Review: The Humanure Handbook wants you to think of poop as a resource

Josh CentersContributor - December 20, 2021

It’s possible you end up in an emergency situation where you have to deal with human waste management. Maybe you’re sheltering at home but the toilets
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I’m very happy to see this review! To me, Joe Jenkins’ years worth of work seems extremely valuable for preparedness minded folks.

His recent book, The Compost Toilet Handbook , is a more practical (less humorous, but also potentially more family friendly), and less citation- and history-heavy approach to humanure systems. It also has a bunch of pictures of example systems. I’d recommend a copy of it (available in print and in PDF) for anyone look for more advice on building the system.

I also highly recommend digging into the videos on his Youtube channel — they have a lot of case studies and practical tidbits. For example, the humanure playlist includes a three-part presentation on starting a humanure system in Haiti after the 2010 Port-au-Prince earthquake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NCuawEqPCc&list=PLFD5D0CE103FD3A56&index=42

I also enjoy the visual of a community’s “sanitation plant” being a bunch of large compost bins in a banana tree grove: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY5K2Jn7Om0&list=PLFD5D0CE103FD3A56&index=31

Basically I see knowledge of compost-based sanitation as something as important for preparedness as knowing how to collect rainwater. It’s a very accessible and yet powerful skill in the face of serious damage to the water and sewage utility grids. (Let alone as a tool for increasing household resilience and sustainability.)

I also recently saw a youtube video on toilets for car-based travel, and the presenters found that setting the 5 gallon bucket into an upright milk crate improved the stability of sitting on the bucket for a toilet. (In case someone is in a pinch and didn’t build a custom, wooden “loveable loo” priority to an emergency.)

P.S. Your article made me realize that I might be an oddity: I prefer getting PDFs over ebook formats/downloads. Granted, I do a lot of reading on my computer for work, and maybe the state of EPUB as a format to counteract against proprietary formats has changed since I last looked at things.

 

Glad to hear you liked the article so much! And thanks for the additional knowledge-base of his other book and YouTube channel. 

 

https://pikkuvihrea.fi/en/product/green-toilet-lux-composting-toilet-for-indoors/

Check out the Finnish high-end solution. Most important difference is the continous airflow to suck out any smell.

 

That’s quite the price tag! Almost $1900

 

Another vendor of naturally composting toilets, with info and videos on website, is https://www.c-head.com/  This is a similar concept to Lovable Loo, but adds to the box a mechanism for mixing the poo and sawdust after you go. It costs several hundred dollars, but there is enough info on website that people could probably also make their own. These guys invented their composting toilet as a better solution for their boat, compared to what was available. Other customers have used them in RV’s and similar.

 

Thanks for the additional recommendation MaryCon!

 

Sorry, must correct the statement “only fish poop in their drinking water.”  I’m currently waging war with a pet duck who has discovered he can hoist his s*** filled self into the goats’ water to pollute it as well as his own. Beware of waterfowl, they foul it all!