The issue is not water use. It is the commingling of nutrient-laden urine with the relatively low-nutrient wastewater stream. Then we go to great expense to try to pull the nutrients back out again. This makes no sense.
Joel At 01:11 PM 3/2/09 -0500, you wrote: >Installing "half-flush" toilets is nice option for reducing water used >merely to flush yellow (I believe invented, or at least first >popularized in, Australia). I think they have become more available in >the US lately; check out the new toilet at Greenstar . . . > >Also Real Goods/Gaiam sells a retrofit "half-flush handle." Has anyone >tried one? I keep meaning to. It would help at the well or water >meter end, as well as at the septic/wastewater end. > >Perhaps a building code requiring half-flush toilets? I believe it >has been code in drought-stricken Australia for some time; it is >certainly common practice there. > >Margaret > > >On Mar 1, 2009, at 7:10 PM, Joel and Sarah Gagnon wrote: > > > Indeed, it does. This is an apt form of source separation. > > > > Joel > > > > At 12:56 PM 3/1/09 -0500, you wrote: > >> This article makes a nice sidebar to Tom Shelley's TCLocal piece on > >> waste treatment last month. > >> > >> Jon > >> > >> ================================================================== > >> > >> The New York Times > >> Op-Ed Contributor > >> Yellow Is the New Green > >> By ROSE GEORGE > >> > >> Woolley, England > >> > >> IN the far reaches of Shaanxi Province in northern China, in an > >> apple-producing village named Ganquanfang, I recently visited a > >> house belonging to two cheery primary-school teachers, Zhang Min > >> Shu and his wife, Wu Zhaoxian. Their house wasn't exceptional -- a > >> spacious yard, several rooms -- except for the bathroom. There, up > >> a few steps on a tiled platform, sat a toilet unlike any I'd > >> seen. Its pan was divided in two: solid waste went in the back, > >> and the front compartment collected urine. The liquids and solids > >> can, after a decent period of storage and composting, be applied > >> to the fields as pathogen-free, expense-free fertilizer. > >> > >> From being unsure of wanting a toilet near the house in the first > >> place -- which is why the bathroom is at the far end of their > >> courtyard -- the couple had become so delighted with it that they > >> regretted not putting it next to the kitchen after all. > >> > >> What does this have to do with you? Mr. Zhang and Ms. Wu's weird > >> toilet -- known as a "urine diversion," or NoMix (after a Swedish > >> brand), toilet -- may have things to teach us all. > >> > >> In the industrialized world, most of us (except those who have > >> septic tanks) rely on wastewater-treatment plants to remove our > >> excrement from the drinking-water supply, in great > >> volumes. (Toilets can use up to 30 percent of a household's water > >> supply.) This paradigm is rarely questioned, and I understand why: > >> flush toilets, sewers and wastewater-treatment plants do a fine > >> job of separating us from our potentially toxic waste, and > >> eliminating cholera and other waterborne diseases. Without them, > >> cities wouldn't work. > >> > >> But the paradigm is flawed. For a start, cleaning sewage guzzles > >> energy. Sewage treatment in Britain uses a quarter of the energy > >> generated by the country's largest coal-fired power station. > >> > >> Then there is the nutrient problem: Human excrement is rich in > >> nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which is why it has been a > >> good fertilizer for millenniums and until surprisingly > >> recently. (A 19th-century "sewage farm" in Pasadena, Calif., was > >> renowned for its tasty walnuts.) But when sewage is dumped in the > >> seas in great quantity, these nutrients can unbalance and > >> sometimes suffocate life, contributing to dead zones (405 > >> worldwide and counting, according to a recent study). Sewage, > >> according to the United Nations Environment Program, is the > >> biggest marine pollutant there is. Wastewater-treatment plants > >> work to extract the nutrients before discharging sewage into water > >> courses, but they can't remove them all. > >> > >> And there's also the urine problem. Urine, like any liquid, is a > >> headache for wastewater managers, because most sewer systems take > >> water from street drains along with the toilet, shower and kitchen > >> kind. Population growth is already taxing sewers. (London's great > >> network was built in the late 19th century with 25 percent extra > >> capacity, but a system designed for three million people must now > >> serve more than twice as many.) When a rainstorm suddenly sends > >> millions of gallons of water into an already overloaded system, > >> the extra must be stored or -- if storage is lacking -- > >> discharged, untreated, into the nearest river or harbor. Each > >> week, New York City sends about 800 Olympic-size swimming pools' > >> worth of sewage-polluted water into nearby waters because there's > >> nowhere else for it to go. > >> > >> This probably won't kill us, but it's not ideal. Environmental > >> scientists in California have calculated that sewage discharged > >> near 28 Southern California beaches has contributed to up to 1.5 > >> million excess gastrointestinal illnesses, costing as much as $51 > >> million in health care. We can do better. > >> > >> Urine might be one way forward. Before engineers scoff into their > >> breakfast, consider that since at least 135,000 urine-diversion > >> toilets are in use in Sweden and that a Swiss aquatic institute > >> did a six-year study of urine separation that found in its > >> favor. In Sweden, some of the collected urine -- which contains 80 > >> percent of the nutrients in excrement -- is given to farmers, with > >> little objection. "If they can use urine and it's cheap, they'll > >> use it," said Petter Jenssen, a professor at the Agricultural > >> University of Norway. > >> > >> The price of phosphorus fertilizers rose 50 percent in the past > >> year in some parts of the world, as phosphate reserves, the > >> largest of which are in Morocco and China, dwindle. (The gloomiest > >> predictions suggest they'll be gone in 100 years.) Although half > >> of sewage sludge in the United States is already turned into cheap > >> fertilizer known as "biosolids," urine contains hardly any of the > >> pathogens or heavy metals that critics of biosolids claim remain > >> in mixed sewage, despite treatment. > >> > >> The rest of Sweden's collected urine goes to municipal wastewater > >> plants, but in much smaller volume so it's easier to deal > >> with. Research by Jac Wilsenach, now a civil engineer in South > >> Africa, found that removing even half of the nutrient-rich urine > >> enables the bacteria in the aeration tanks to munch all the > >> nitrogen and phosphate matter in solid waste in a single day > >> rather than the usual 30. Urine diversion also makes for richer > >> sludge and produces more methane, which can be turned into gas or > >> electricity, Mr. Wilsenach said. In short, separating urine turns > >> a guzzler of energy into a net producer. > >> > >> Putting urine to use is not new. A friend's grandmother remembers > >> the man coming round for the buckets 60 years ago in Yorkshire, > >> which were then sold to the tanning industry. The flush toilet > >> ended that, and no one -- my friend's nan included -- wants > >> outside privies again. "Any innovation in the toilet that > >> increases owner responsibility is probably seen as downwardly > >> mobile," said Carol Steinfeld, of New Bedford, Mass., who imports > >> NoMix toilets into the United States. > >> > >> Then there's the sitting problem: in most urine-diversion toilets, > >> a man must empty his bladder sitting down. This wouldn't be a > >> problem in some countries -- Germany recently introduced a > >> toilet-seat alarm that admonishes standers to sit -- but it has > >> been in others. Professor Jenssen was flummoxed by one participant > >> at a training workshop in Cuba who said firmly, "If a man sits, he > >> is homosexual." > >> > >> For now, "ecological sanitation" -- or more sustainable sewage > >> disposal -- thrives mostly in fast-industrializing countries like > >> China and India, which have money to invest in alternatives but > >> few sewers. A subculture of composting toilets exists in the > >> United States, but only a few hundred urine-diversion toilets have > >> been imported, Ms. Steinfeld said. > >> > >> Necessity -- whether occasioned by fertilizer prices, carbon > >> footprints or crippling capital investments -- could bring > >> change. At a recent wastewater conference, I watched in > >> astonishment as dour engineers rushed to question a speaker who > >> had been talking about stabilization ponds, which clean sewage > >> using water, flow control, bacteria and light. Normally, such > >> things would be cast into the box of hippie-ish ecological > >> sanitation. But to managers struggling with energy quotas and > >> budget limitations, more sustainable, less energy-intensive > >> sanitation may be starting to make sense. > >> > >> As Mr. Zhang told me with a smile: "For me, whatever the toilet > >> is, I use it. For example, here we eat wheat. When we go to the > >> south of China, we eat rice. Otherwise we starve." > >> > >> It's been more than 100 years since Teddy Roosevelt wondered aloud > >> whether "civilized people ought to know how to dispose of the > >> sewage in some other way than putting it into the drinking water." > >> The Zhang family toilet is not the perfect answer to Roosevelt, as > >> it still uses some water, though 80 percent less than a regular > >> flush toilet uses. But at least it's the result of someone asking > >> the right questions. > >> > >> == > >> > >> Rose George is the author of "The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable > >> World of Human Waste and Why It Matters." > >> > >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County > >> area, > >> please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > >> > >> RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > >> [email protected] > >> http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > >> Questions about the list? ask > [email protected] > >> free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > _______________________________________________ > > For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County > > area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > > > > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > > [email protected] > > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > > Questions about the list? ask [email protected] > > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > >_______________________________________________ >For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, >please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > >RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: >[email protected] >http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins >Questions about the list? ask [email protected] >free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
