dealing with my sh!t

Literally.

I never thought I'd be so fascinated with poo and pee, but that day has come! I've used a few varieties of composting toilets but my favourite is the simplest: a bucket under the toilet seat.

It works like this: after doing your business, you simply add a layer of sawdust and put the cover down. When the bucket is full, empty it into the humanure pile and hose out the bucket. Leaving it in the sun for a few hours dries it out so that it doesn't smell.

The amazing thing about our excrement is that it is incredible productive! Pee can be added to biochar (on that another time) to 'activate' it and that carbon matter is amazing for the soil. Once poo is left to compost (I've heard of people leaving it for one month to one year) it turns into incredibly rich soil. If this grosses you out, think cow manure. Why use that and not our own waste? The pathogens in fecal matter die off during the composting process so it becomes perfectly safe.

Think about this: 80% of the nutrients we ingest end up in our pee. Why would we then flush it all down the toilet, which also unnecessarily uses water and ends up in our oceans?

The past couple weeks I've had my own toilet and emptying my personal bucket makes me feel more connected to my body, the food I eat and the earth around me. This might be a bit too extreme for some of you, but it's one more way of living closer to the earth and being aware of the interconnectedness of life.