Joseph Jenkins - The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure

THE

HUMANURE HANDBOOK

THIRD EDITION

A GUIDE TO COMPOSTING HUMAN MANURE by Joseph Jenkins
ISBN-13: 978-0-9644258-3-5
ISBN-10: 0-9644258-3-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2005902104
Copyright 2005 by Joseph C. Jenkins
All Rights Reserved

Portions of this book may be copied and distributed without permission as long as a)the information is not changed, b)the publishing source is credited and c)the distribution is not for profit.

Published by Joseph Jenkins, Inc. 143 Forest Lane, Grove City, PA 16127 USA Phone:814-786-9085 Web site at JosephJenkins.com

Please address all retail and wholesale book orders to our distributor:

Chelsea Green Publishing, POBox 428, White River Junction, VT 05001 Toll free: 800-639-4099 or 802-295-6300

Printed with soy ink on Enviro 100% post-consumer recycled paper processed without chlorine. 3ND PRINTING OF THIS EDITION

HumanureHandbook.com

This is the third edition of a self-published book. No respectable publisher would touch it with a ten foot shovel. Nevertheless, the book has now been sold around the world, translated into over a dozen languages and published in foreign editions on four continents. It has been talked about on NPR, BBC, CBC, Howard Stern, in The Wall Street Journal, Playboy Magazine and many other national and international venues. For more information about this and the authors other books, visit the publishers website at:

JosephJenkins.com.

Cover art and most of the cartoon artwork is by Tom Griffin. Photos are by the author unless otherwise indicated. The Humanure Handbook - Third Edition

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 - CRAP HAPPENS................................. 1
2 - WASTE NOT WANT NOT........................ 7
4 - DEEP SHIT..................................... 69
6 - COMPOSTING TOILETS AND SYSTEMS.......... 103
7 - WORMS AND DISEASE.......................... 121
8 - THE TAO OF COMPOST......................... 155
9 - GRAYWATER SYSTEMS.......................... 203
10 - THE END IS NEAR.............................. 225
TEMPERATURE CONVERSIONS.................. 237
GLOSSARY...................................... 238
REFERENCES................................... 240 INDEX......................................... 249

CRAP HAPPENS

Somethings About to Hit the Fan

Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course... No more than one or a few decades remain before the chance to avert the threats we now confront will be lost and the prospects for humanity immeasurably diminished.

1,600 Senior Scientists, November 18, 1992 World Scientists Warning to Humanity
T

here is a disturbing theory about the human species that has begun to take on an alarming level of reality. It seems that the behavior of the human race is displaying uncanny parallels to the behavior of pathogenic, or disease-causing,

organisms.

When viewed at the next quantum level of perspective, from which the Earth is seen as an organism and humans are seen as microorganisms, the human species looks like a menace to the planet. In fact, the human race is looking a lot like a disease comprised of organisms excessively multiplying, mindlessly consuming, and generating waste with little regard for the health and well-being of its host planet Earth.

Pathogenic organisms are a nasty quirk of nature, although they do have their constructive purposes, namely killing off the weak and infirm and ensuring the survival only of the fittest. They do this by overwhelming their host, by sucking the vitality out of it and leaving poison in their wake. Pathogens dont give a damn about their own source of life their host and they often kill it outright.

This may seem like a silly way for a species to maintain its own existence; afterall, if you kill the host upon which your life depends, then you must also die. But pathogens have developed a special survival tactic that allows them to carry on their existence even after their host has died. They simply travel to a new host, sending out envoys to seek out and infect another organism even as their own population dies en masse along with the original host.

A man dying of tuberculosis coughs on his deathbed, an act instigated by the infecting pathogen, ensuring that the disease has a chance to spread to others. A child defecates on the dirt outside her home, unwittingly satisfying the needs of the parasites inhabiting her intestines, which require time in the soil as part of their life cycle. A person stricken with cholera defecates in an outhouse which leaches tainted water into the ground, contaminating the village well-water and allowing the disease to spread to other unsuspecting villagers.

In the case of pathogenic organisms that kill their host, the behavior is predictable: multiply without regard for any limits to growth, consume senselessly and excrete levels of waste that grievously harm the host. When this is translated into human terms, it rings with a disquieting familiarity, especially when we equate human success with growth, consumption and material wealth.

Suppose we humans are, as a species, exhibiting disease behavior: were multiplying with no regard for limits, consuming natural resources as if there will be no future generations, and producing waste products that are distressing the planet upon which our very survival depends. There are two factors which we, as a species, are not taking into consideration. First is the survival tactic of pathogens, which requires additional hosts to infect. We do not have the luxury of that option, at least not yet. If we are successful at continuing our dangerous behavior, then we will also succeed in marching straight toward our own demise. In the process, we can also drag many other species down with us, a dreadful syndrome that is already underway. This is evident by the threat of extinction that hangs, like the sword of Damocles, over an alarming number of the Earths species.

There is a second consideration: infected host organisms fight back. As humans become an increasing menace, can the Earth try to defend itself? When a disease organism infects a human, the human body elevates its own temperature in order to defend itself. This rise in temperature not only inhibits the growth of the infecting pathogen, but also greatly enhances the disease fighting capability within the body. Global warming may be the Earths way of inducing a global fever as a reaction to human pollution of the atmosphere and human over-consumption of fossil fuels.

When the internal human body temperature rises, the microclimate of the body changes, allowing for the sudden and rapid proliferation of antibodies, T-cells, white blood cells and other defenders against disease. As the Earths climate changes and as the natural environment chokes with pollution, we humans already have an idea of what sort of organisms nature can and will suddenly unleash to confront us. Theyre beginning to show themselves as insect pests and new strains of deadly bacteria, viruses and algae particularly toxic to humans.

As the planets temperature rises, it gains a momentum that cannot be stopped or even stalled, no matter how desperate or repentant we humans may eventually become. The Earths fever, like a spinning flywheel, will only subside in its own time. We may be creating a Frankensteins monster of astronomical proportions, unless, of course, we are pathogenic organisms. If so, then we really dont care, do we?

Pathogens can often dwell for quite some time within the host organism without causing disease symptoms. Then something happens to spark their growth they gain a sudden foothold and begin proliferating rapidly. It is at this point that undeniable disease effects begin to show themselves.