|
|
The Big Necessity
listen:
  It’s a health threat bigger than AIDS, malaria, or famine, yet it’s also a matter of life: human waste and how we dispose of it. The author of a new book called “The Big Necessity” examines this indelicate subject, arguing that far more public attention must be paid to sanitation systems around the world. We’ll talk about what to do with number two. Guest
|
Support FromHighlightsNavigationUser login | |||||||||||||
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Hi -- waste is a subject near and dear to my heart -- thanks for the program. Can you comment on the fact that our modern waste systems rely on the use of clean water to take it away. That has bothered me for a long time, knowing how precious clean water is for human life. Are there useful, large scale alternatives to this system?
Marilyn Durkee
Erma Bombeck, has a book called "The Grass Grows
Greener Over the Septic Tank"Here in VT, we don't have to spreak cow manure in parts of our garden or figure out how to spreak human waste, because in fact, she is right.. It's where things grow best in our garden.
Also, I believe that one reason the US does not deal with issues of human waste by addressing issues of spread of disease in metro cities areas on door knobs and counter tops, etc, iis because of class issues. NO one in an upscale neighborhood wants the homeless in there , so one way to keep them away and not "brush shoulders" with homeless folks is to keep them sneaking around in the alleys and the woods out of our sight. It's time to get over it and maybe that can happen if folks understand that it affects the health of all of us!
Jackie
Last spring I acquired an interesting book called "Liquid Gold" the lore and logic of using urine to grow plants by Carol Steinfeld from ecowaters books (www.ecowaters.org). Basically, it advocates collecting and diluting urine about 10:1 with water and using it to fertilize non-root crops. The dilution is to avoid a build up of salts in the soil. The logic here is that urine is generally sterile unless the donor has a urinary disease, and that urea is a first class nutrient. The book also illustrates a number of urine-separating toilets to collect it. Using these would eliminate a substantial part of waste water.