Is human vomit compostable?

Other people use sugar cane residue, bagasse, or rice hulls. You can compost anything, he says – vomit and urine too.

wired.co.uk - The long, noble and stinky quest to make human shit useful | WIRED UK

Do I need permission to add a toilet in my house?

Planning permission is generally not required to add a bathroom into a property, assuming it is not forming part of an extension to the building....

Last updated Jul 21, 2019

Can you make a living off woodworking?

I often see people ask in online forums and on social media— "Can I make a living from woodworking?". The answer is of course yes. Millions across...

Last updated Mar 15, 2021

Can I build my own shed?

Yes, with the right plans you can build your dream shed.

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The autopsy came back in April. It didn’t look good: contraband muscle-building steroids, cooking oil, nappies and a smattering of MDMA. Beyond these toxins and alien objects, the 130 tonne South Bank fatberg, the latest congealed, impacted mound of wet-wipes and clotted fat to be discovered in London’s sewers, was also found to contain potentially deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria, alongside worrying levels of listeria, campylobacter and E. coli. Undetected fatbergs lurking beneath our streets run the risk of raw sewage flooding into the open, and at present the battle to eliminate them costs the public £80 million a year. Our Victorian-era sewers are struggling so much that every year 40 billion tonnes of sewage is deliberately flushed into the Thames; as a result, Thames Water has been commissioned to build a £4.2 billion super sewer after the EU decreed the leeching of raw fecal matter into the Thames unacceptable.

The capital’s network of sewers evolved over the course of the 19th century to meet the challenges of the public health crisis that was pre-industrial life: cholera, typhoid, dysentery. But could there have been another way of doing things? A hardcore group of environmentalists thinks there is. Could we, by composting organic human outputs, find a way to manage our environment and ourselves that wasted less water, returned needed nutrients to the land, and avoided some of the problems that our overburdened, centralised sewage system is currently struggling to solve? Or, to put it more bluntly: can we make human shit useful?

Joseph Jenkins, author of the 1996 ecology bible The Humanure Handbook, began to compost his faeces and urine over forty years ago. He was, at the time, living without electricity and plumbing, trying to lead a simpler sort of life, and began to see the benefits of composting and reusing the nitrate and phosphate-rich solid, what so many consider waste, as fertiliser. Studying for a masters in sustainable systems and the built environment in northern Pennsylvania – the first of such courses running in the US – he decided to turn his thesis into a book. In the US, The Humanure Handbook has now sold over 65,000 copies and is about to run into a fourth edition, and Jenkins’ spin-off compost toilet business, Lovable Loos, is still going strong. It’s not correct to call faeces ‘human waste’, Jenkins says. “A compost toilet is a waste-free toilet system; there is no waste involved.” What comes out goes back in, to be reused as fertiliser on his land – Jenkins grows corn, onions, parsley, sweet peppers, hot peppers, broccoli, courgettes, winter squash, beetroots, blueberries, and raspberries. He has apple trees, peach trees, pear trees. He keeps chickens and he keeps ducks. "I have the whole nine yards going on here," he says.

How far can a 2x6 span without support?

How Much Weight Can a 2×6 Support Horizontally? A 2×6 can support up to 50 pounds per square foot of weight without sagging with a maximum span of...

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Is inflation going to get worse?

Why Inflation and High Prices Will Likely Stick Around a While. Economists and financial experts do agree on one thing: Higher prices will likely...

Last updated Apr 24, 2019

Can I build my own shed?

Yes, with the right plans you can build your dream shed.

Learn More »

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Can I use gravel for shed foundation?

A Gravel Shed Foundation: Better All Around. A gravel foundation is your best all-around option when installing a shed or garage that comes with a floor. It will help your investment last longer and you'll have fewer issues down the road that might come from your building settling.

siteprep.com - Why Your Gravel Shed Foundation Should be 12"" Wider than Your Shed

12″ Wider All Around

One important question many folks have when planning for their new shed or storage building is: “How wide should my shed foundation be?” Thankfully, it’s one question with a pretty simple answer. Your gravel shed foundation should be 12″ wider than your shed, all the way around the building. That means if your shed measures 8’x12′, your foundation should measure 10’x14′. There are good reasons for this which we’ll explain below. In cases where your shed has an extra large overhang, you may want to make your foundation big enough so that the water that runs off the roof runs onto the stone pad. Of course, you always have the option to add a gutter and downspout to control the runoff.