Human Urine

http://ezinearticles.com/?Using-Human-Urine-As-A-Liquid-Fertilizer&id=392596

Having dinner with a friend last night, she said, she recently read that human urine is good as a fertilzer for the garden diluted with water.
I googled and found several info regarding. Above just one of them.
Take a look at all of them.
Interesting.

 

As much of mine as discretly possible goes back into the soil.

Was just talking to a Surfing Dude about the same thing (Surfers against Sewage & all that)

It's tanamount to ecological vandalism to put human waste into rivers and seas, it should be put back onto the fields full stop.

The only other creatures that get rid of their waste like that are fish & otters.

 

I agree, the human waste is being put in the wrong place. Lets bring back out houses.

 

There's a lot of misconceptions about human wee. Nobody is going to catch any diseases off it if its in your garden. In fact, because its chemical composition is such as it is, once it gets onto the soil and the soil micro-organisms get to work on it, it very quickly stops being wee at all and starts being just water plus various minerals that plants need.

I routinely take a leak in the garden. Partly because if I'm working out there, it is far easier to just hide in a corner and let it out than it is to wrestle my hob nail boots off plus gloves and coat etc, head to the loo, come back and wrestle my boots back on again. And partly because I begrudge putting undue burden on our water supply and sewage system by sending perfectly good fertiliser into the system. As a side benefit, I've also noticed that I rarely get a problem of cats coming in. Probably because cats use urine to mark their territory so in effect I'm laying claim to the territory that is my garden and in the tiny but clever brain of a cat, a human male is generally bigger than they are.

 

Before the sanitation system was installed, all human waste went back into the agriculture system. This wasn't without problems though, diseases like Cholera and Hepatitis broke out.

Recently they stopped using waste on fields for the same reason in the UK.

All the waste could be composted in digestors to produce Methane gas, which is a valuable fuel, the by product of this process is a rich fertiliser, so why are we dumping it into the sea to cause toxic algal bloom & make surfers ill?:(

 

I reckon there are two main reasons why we don't make better use of it. Firstly there's the stigma. People are far happier to chuck it into the sea and then paddle in that sea on warm summers day, safe in the knowledge that because they never saw what happened to it, it stopped being their problem the moment the flushed the loo.

I suspect another big reason is our weird laws. Until fairly recently, you had to jump through some major hoops to produce fuel in gas or liquid form. Get your paperwork wrong or fail to pay the duty and you're well and truly in for it. However fairly recently, I think about 5 years ago, there was a change in the law. It wasn't well publicised. Under the current laws, you're allowed to produce 2500 litres of fuel per year without needing to declare it and pay tax on it. Now before everyone goes racing out to buy a still, I should point out that lots of other laws are still in place restricting what you can do, but I think if more people knew about the changes in the law, perhaps one or two people might start making better use of our waste.

Still on topic (just), I like the idea of the 'tree bog'. (Tree bog - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Not necessarily for people's urban gardens, but at allotment sites and small holdings it just makes perfect sense. The idea is that you make a living structure as the toilet, using plant species that are known to be effective at getting rid of pathogens. Most plants form symbiotic relationships with various specific micro-organisms, and in some cases those micro-organisms kill harmful germs from human waste. From what i've read, a combination of willow and comfrey do an effective job, effectively turning nasty human waste into perfectly good and safe compost.

 

We have a friend who runs a very popular Eco hostel here ... and all the men pee in the garden (I guess the women could if they so desired ... ). From what I hear, all the Eco places do this and if that is what they wish to do, then fine as long as I don't have to 'join in' ...


What I find unacceptable is people (and there are many famous people) who drink their own urine ...

 

Urine is sterile and a good source of ammonia/nitrogen.
Other stuff is deffo a bit dodgy with too many pathogens that can get into the food chain.
Conversion into methane as Ziggy says creates a valuable fuel (and fertiliser), but it has to be burned rather than released to the atmosphere as it's worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

 

Every time without fail I trot to one of the many compost bins, doesn't matter whether there's snow on the ground or what time of day it is. It's a law in my house and all my mates who visit know where they're supposed to go.

I always have my quick visits outside, I can't remember the last time I had one in the house.

 

We are way behind the chinese in this area

IUCN - Bringing back to nature: Improving compost toilets in rural China

 

With ref the law on making your own fuel I used to get used chip shop oil and filter it out and run the landy on it,only problem is everyone jumped on the wagon and because of waste disposal laws,the chippies have to dispose of there waste oil to a designated waste carrier.
As for human waste the best tomatoes I every saw where on the side of our old muck heap on the farm as a kid we wern't on mains sewer and the bucket was emptied every couple of days on the muck heap in a hole dug for the job.
Ok why do we use horse/chicken/cow muck on our gardens but cant put pet dog muck on the compost heap?

 

Its down to the diet of the creatures who's poo we use. Carnivores/Omnivores are generally a no-no because of the pathogens in part digested meat. Humans fall into the omnivore category, with some (that I know at least) leaning more towards the carnivore end of the scale, so not the best source of manure really.

Hepititus C is, I believe, one of the worst and most common diseases carried in carnivore poo. Its not something you want. There's no cure (unless they've found one in the last few years that I haven't heard about) and left untreated it kills you dead. Treatment is a very restricted lifestyle and diet that puts the least possible burden on your liver. No beer. No meat. No intense physical activity.

Carnivore poo can be made safe though, but I think it takes a bit of research and effort. the tree bog concept sounds promising for the small scale.

 

A local Alternative Technology Center encourages folk to wee into containers to be recycled you can use the china loos if you so desire. I think diluted wee as a compost making accellerator is fine but you only need so much. The old soil loos were very effective when you had a visit you sprinkled dry soil over your effort/s. These loos were amost pong free. Every so often they were emptied and you started all over again. A cow produces 1000 litres of Methane per day acording to Argentinian researchers. My neighbour, a keen gardener, also produces some you can often hear him.

 

I've added it directly to my liquid feed tank with comfrey, nettles, bindweed/couch grass roots, etc. (& rat-tailed maggots) in, and in the heat of summer it actually further increases the stink. I could smell it 10 pole away when downwind, but over 20 pole away after spreading, even out of the plot and along the road.

Use as a pesticide probably falls within the 'Banned by the EU' category, but this is an extract from my Roy Lacey book (the one with the boiled slugs recipe):

Urine - Used neat it is an effective winter wash for soft and top fruit. For gooseberry mildew use 0.5 litre (1 pint) urine to 3.9 litres (7 pints) hot water into which 84g (3ozs) washing soda and 28g (1 oz) soap flakes have been dissolved. Spray when cool.

I guess that last bit precludes applying it direct, although I've done that on onions (not those ready for immediate harvesting).

 

Perhaps do " Spray when looking cool" instead ? :D