A new study demonstrates that Americans throw away about 40% of their food. One good thing about this statistic is that it demonstrates that if our food supply was cut we could adapt fairly easily to the change. My generation was told that we had to clean our plates because there were kids starving in China. Now China pretty much owns us so we’ll have to teach the kids to clean their plates for someone else.
We waste a lot of things. For instance, we waste waste. We poop and pee into what is essentially drinking water and flush it down the drain. In rural areas the waste goes into septic systems which we have to pay to maintain. In cities sewage treatment a significant part of infrastructure cost.
It wasn’t always so. In Georgian London, night soil men were highly paid. And their product in great demand by farmers. In less developed parts of the world humanure is used directly on crops. There are some health dangers to doing this. However, if composted properly, human feces makes excellent fertilizer. Urine can be put directly on the compost pile or diluted and put on crops without composting.
It’s possible to build a composting toilet and have it in your house. Peak Moment TV has an extensive series of videos on self-reliance and sustainability many of which can be found on You Tube.
The following 28 minute video shows how a homeowner in Oakland makes a composting toilet work for her family. Her website has lots of interesting information on gray water, composting toilets and rainwater collection. There’s much we take for granted and don’t even stop to think about. It is possible to make use of our personal waste for our benefit and save water at the same time.
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