Human Feces Used as Fertilizer Has Neighbors Fuming

Human Feces Used as Fertilizer Has Neighbors Fuming

www.nbcphiladelphia.com

Residents in a Lehigh County township are waging a battle against local farms that are using a fertilizer made from human feces.

Several Lynn Township, Pa. farmers use a bio-solid called “granulite” to fertilize their crops, according to township authorities. “Granulite” is sewage sludge turned into dried pellets, 30 percent of which is made of human waste.

Residents like Bill Schaffhouser fear the health effects when this chemically-treated sewage fertilizer seeps into the ground and water

(visit the link for the full news article)

It appears the argument is that fertilizer and treated human feces are not the same. But the story does not give any explanation as to the compound comparison.
Ofcourse this is just nasty, but are the chemicals in fertilizer any less dangerous?
Only thing I see is that "Granulite” is sewage sludge turned into dried pellets, 30 percent of which is made of human waste.



www.nbcphiladelphia.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Of course that does raise the question, as was asked above. Are the chemicals in biologically engineered pesticides and anti-fungals not just as, if not more dangerous than that of processed natural waste product.

The Japanese people were (in old times being they used human waste a lot more, and didn't have the historical problems with cleanliness in their cities such as in the UK/GB and the U.S.), and still are known to use human excrement in their agricultural endeavors, though not necessarily in those outfits that deal with supplying multi-national demands. The reason I point this out is that their agricultural techniques, and also waste, and recycling conscious lifestyle is quite a roll model for the rest of the world to follow after. They do after all have a very high population density and have to deal with, in turn, high densities of waste matter, and feed quite a lot of people for their small area. Same situation as Germany and other European countries, through necessity you find ways of making things work.

reply to post by wutz4tom


Thats what many large Chinese growers use to fertilize soil that grows crops and exported worldwide

when I was in the service over in the middle east this was a popular thing to use on the garden. we ate the veggies, and are still alive today. nothing wrong with what they are using, its not the norm, and thats why we are so grossed out about it.

Is there some real quantifiable issue that makes this unhealthy or more dangerous than other fertilizers like manure or is it simply perception that makes it taboo?

I spent Christmas hearing about how nasty the pudding is because it contained suet from a guy eating stacks of bacon. Animal fat is animal fat but for whatever reason the suet in the pudding was to him disgusting as he shoveled dripping bacon grease into his face hole.

Perception is everything.

remember a guy who servered in the british national service saying that they were forbidden to eat certain stuff since it was grown in fields where they used human poop as a fertilizer and that was in the 1950's

I'm apt to agree with the outlook of thisguyrighthere, it's merely your perception of the matter, and your cultural background in many cases, as well. There is most probably no specific agent within our fecal matter which is any more adverse than that which comes out of the wrong end of a cow or a sheep. And the only way in which I could concede that it may be is because of the sh!t that we willingly shove into our mouths that is already chock full with cancer-causing agents, and GMO's, or otherwise that we in turn filter out.

reply to post by Etheraeon


youve raised a good point. Perhaps we need to learn from a country with a larger population, for they have had to deal with a larger amount of human waste...who would know better.

Thanks for the contribution

The USA's largest indoor composting facility (1.2 million sq ft) using fully reduced (fully treated leftover) human waste, local farm waste, and wood chips is in California, east of Los Angeles in an industrial area within Riverside County. It is extremely stinky inside and exhaust air is filtered before exiting so no smell outside. Full info is available at their website at www.ierca.org.... I worked there and it seems to be a viable solution.

reply to post by bluemirage5

So it is taking place in more than just this one instance..
People may not be ready hear that their food is being grown with human waste.
As the population grows so is the need to deal with a larger amount of human waste.

reply to post by chuckk


Thank you for the link and info..will check this for sure..

reply to post by wutz4tom


Oh of course, not at all.


I cannot stress to people enough the important roll our having such vast amount of room as compared to the amount of people. It simply allows for some form of complacency to do with the proper, and most economic way of dealing with your waste products. We live in a world where, in a lot of cases there is too much room, as opposed to to little, which is the popular assumption (only because of our inefficient waste disposal, and housing/industrial systems [again, brought by the complacency having so much room has allowed us]). And on the flipside, there are countries, such as the aforementioned Japan, and many of the other Germanic countries, that due to their tightened borders had to learn to adapt to such a constriction. And as we can all plainly see today, they are leaps and bounds ahead of us in the ways of waste disposal systems. Many of which have just (relatively) recently been implemented (or "invented" depending on what you listen to, and are aware of) in North America/U.S.A.

So in conclusion, it is the sheer amount of space we have to play with which has paved the way to this inefficient, messy system of waste disposal, instead of (re)using every natural and artificial material possible, including, but not limited to human waste products. We are just now seeing the error of our ways, and are trying to recover from that path, but the damage is done, and people are set in their ways.

Originally posted by wutz4tom

Human Feces Used as Fertilizer Has Neighbors Fuming

www.nbcphiladelphia.com

Residents in a Lehigh County township are waging a battle against local farms that are using a fertilizer made from human feces.

Several Lynn Township, Pa. farmers use a bio-solid called “granulite” to fertilize their crops, according to township authorities. “Granulite” is sewage sludge turned into dried pellets, 30 percent of which is made of human waste.

Residents like Bill Schaffhouser fear the health effects when this chemically-treated sewage fertilizer seeps into the ground and water

(visit the link for the full news article)

I Can See It Coming.....MANDATORY POO RECYCLING

that would indeed be a Truly crappy chore

They also do this in North Korea...

Even better, human feces is a commodity traded in the North Korean markets. BTW, this ain't a joke. It's because they don't have enough conventional fertilizer.

reply to post by Vitchilo


Ha, now that's interesting. I suppose the governments from other parts of this world would rather fund and benefit the pockets of the chemical engineers then use a system which is far more fiscally responsible, and as history would point out, the far more health-conscious way to go. It's just modern euphemism that human waste shouldn't be used as a fertilizer. It's just as 'organic' as cow or sheep manure.

reply to post by Vitchilo


dont know what to say other than...that is news to me and really interesting. Finally something other than just personal satisfaction...

It's not considered to be a good fertilizer for the same reason a dog's isn't. Cows, horses and chickens don't eat meat. Humans and dogs do. It ruins the manure, just making it nasty rather than helpful, or so I've always been told.

There is no threat to the ground water. I worked at a sewage treatment plant a long time ago. The sludge is generally drained from the aerators into a concrete lined sand pit to dry out. The stuff doesn't even stink. It dries into a crust, and you rake it up. It makes great fertilizer, similar to cattle manure. The guy complaining probably doesn't understand the sewage treatment process, and thinks it's raw sewage being dumped on the crops. Some people.....

I would recommend that everyone that is interested in this subject read up on sewage disposal. Nearly all of our human fecal matter in the US goes through a WWTF (waste water treatment facility) and the solids (largely fecal matter) are separated from the liquid (water and urine).

The solids are further separated, where things that are not fecal matter are culled out(mostly gravel from storm drains, cigarette butts and corn). The fecal matter goes into a digester, where it is heated to around 105 degrees fahrenheit and given time for anaerobic bacteria to break it down into sludge, which is dried and used as a fertilizer component or to reclaim strip-mined lands. Methane is created by the anaerobic bacteria, which is burned in a boiler, the energy being used to heat the sludge in the digester.

The environment in the digester kills the majority of the bacteria that are harmful to humans, so the biggest issue with sludge being spread in our environment is the amounts of heavy metals that it contains.

Some WWTF's use reed beds to consume the sludge. In that case, the sludge isn't dried and is pumped into lined concrete beds where reeds have been planted. The reeds have some effect on the heavy metals too, but I am not sure of the chemistry involved there....

I need to do some more reading myself.