I wonder if it will be like this when people live in space
Yes. That we don't do this on the ISS is a shame, and an opportunity.
Raising a Stink
11–20 of 28 posts
Re: Raising a Stink
#12> Going to the bathroom at a friend’s house was an act of generosity. It was like leaving a gift. An idea just in time for Christmas season!
It's better to give than to receive.
Re: Raising a Stink
#13> Going to the bathroom at a friend’s house was an act of generosity. It was like leaving a gift. An idea just in time for Christmas season!
Startup idea: toilets that issue receipts.
I don't know what for, the market will find a way.
Re: Raising a Stink
#14Re: Raising a Stink
#15> Going to the bathroom at a friend’s house was an act of generosity. It was like leaving a gift. An idea just in time for Christmas season!
Come visit us - we have composting toilets in our home. Seriously, when people visit and leave such gifts it makes me very happy - more organic matter that will return to our garden. Using composting toilets in the last 5,5 years has changed our relationship with our waste, and with other waste like cow or horse manure. The disgust subsides and you learn to handle it just like any other raw material. Humanure is real…
How do you maintain food safety? Using human waste seems dangerous. Harmful bacteria would be part of it, but I’d worry about accumulating pharmaceuticals, etc., in it, which feudal Japanese people probably didn’t have to worry about.
Re: Raising a Stink
#16I understand there are some health concerns about using human fertiliser for food with particular regard to the spread of disease. It worked well for the Japanese - I wonder if these health concerns are really just our squeamishness?
In Michigan it's against the law to fertilize crops with human waste. Actually knew a farmer in the seventies who got caught and was fined for doing it. The reason is because it can spread disease causing pathogens to the crop.
I'm not certain how the Japanese got around that. Or perhaps people got sick from it and they hadn't yet figured out the cause.
Re: Raising a Stink
#17> Going to the bathroom at a friend’s house was an act of generosity. It was like leaving a gift. An idea just in time for Christmas season!
Startup idea: toilets that issue receipts. I don't know what for, the market will find a way.
It already exists as a curiosity: A toilet that uses waste as fuel for a bioreactor and pays "users" in a cryptocurrency: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-korean-toil...
Re: Raising a Stink
#18> To us, this decision may seem unhygienic at best.
Seems like an add presumption for the author to make. The output has to be removed, and the local people are making it. Plumbing and waste management are some of the most significant developments of every surviving society.
It also seems like a strange comment to make from an author in a country that has sit-on toilets. Now that is unhygienic!
Re: Raising a Stink
#19I don't think cities providing manure for farming communities is unique to Japan, my understanding is it was standard for cities until modern era Bret Devereaux mentions it in his description of pre-modern cities https://acoup.blog/2019/07/12/collections-the-lonely-city-pa...
Isn't there a risk of disease transmission? Or is the waste heavily processed first?
Re: Raising a Stink
#20> To us, this decision may seem unhygienic at best. Seems like an add presumption for the author to make. The output has to be removed, and the local people are making it. Plumbing and waste management are some of the most significant developments of every surviving society. It also seems like a strange comment to make from an author in a country that has sit-on toilets. Now that is unhygienic!
What’s the concern with sit-on toilets? I get that conceptually it’s kind of gross, but it’s not like germs will seep through your buttcheeks. Doorknobs seem worse since you’re likely to then touch your face.