kay9_medic
03-01-2009, 10:43 AM
IN the far reaches of Shaanxi Province in northern China, in an apple-producing village named Ganquanfang, I recently visited a house belonging to two cheery primary-school teachers, Zhang Min Shu and his wife, Wu Zhaoxian. Their house wasn’t exceptional — a spacious yard, several rooms — except for the bathroom. There, up a few steps on a tiled platform, sat a toilet unlike any I’d seen. Its pan was divided in two: solid waste went in the back, and the front compartment collected urine. The liquids and solids can, after a decent period of storage and composting, be applied to the fields as pathogen-free, expense-free fertilizer.
New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/opinion/27george.html?_r=1&em)
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In post WWII Japan, bodily wastes were so prized as fertilizer they were taken in lieu of rent. In fact, one or two persons can completely supply the fertilizer needs of a smallish garden, a few thousand square feet. For we fellows, the urine bit is pretty simple... plastic container, empty daily. No big deal, people have been doing this for millennium.
About the only "gotcha" I know of with urine is the high salt content, the result of overly high salt intake in the diet, at levels that will kill plants so it has to be diluted with water. I don't know what the proper dilution ratio would be but 50/50 sounds safe to me. At least, I haven't noticed any bad results with that.
New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/opinion/27george.html?_r=1&em)
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In post WWII Japan, bodily wastes were so prized as fertilizer they were taken in lieu of rent. In fact, one or two persons can completely supply the fertilizer needs of a smallish garden, a few thousand square feet. For we fellows, the urine bit is pretty simple... plastic container, empty daily. No big deal, people have been doing this for millennium.
About the only "gotcha" I know of with urine is the high salt content, the result of overly high salt intake in the diet, at levels that will kill plants so it has to be diluted with water. I don't know what the proper dilution ratio would be but 50/50 sounds safe to me. At least, I haven't noticed any bad results with that.