Disposal of both human and animal waste. How to;

Being in an urban Society or setting you can’t just toss urine out the window and forget about it. We are simply used to just flushing it down the toilet during Good times. When the lights go out so to do major resources that we take for granted , one being pumped water available from the city.

There is a ton of useful nitrogen found with in urine that can be used for one’s garden or even to make the grass a lot greener. Urine can be boiled down and converted into ammonia that is then use to wash one’s linens and laundry. The urine can also be used to make black powder as can manure.

During Roman times it was illegal for anyone to dump urine out and instead was collected in the dead of night by city workers who then boiled it converting it to ammonia and that’s how Roman togas stayed so white.

Human solid waste today is treated at most sewage plants which in turn is collected by many American farmers as fertilizers to grow crops that we consume. In big cities that do have water treatment plants treated human excrement is then used to keep high School football fields healthy during peak seasons.
In a similar manner during a crisis situation when things are down one can bury one’s excrement in a proper manner to which it then breaks down within the year to be safely used in ones garden.
During the baton p o w camps many of our allied prisoners were forced to use their own human excrement in tiny gardens that the Japanese guards allowed them to grow.

These prisoners collected the feces from some of the healthier prisoners to which they then processed it with soil to make a rich plot on to which they then grew vegetables to keep them healthier. In later interviews these POWs explained they did not have time to allow the human waste to properly break down and instead diluted it with water and lightly colored soils that helped maintain all the nutrients found in the human feces to enable it to grow tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and even onions.
This is but a small example of how with good hygiene and proper human waste disposal and treatment even on a small-scale can be beneficial especially in a crisis situation.

Another way of dealing with this is to have raised grow beds with modified 5 ish gallon buckets inserted every 3 feet into the bed to put compost material into. You will also have to inoculate the grow bed with earth worms. For the buckets you can use whatever you have on hand such as plastic kitty litter buckets, plastic pickle buckets or you can buy new for the project. The modifications to the bucket[s] that you use are as follows; 1st it is best to determine the use before you actually begin construction of your raised bed grow area. This is so the bucket will for sure fit the area. Determine the final height of your grow bed it may be necessary to excavate below grade to have enough room in your bucket to be of use. Starting 1 to 2 inches from the bottom drill a series of ½ to 1 inch holes around the bottom of the bucket. Continue every 2 inches up the bucket until you are within 2 inches of the surface of your grow bed. The intact bottom serves as a water reservoir especially in dry climates. The holes are for the worms to be able to travel between the grow bed and the contents of the bucket, excess fluids will also drain out into the grow bed. You will need either a plastic lid or a plywood lid [whatever you use put a bit of carpet over it to protect it from the sunlight and the lid will keep flies out and smells if any in].

Once you have the buckets modified and the excavation if any done, construct the raised beds out of wood, plastic paneling or cinder blocks- what have you. I like them about 3.5 feet wide and they can be however long you want them to be, the object is to be able to reach slightly beyond the center from either side to be able to tend the grow area. The buckets are installed starting about 18 to 24 inches from the end and then every about 3 feet on center. This set up allows the worms to eat the compost and migrate though out the grow area aerating and feeding the grow medium. The grow medium can be scrap wood, card board, news paper or anything organic mixed with native soil, sand or whatever – you will need at least some sand mixed in for the worms. You can combine the shapes in many ways. E, Y, Z, W, squared off U or E3 are the easiest or some people put the grow beds a lawn mower’s width away from the perimeter fence and along the length of the fence gaining a lot of grow area without sacrificing much of the useful lawn area. In addition to great grow areas these can enhance your security arrangements. You can put a cage over the grow area for the plants to grow on or to act as a frame for plastic to extend the growing season.

During normal modern day times you would use the buckets to hold and compost yard wastes, kitchen and garden waste that you did not give to livestock and perhaps dog poop. During normal times it is generally frowned upon to put human waste in there. BUT in a grid down situation you HAVE to do something with your poop and pee and it is best to have the system set up ahead of time to control the spread of diseases and to capture the nutritional value of your waste. IF or when you have to use this system for human waste there are several ways you can do it. Each time you have to empty your chamber pots use the garden buckets in sequence – pick and end and dump the chamber pot into the first compost bucket. The next time use compost bucket #2 and so on. If you have several compost buckets [for argument say that you have 7 compost buckets] by the time you get back around to the first one the worms will most likely have processed the waste and it will have enough room to repeat the process. Of course in winter the process is slowed way down and the compost buckets may freeze which will mean that you will need to seperate the liquids from the solids and have another way of dealing with it. This can be done with a soaking urine pit and a bigger barrel for the solids. The urine pit is dug deep into the ground below the frost line so that the urine soaks into the ground and does not freeze. You will need a large barrel or several modified like the compost buckets and dug into the ground so the bottom is well below the frost line. These barrels will need both the top and the bottom cut out so that the poop can be carried deeper into the ground. As they fill up you will have to rotate use as it may take several months for the contents to decompose enough to have room again. You can also make them out of wood and when full plant a tree in it when they are closed.

cross ref

http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us/comms-part-1/

http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us/convalescent-care/

and some books that explore the topics in more depth
http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us/ready-or-not-things-will-happen/ This is book 1 the quick start guide to preparedness.

http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us/ready-or-not-fun-things-will-happen/ This is book 2 about traveling and evacuation planning.