I will be collecting urine in my compost toilet.
I don't know if I want to collect gallons of the stuff on the boat waiting till I get to a park or campground to dispose of it in their bathrooms or pumpout station. It is most likely illegal for me to dump it in the river, and not exactly a zero footprint idea.
In questioning, why urine is harmful, my initial research lead me to this article: Controlling Water Pollution By Isolating Urine
And then there is a more comprehensive article at: Negative Effects - Human Urine
This article it mentions the pollution of unused pharmaceutical estrogen and it's impact on fish. This can lead to a "skewed gender ratio and reproductive problems, such as inter-sex fish" What? "Inter-sex" fish? Since our water treatment facilities fail to remove pharmaceuticals from their discharges, one has to wonder if the proliferance of birth control pills and treatment of postmenopausal women has impacted society and the occurance of inter-sexed humans. - I'm not going to discuss "inter-sexed humans" due to political concerns. You'll have to look it up yourself. ;)
Switzerland estimates that human urine could replace 37% of their farm fertilizers. The positive uses suggested emphasizing urine as fertilizers.
This really leads me to such an easy solution at home, too. A composting toilet, a couple of holding tanks (one for rain water, one for urine), a reverse osmosis filter and a drain field for gray water could get one completely off city water. If one is only using filtered water for drinking and washing dishes, the filtering pump would not require much of a solar panel to power it. If you like curly hair, I know the benefits of showering with rain water because my Border Collie Patch's fur was so beautiful after she spent all day in the rain. My only problem is that I currently use so little water in my house, that my water bill is the minimum $14.90 every month. Last month I used 748 gallons of water, or only 25 gallons a day, well within the capabilities of a reverse osmosis filtering system. Nine months out of the last year I used twice that much water, or 50 gallons a day. I am shocked that I use that much, actually, but spending the money to get off the grid water-wise would only save me $180 a year, so the payback would be roughly... beyond my life expectancy.
Well, I don't have enough space to do all that on my little boat. I guess I'll have to find a field which needs some extra phosphates and nitrogen. No estrogen from me, but the cows probably don't need to lower their blood sugar, slow down their heart beat or prevent a stroke from a blood clot, so I'm not perfect.
Switzerland estimates that human urine could replace 37% of their farm fertilizers. The positive uses suggested emphasizing urine as fertilizers.
This really leads me to such an easy solution at home, too. A composting toilet, a couple of holding tanks (one for rain water, one for urine), a reverse osmosis filter and a drain field for gray water could get one completely off city water. If one is only using filtered water for drinking and washing dishes, the filtering pump would not require much of a solar panel to power it. If you like curly hair, I know the benefits of showering with rain water because my Border Collie Patch's fur was so beautiful after she spent all day in the rain. My only problem is that I currently use so little water in my house, that my water bill is the minimum $14.90 every month. Last month I used 748 gallons of water, or only 25 gallons a day, well within the capabilities of a reverse osmosis filtering system. Nine months out of the last year I used twice that much water, or 50 gallons a day. I am shocked that I use that much, actually, but spending the money to get off the grid water-wise would only save me $180 a year, so the payback would be roughly... beyond my life expectancy.
Well, I don't have enough space to do all that on my little boat. I guess I'll have to find a field which needs some extra phosphates and nitrogen. No estrogen from me, but the cows probably don't need to lower their blood sugar, slow down their heart beat or prevent a stroke from a blood clot, so I'm not perfect.
If I remember correctly from my Asst. Scoutmaster days, it was OK to Pee and Poo as long as you stayed about 200' from any open water. So... when your holding tank (i.e. bladder) gets full, approach the nearest shore, make a mad dash away from the waterway, and empty the tank, so to speak. :)
ReplyDelete200' would get me safely away from the Water Moccasins, too!
ReplyDelete