How to Compost Human Manure
Human manure contains nutrients plants need, just like animal manure. Fresh human waste can carry some parasites and diseases, but a few months of composting will kill them, leaving an organic matter you can use to enrich your garden soil. Companies sell commercial composting toilets, but you can produce a similar result using an inexpensive sawdust toilet and outside compost bins. Check with your local health department or zoning laws to see what regulations apply to commercial or homemade composting toilets in your area. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- 5-gallon plastic bucket
- Sawdust
- Shovel or post-hole digger
- 4 posts, 4 feet long
- 3-foot-high wire fencing or snow fence, 20 feet long
- Fence wire
- Straw
Instructions
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Place a 5-gallon plastic bucket under a seat to collect human waste. After each use, add a scoop of sawdust to cover the waste and minimize odors.
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Dig four 1-foot-deep post holes with a shovel or post hole digger, spacing them in a square that's 5 feet per side. Set a 4-foot-long post in each hole. Use treated lumber or a long-lasting wood such as cedar, locust or Osage orange. Choose a location that's close to both the collection bucket and your garden but where odors or contamination of groundwater won't be an issue.
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3
Cut a section of 3-foot-high snow fence, woven-wire fencing or chicken wire 20 feet long. Wire it to the posts to form four sides of a compost bin, fastening it to each post with three short lengths of fence-wire wrapped around the post and the fencing. Twist the ends of the wire ties to hold the fencing in place.
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Dump the 5-gallon bucket into the compost bin when it's full of manure and sawdust. Add kitchen scraps or other food waste if you want, then cover the pile with a layer of straw, hay or similar organic matter.
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Replace the bucket to collect more waste and continue to empty it into the compost bin when it's full, covering each layer with straw.
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Build a second compost bin beside the first when you've filled the first one and begin emptying the bucket into the second one.
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Untie the end of the fencing from its post, pull it back and inspect the compost in the first bin about a year after you began filling it. It should have decayed into compost, ready to apply to your garden soil.
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Tips & Warnings
The natural heat of composting kills diseases and parasites in the manure. If you start a compost bin in winter, leave it through a few hot days the next summer to encourage it to heat up above 114 degrees Fahrenheit, even if it seems done sooner.
Check your local laws concerning disposal of human waste and set up your compost bins where run-off won't reach drinking water or create a problem with odors.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit bêche image by Claudio Calcagno from Fotolia.com
