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Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 05 9:26 am Post subject:
The results of this event might be interesting then: https://www.big-green-gathering.com/index.php?pageid=39#loos

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 05 9:40 am Post subject:
Fascinating Although I nearly felt the need to take issue with some of thier dismissive comments!

Róisín

Joined: 30 Jul 2005
Posts: 578

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 05 9:59 pm Post subject:

The first thing I thought about when I read through this thread was the amount of history behind this matter. In Japan, it was a good move:

Quote:

The use of human waste matter as fertiliser, meant that contamination of the water supply was avoided and the risk of spread of disease minimised. In the West, the practice of pits or cesspools for disposal of such matter meant that there was a heightened risk of polluting water supplies. In England, the invention of the water closet initially caused epidemics of infectious diseases as Londoners flushed their waste into the Thames River.

In Australia they used to:

Quote:

The nightman would collect the pan from a small door in the back of the toilet, (the toilets generally backed on to alleys), empty it, and replace it unwashed. The collected "nightsoil" was often dried and used as fertiliser in the outer suburbs.

What was most in my mind was the example the Dutch followed in the seventeenth century - the practice of collecting the human waste in canalboats at night and using it to fertilise in the hinterland. This was one of the practices that made them as massively powerful and rich as they were at that time.

China are doing it right now but people are objecting bigtime to it, especially in Australia, where people are calling for food imported from China to be labelled as to how it was fertilised.

ETA: I should have said that what struck me is what's the difference between then and now? More chemicals passing through our system? But surely that's the case with animals too?

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 05 8:58 am Post subject:
On my travels I've seen a rotation system used on paddy fields where a field is taken out of production, a 'portaloo' erected and the field is used as the bog before being ploughed in a couple of months later.

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