This is an unusual column for me as there is a serious issue here (somewhere). However, it still covers one of my favourite topics of conversation - poop - so it all balances out. It came about during my volunteering for the Student Volunteer Army, and I somehow became known as the "composting toilet guy". Soon I'll write a proper posting about what I'm doing with my life (hint: not much), but until then, enjoy. (Images of the article as it appeared in Canta is reporoduced below).
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Veni, Vedi, Faece
I wish more people would ask me how I became involved with composting human faeces, because I would reply: “Oh, I just fell into it.” Last year, I read the hilariously and appropriately named The Humanure Handbook out of an unhealthy fascination with toilet humour. However while my childish sense of humour remains, it does all make a lot of sense. Especially now when many Cantabrians are using expensive portaloos, harmful chemical toilets, making long-drops and burying their crap as a kind of time-capsule, or crapping into buckets and leaving it in the red bins because the garbage-men of the world don’t have a shitty-enough job as it is. People are already pooping in less-than-optimal conditions, so they may as well learn how to do it right.
The Humanure Handbook, by Joseph Jenkins lays out a simple, cheap, non-wasteful and a sustainable way of dealing with your human waste which is not only ideal in times of need, but an alternative to regular toilets. I’m not going to give a book review, but I do encourage people to read it. You have nothing to lose. At the very worst it is worth a laugh, but otherwise it shows a new way for a more sustainable future.
I got involved with the Humanure Project Christchurch while volunteering for the Student Volunteer Army and a series of chance meetings with people who compost their own shit. Yes, at the moment it takes a certain type of person to do it – namely hippies and/or idealists. These people have big ideas to phase out all the portaloos and chemical toilets in Christchurch, and hopefully many people will see the advantages and continue to use them even after the infrastructure gets back up and running. Unfortunately, people generally aren’t too enthusiastic about big ideas, as you will know if you’ve ever been asked “Hey! What’s the big idea?” Most people seem averse to pooping in a bucket, composting it, and using it as fertiliser to make juicy tomatoes, but this is an objection based on social conditioning, not on pragmatic terms. They don’t see themselves as the kind of people who wear tie-dye shirts and list their hobbies as “climbing trees”, but there is no reason why people whose houses don’t look and smell like a fortune teller’s tent can’t also compost their own crap. That’s why we need to at least start a conversation and weighing up the pros and cons. Wilbur Wright famously said, “It is possible to fly without wings, but not with knowledge”, and this could apply with humanure.
Over the duration of a week, I had conversations about humanure with countless people (*note: apparently I can’t count much past a few hundred) till the point that my flatmates would say: “Do you mind? We’re eating.” I spoke with regular people, and non-regular people (community leaders and local politicians), and everyone who listens for long enough agrees that this is a good idea, but maybe not for them. There is something so satisfying at an animal-level about taking a dump into 12 gallons of fresh bottled-water-grade drinking water. It’s like stuffing your face full of KFC in front of a hungry Rwandan family, and you don’t even like KFC that much.
However, there are pockets of people all around the world who swear by composting toilets, and hopefully with the aid of some media coverage the concept will become less alternative, and will become considered as a viable alternative for people who simply want to save about 20% of their water usage and who want to save on buying fertiliser. If it’s true that people put their money where their mouth is, then many people will be talking shit. Not to mention that this knowledge could help out many people should another disaster hit.
Composting toilets may not be ideal for students. Landlords and R.A.s might not be too enthused about having a pile of shit in the garden, and students often won’t stay in one place long enough to benefit from the fertiliser – and probably won’t be lugging their faeces to their next flat, but nevertheless, I recommend The Humanure Handbook as a good and important read. You can read or download the ebook for free (http://www.weblife.org/humanure/), and hopefully many libraries will soon start stocking it too. For those who are converted there may even be workshops around the city later this year. At the very least, keep it in mind, and maybe one day you too will proudly say “I came, I saw, I composted”.
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