Links and Musings
It turns out I’m not alone in this venture. Check out the link below. Exciting! I especially like the toilet described at the end of the article!
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/may/12/humanure-composting-toilets
I’m going to inquire into the MS150 (and perhaps other events that involve outdoor toilets) and see if they might be interested in giving the composting port-a-potty idea a try(*1/2). This would really help to get the word out. The overwhelming majority are unaware that humanure is even a thing.
Check this out. It’s a project to help out a city in India using humanure. https://en.reset.org/blog/humanure-power-project
This link summarizes my “inside out” approach to this issue. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GitiPB76Nag
WOW!! That’s all I can say about this video. As of today (10/23/2022), this is the most powerful video I have ever seen. Not because the concepts are new. The inside-out approach has been spoken of repeatedly by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others very eloquently. What makes this video stand out is how it grinds right down to the nuts and bolts of how we “bean counters” can change the world. Bill Cumming points out the subtle but vital distinction between guilt/blame/shame and ownership. The former is worse than useless. The latter, although not always easy, is ultimately very empowering. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlOWqLE7F50
Did you know that the Hunzas (I believe that’s right. Joe Jenkins writes about them in the Humanure Handbook) live to 120, and they’ve been composting humanure for over a thousand years? I know wholistic, wise, and centered living comprises a multitude of practices, and exactly how much of their longevity is due to composting is impossible to determine. The reason I bring this up is there is a misconception in the western world that humanure is hazardous to your health. Apparently the Hunzas never got the memo. The fact is that if it is handled properly, it is far safer in the long run than pooping in our drinking water and sending it away. Not to mention that we would run out of fresh water on day one if all the world adopted our sewer system*.
1/2* I still need to find out where the state of MN stands on composting toilets. They may be okay with them, even though they are not okay with the collection system as outlined by Joseph Jenkins in the Humanure Handbook. In composting toilets, the composting actually happens within the toilet itself. This involves evaporation and therefore is anaerobic, yielding an inferior quality compost. They do, however, offer a sewage-free, or in this particular application, chemical-free alternative to conventional methods.
This section was updated on February 2, 2022 (Let’s not pollute things for the groundhog!).
* “Day one” is a bit hyperbolic, but let’s take a fun look at something. Below is a link to a website publishing water facts.
https://www.usbr.gov/mp/arwec/water-facts-ww-water-sup.html
All right, let’s get to work here. Actually, this is so much fun, it hardly seems like work, but anyway…
2 gallons per flush X 6 flushes per day X 365 days per year = 4380 gallons per year (much more than that for heavy water and coffee drinkers).
According to this website, about 2.2 million gallons of freshwater is available to each person on Earth (if I’m reading that right), so the average amount of time it takes for the average human to use up their share of freshwater is…
2.2 million gallons / 4380 gallons per year = …………drum roll……….502 years. “Ha HA!”, you say, “and not only that, check out the below bullet point:”
“This supply is continually collected, purified, and distributed in the natural hydrologic (water) cycle.”
This will easily bring the total years to at least several thousand years! We have nothing whatsoever to worry about, right?
Wel-l-l-l-l…not so fast.
Putting aside the fact that even three to five thousand years is less than an eyeblink in the context of Earth history, there is a major flaw in this argument. Most sewer systems (including the American one) are designed to grab all discarded water en masse, and since a body of water is only as clean as the dirtiest part of it, that means that all 82 gallons the average person uses per day (see EPA link below) has to be considered polluted and in need of “treatment.” So now we have to take that 502 years and divide it by a factor of 82/12, which brings it down to just over 73 years. Hmm. Less than a human lifetime. Not looking good. “Ah, but come on,” you say, “surely the purification process will multiply that figure by at least a factor of five?” Perhaps, but I wouldn’t count on it. Take a look at their statement again: “This supply is continually collected, purified, and distributed in the natural hydrologic (water) cycle.” A very vague statement to say the least. There are absolutely no details given as to what this purification process involves. I’m no expert, but I’m quite certain that it involves the use of some pretty powerful chemicals, some of which do not break down, even under thermophilic composting (chlorine, for example). I know. Let’s randomly throw a bunch of sodium at it and we’ll have the biggest salt shaker in the galaxy! Never mind. Just a random humorous image that popped into my head that I just HAD to share. Where were we? Oh, yes. Any use of a chemical that doesn’t break down will, by definition, fail the sustainability litmus test. I loosely define a practice as sustainable if every human being on the planet can participate in it for a thousand years with no measurable negative impact on the environment.
This doesn’t even take into account the increasing population and the shrinking water tables. My guess is that the current 2.2 million gallons per person used to be more and will continue to shrink in the future, although I don’t have empirical data to back that up as of today (January 19, 2022). Also, as the EPA link above points out, many states already face water shortages. True, civilization as we know it will not end in eight years, but I see no point in waiting until we are 20 feet in front of the proverbial brick wall before putting on the brakes.
This section was updated/added on January 19, 2022.
When most people (including me) think of sustainability, they think of the obvious stuff that you can observe, such as trash, air pollution, and the burning of hydrocarbons like gasoline. More subtle, but extremely important, is agricultural sustainability—that is to say, being able to reuse the same land for centuries, and even millennia, with no measurable depletion. This has not been the case in western farming. Joseph Jenkins spends a substantial portion of his Humanure Handbook on this topic, probably because it is one of the most immediately beneficial effects of humanure. It can enrich and revitalize soil in ways chemical fertilizers just can’t. Absorption seems to have a lot to do with it. Nutrients from chemical fertilizer just don’t seem to absorb as quickly as nutrients from humanure (not difficult to understand why).
added 2/15/2022
In case this website isn’t off the wall enough for you, you can check my video musings on my YouTube channel: sustainability - the next level.
This section was added March 7, 2022.
In Texas, there’s a product called “Dillo Dirt,” supposedly made from humanure, and very nutrient rich for the soil! More on that at https://www.austintexas.gov/department/dillo-dirt. This TX update was added 5/2/2022.
Okay, just a quick little mention, or should I say reiteration, of Dillo Dirt, Austin, TX’s program of “turning shit into shinola” or something like that. Anyway, treated “waste” is redirected to a composting site where it is converted into nutrient-rich compost instead of being dumped back into the ecosystem. More on that later (hopefully not much later this time!). This part was added on 8/21/2022.
Why hello! It’s been a little while since I’ve visited. It is very early in the morning (4:21 A.M. CDT) on Memorial Day, 2022. I have been asked if I would take down this website if the business ever took off. Whenever I’m asked this, I tend to get defensive, and probably, subtly through tone of voice and body language, say “Hell no, and you’ve got some nerve asking!” There’s really no need for this defensiveness. It’s a perfectly legitimate question. Certainly once I have tangible, flesh and blood goods and services available, I will probably found and copyright a company name and build a more conventional and professional website, but I can’t imagine any circumstance where I would want to give this one up, simply because it fulfills a different function. It’s a playground, if you will—a diary of sorts, though obviously much more public.
So isn’t this just a glorified and expensive Facebook page? Well, first of all, I did post this idea on Facebook, with a link to this website, but to little avail. A couple of close relatives expressed support, for which I’m grateful, and an acquaintance of mine from school posted some unrelated response about fish, I believe, but that’s about it. Facebook, at least through the eyes of me, Bill Norton, seems to consist of two basic things: 1) Toxic rants about how evil and idiotic everybody who thinks differently from the author is, and 2) Cute pictures and anecdotes about people’s everyday lives. I refuse to take part in the first, although I also refuse to take down my rants of yore. I want to the world to see me, warts and all. Besides, the former rants, and their toxic fallout, help to explain how I evolved to where I am. As for thing 2, I will happily participate in that. In fact, I plan to upload pictures of at least three T-shirts that I am sending to the great beyond (including the very holey one I am wearing), with some clever caption. This light-hearted sharing and storytelling serves a purpose, but it is not a substitute for the deep dive that is this website.
This entry was added on 5/30/2022.
I want to start writing entries and shooting YouTube videos where I plug directly into the spirit, so to speak—where I speak to that which is in common with all. NAMASTE is a word use by some to convey this, to the extent something beyond the confines of space and time ever can be conveyed. I’m not speaking of religion, for this is but another concept, with all its limitations and susceptibilities to manipulation and misunderstanding. Basically, anything, and I mean anything, that seeks to divide humanity, is ultimately a lie. With very few exceptions, talk shows and “reality” shows do just that. In fact, their very existence depends upon scouring the countryside looking for unstirred pots. If none exist, great effort is undertaken to build a pot from scratch, fill it, then start stirring it. “What do you mean by ‘a lie’?” defenders of this format will counter, “I happen to know that person A did x, y, and z. Doesn’t that prove that he’s a scumbag?” It is lie because it seeks to divide the indivisible. It attempts to undermine that common spirit in us all. Ultimately, this is the only thing that IS real, so anything that seeks to undermine it is a spiritual lie, the worst kind there is.
“OK, fine, t I’m just judging that temporal part of person A that’s a scumbag. What’s wrong with that? What are we supposed to do, just let him keep scumming up the landscape unpunished?”
Person A only “scummed up” the landscape in the first place because he lost sight of his divinity. If he’d truly realized he was connected to a single spirit, he couldn’t have said or done all these terrible things any more than he could have cut off his own hand. It wouldn’t make sense because he’d be cutting off part of himself. Even if Person A were dangerous, it is possible to address this danger without adding judgment of our own, which only further toxifies the environment. Bill Cumming, from the Boothby Institute, poignantly points out that the knee on George Floyd’s neck was made possible by the violent culture we collectively created. Every moment presents us with a choice. We can either add to that warring mindset or steer clear of it. I love how Wayne Dyer (may he rest in peace) talked about how, at the end of a war, instead of parades and celebrations, we ought to hold a mass funeral, solemnly honoring the fallen on all sides, not just our own.
Besides, most of the time, our Person A is really not that bad. He is just reflecting back at us something disturbing in ourselves. This doesn’t have to be complicated. Anytime we have a “them” or an “it” that we feel is causing our discomfort, we are headed in the wrong direction. Steering in the right direction is surprisingly difficult because we are not used to it. Think of it as a skill. It requires practice. Start with little stuff, like not laughing at jokes that marginalize or objectify people. Maybe find some small thing to compliment someone on. It doesn’t have to be direct. If someone says something that inspires you, you could point to them excitedly (as long as it’s authentic excitement, not the cringy fake stuff) and say “That gives me an idea!” Knowing they inspired someone else will make their day. This section was added on 12/2/2022
My goodness gracious, it’s been a while since I’ve checked in! It turns out that among the resources out there that are potentially scarce, time is increasingly nudging its way to the top. I’ve taken up Duolingo and SpanishDict to help me in my language learning endeavors, and I have started researching environmental goings on, preferably hands on stuff. Not much into the regulations and politics end of it all. Anyway, I know it’s short, but I have a lot to do. I’ll try not to make it so long next time! This section was added on 3/12/2022
This may not be directly environmental, but it’s worth mentioning. Enlightenment is not just a luxury anymore. We absolutely must have this paradigm shift if we are to survive. Brought down to the individual level, just last night I was finishing up at work, and one of my co-workers said “You’re still here?” and internally I immediately went into panic mode, thinking I may not have a job by the end of the day tomorrow (which is today, 11/4/2023. So far, so good). Talk about getting taken down a peg! I know better and I still let the outside world knock me over like a bowling pin! We all need each other—to stick up for each other and see our similarities and celebrate our differences. Groping my way back to the source as we speak. Wish me luck! This section was added on 11/4/2023
So nice to be back! For the record, I’m still employed at the aforementioned place. It’s been quite the spiritual journey since then. “Energy, enthusiasm, and as if it were the most important job in the world” is how Bill Cumming of the Boothby Institute (theboothbyinstitute.org) states that you must approach even the smallest tasks if you are to know sanity and purpose. This, along with experiential knowledge of the oneness of all things and the benign nature of this oneness, will not only remove the fear of death, but the fear of evil as well, for you will see it for the illusion that it is, and you will be no more likely to act it out than you would be after watching a horror film. There is a beautiful little word NAMASTE which sums it all up beautifully. It is defined as “I honor the place in you where the whole universe resides. When you are in that space in you, and I am in that space in me, there is only one of us.” This section was added on 3/31/2024