doing anaerobic decomposition the first year. As I said above, I'm working under certain constraints, and this seemed the best and easiest way to go about things.
After a couple of years, it's just very nice garden soil. Smells lovely. There is very little remaining original material, if any, and then only things like chicken bones.
You may have already heard of these people, if not they have some good ready-made digesters.
https://www.homebiogas.com/?srsltid=AfmBOornbmrtmTLUghaIIWV6ec8zOMLHJeSFPj4yuSa_rkhP5TW5GRf4