The Shrine

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '><b>Link:</b> <a href="http://www.weblife.org/humanure/chapter ... 10.html</a>

Ok, now *this* is some fascinating shit. Literally!</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>One, drinking water can be cleaned as long as you actually have a good water company. Our water is among the <a href="http://www.louisvillewater.com/water_qu ... leanest</a> in the nation.

Two, nobody wants to own a septic system. They suck...really, really bad. Words cannot describe how much they suck, especially when you have to hire somebody when they break (and to clean it out).

Three, water has always been the best way for toilets to function. Sawdust and leaves aren't going to cut it. Nobody wants their house to smell like a port-a-potty. Recycling organic waste is one thing, but toilets would have to be seriously redesigned to figure out how to eliminate the smell from them without water. Hell, there's water in urine, so you are still going to have a hard time "eliminating" water.

Four, comparing the entire collective American public based on a story of a couple of stupid missionaries is misguided. Furthermore, trying to create an opponent for the argument by talking to yourself is the very definition of a straw-man argument.

Recycling organic waste sounds like a good idea, but it'll be a long way before anything is done about "humanure", if ever.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '><b>Link:</b> <a href="http://www.weblife.org/humanure/index.h ... ex.html</a>

One, drinking water can be cleaned as long as you actually have a good water company. Our water is among the <a href="http://www.louisvillewater.com/water_qu ... leanest</a> in the nation.

That may be true, but what about the places that don't have good water companies, whose water ends up with all sorts of chemical byproducts left in it?

The point is is that the whole defecate/flush/clean cycle of water is unnecessary, and when you think about it, it doesn't make much sense.

Two, nobody wants to own a septic system. They suck...really, really bad. Words cannot describe how much they suck, especially when you have to hire somebody when they break (and to clean it out).

Um, what are you talking about? The book advocates recycling humanure in a compost pile, not turning it into waste by leaching it out a septic system.

Three, water has always been the best way for toilets to function. Sawdust and leaves aren't going to cut it. Nobody wants their house to smell like a port-a-potty. Recycling organic waste is one thing, but toilets would have to be seriously redesigned to figure out how to eliminate the smell from them without water. Hell, there's water in urine, so you are still going to have a hard time "eliminating" water.

And how, pray tell, do you know all this? Have you ever used anything but a common flush toilet or a port-a-potty, which does not use any sort of covering mechanism to prevent odor? Have you ever been to a house that actually had a sawdust or other sort of composting toilet?

Get your hands off your butt cheeks, Sine - talking out your ass is not an attractive thing.

According to the author, he's been using a non-odorous sawdust toilet for his family and visitors for twenty years. On top of that, there are "reader feedback" sections in the main text where people write in and tell him how they've managed to make their composting toilets odor-free as well. Now, I'll admit I've never been in a house with a composting toilet either, but I'm going to remain open to the possibility that it actually might work instead of dismissing it out of hand with no evidence to the contrary.

Four, comparing the entire collective American public based on a story of a couple of stupid missionaries is misguided. Furthermore, trying to create an opponent for the argument by talking to yourself is the very definition of a straw-man argument.

First, why on earth would you call his example of the missionaries misguided unless you're trying to dispute his claim that Americans are clueless about humanure? Do you really believe that the majority of the American public has a knowledgable and positive attitude toward the recycling of human excrement? Pardon the pun, but that's bullshit.

Second, he's not trying to make his entire point through the strawman - he's using it as a summary device at the end of his book.

When I decided to post a link to the Humanure Handbook, I posted the link to the summary chapter because I thought that would be the best page to read to get people started on the subject, and then after that interested folks could read the entire book and get a better perspective on this sort of thing. Guess I overestimated.

Recycling organic waste sounds like a good idea, but it'll be a long way before anything is done about "humanure", if ever.

That, unfortunately, is the truth - and it'll take something like a massive water shortage before stuff like this is even considered.

<i>-57</i></div>