No animal produce was allowed to go in the pigs bin. Fruit, vegetable and cereal matter only. Waste meat, fish, and dairy went in the ordinary waste bin. It takes discipline though.

After collecting from our canteen, the pig man would call in at the fish quay at North Shields, and they would give him undersized or damaged fish from the day’s catch. He knew that stuff was safe.

We really don’t ever want that foot and mouth disease coming back here.

http://humanurehandbook.com/downloads/Humanure_Handbook_all.pdf

great detail on how to do it really and all the attendant health risks [or otherwise as it turns out].

I do remember the content of the bucket being a vile mess of pink blancmange (even if we hadn’t had blancmange that day I seem to recall…), mincemeat and mashed potatoes and the smell used to make me wretch…

The chemicals that end up in the waste stream come from a wide range of pharmaceutals and products such as shampoo, domestic cleaners etc. Research on the internet will provide scientific and detailed information.

I remember reading an excellent book called “Dreams and Disasters: a History of Innovation Gone Wrong” by Adam Hart-Davis, and was particularly fascinated by his coverage of the earth closet. The premise is simple. When you flush a water closet, you are using nine litres of good drinking water, and in doing so, generating about five times the volume of blackwater that you would otherwise.

There is the issue of decomposition time too. Underwater decomposition is anaerobic and slow, and can produce dangerous buildups of bacteria and methane, the latter being a potent greenhouse gas, although in anaerobic digester the latter is obviously very desirable!

Decomposition in dry earth however, is aerobic and rapid, and quickly breaks down to form fantastic fertiliser. If you divert the urine, then that can also be watered down and used as fertiliser.

The only reason that the water closet has won favour over the earth closet is convenience. You don’t have to shovel out a water closet, do you? Still, I think that earth closets should be considered for future waste disposal/reprocessing. What do you all think?