Entries Tagged 'Compost' ↓

by Rhona Mahony. I’ve written here (“Water is Precious, Poop is Priceless”) about the advantages of dry toilets. They conserve potable water. They produce organic fertilizer. Those results are good, because many people in the world don’t have clean water to drink. Instead, they get sick. What’s more, many poor countries spend scarce foreign exchange to import synthentic fertilizer. Experiments with different kinds of dry toilets and collection systems can take place anywhere, at many scales. It is possible that advocates of dry toilets might not be merely loony, tree-kissing ascetics trying to take the fun out of our bathrooms. Finding a smart way to dispose of, and even make use of, human manure for the 21st Century could have big pay-offs.

I want to test how practical it really is to lug buckets of sawdust and human manure around the house. My test is easy in one way: I am the only person in my family of five using the dry toilet. That leaves me with one-fifth the lugging. It is harder in one way, though, from the experience of someone whose town is collecting the toilet contents. I am doing my own composting. Continue reading →

by Rhona Mahony.  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared yesterday that an official state drought is parching California. We must cut back our usage of water by 20 percent. This afternoon, thinking carefully about how scarce water is in our state, and how many millions of dollars we spend to filter, chlorinate, pump, store, and argue about who gets which acre-feet of it, my question is, shall we continue to poop in it? Continue reading →

by Rhona Mahony.  Martin Fackler reported for the New York Times last week (May 7, 2008) that big, aggressive crows, in unprecedented tens of thousands, are shutting down playgrounds, power grids, and even bullet trains across Japan. Since 2001, Tokyo environmental planners have trapped 93,000 crows–lured with fresh meat–then killed them with poison gas. Why the surge in the number of crows? Ornithologists and government officials say that people now throw away much more food than in the past. More wealth, more edible garbage, more food for wild animals, more wild animals. Many Japanese housekeepers now store their curb-side garbage in yellow plastic bags, hoping that crows dislike the color yellow.

Hai! Garbaru canu! Put those plastic bags into rigid, beak-proof containers. Next, instead of putting food scraps into the town landfill, compost them. San Francisco does it; so does all of Nova Scotia. When the Japanese quit catering sidewalk feasts, the crows will go.