Time to confess my little nitrogen secret
Posted by Kitty Sharkey , Tuesday, March 19, 2013 11:15 PM
This evening I read this interesting post from Erica over at
Northwest Edible Life and it got me thinking.
Perhaps I shouldn’t keep my private little secret all to myself. I mean others are doing it, right? Maybe not folks I know. But there are books written about the
subject, right? After reading through
the comments on Erica’s blog, I decided that perhaps it was time to fess up. So here goes.
I compost urine. There. I said it.
It’s out now. It’s public
knowledge. I compost urine.
How and why? When did
I start? When did I become serious about
it? It’s hard to say. I think it was a convergence of a lot of
things. First, perhaps was
convenience. I’m out in the garden and
barnyard an awful lot. When I need to
go, I need to go. Yes, I could trudge
back into the house (removing my shoes if it’s muddy) to do my business. Or I could just cop a squat in the goat
shed. I mean the goats squat in the goat
shed right? I practice deep litter for a
reason right? The deep layer of straw
not only captures their feces, but because it’s hollow it traps their urine and
all that wonderful nitrogen as well. So
why not add my own urine to the mix if I’m out working in the back? It seemed perfectly logical to me.
At some point I started to research a more environmentally
friendly way to deal with my cat litter.
After spending hundreds of dollars and several years trying to convince
my cats that a plumbed litter box, specifically the Cat Genie (BRILLIANT
invention, BTW) was the way to go, only to meet resistance from Gabriel and
utter refusal from Max, I had to figure something else out. So I started researching if it was possible
to somehow compost cat waste. I found
information on everything from in ground composting mini septic systems to a
very interesting study by one damn smart kid about vermicomposting cat feces.
After a lot of research and a few unsuccessful experiments
(due to human error/neglect), I decided that scooping was an inevitable reality
for me. But then, while researching
litter systems for rabbits I quite literally struck gold, as in Liquid Gold
(great book, BTW). What was the secret
ingredient? Wood stove pellets! What?
Yes, that’s right. Wood stove
pellets. Okay, hold that thought…
The problem with cat litter is that the feces which may contain
Toxoplasma gondii, a parasitic protozoan that can cause birth defects when a
pregnant woman becomes infected. But
there is absolutely nothing wrong with cat urine. Nope.
It’s as sterile as human urine.
And it’s full of nitrogen! Lovely
fertilizing, make your garden green, nitrogen.
The answer to all my cat litter woes had been discovered. Wood stove pellets. What are they? Compressed sawdust. That’s it.
Nothing nasty added. No
chemicals, no nothing. I’ve watched
videos of the machines used in their manufacture. Heck, you can even purchase one if you have
an overabundance of sawdust. Any wood
workers out there? I was convinced. Why?
Because all the research I had previously done about Humanure (not in
practice/use at my homestead) had talked about using sawdust as the layering
material to absorb odors and moisture.
And that’s exactly what wood stove pellets are. Sawdust.
So I started using them in the litter box. At about $5.00 for a 40 lb. bag at the local home improvement store, it’s one HELL of a lot cheaper than any cat litter on
the market. It’s definitely a much more
environmental friendly product than anything I could purchase at the pet store. And it seemed to last longer. The unexpected added bonus of using it is
that it practically eliminates all odors.
Yes, you heard me right. No
litter box odor. Assuming you tend to it
semi-regularly of course.
So now I scoop the feces and flush it down the toilet. When wood stove pellets get wet, they disintegrate
back into sawdust. So when the litter
box is reduced to mostly sawdust rather than pellets, I dump it into the
compost bin. That’s what you call
getting all your greens and browns mixed together in a damn near perfect
ratio. Mind you, a lot of other things
go into the compost bin as well. But the
bulk of my cat litter is no longer entering the municipal waste stream (i.e.
garbage can).
Now although I've told several friends they should try this
at home, very few people know that I’ve taken to this practice myself. What?
I not only piss in the barnyard, but now I use the cat’s litter box too? Um… no.
Some of you may recall that I’m obsessed with conserving water. Recently, I retrofitted my toilet
with a dual flush kit which I had to modify slightly to work with my existing SinkPositive. But as Erica so eloquently put it in her post, “Basically,
the environmental and financial cost to piss in a bunch of drinking-quality
water and then process it back into drinking water is huge.” So even though I was drastically cutting my
water usage, I was thrilled to figure out a way to not only reduce it further,
but also to capture the nutrient rich liquid gold that my own body produces.
Enter the Luggable Loo.
I actually purchased this brilliant little bucket toilet for use while
camping last year. It’s quite convenient
when you wake up early in the morning with an urge that won’t wait until you
can put on your clothes, shoes, jacket, etc. and then trudge all the way to the
privy. Although I was quite suspect of
the chemicals used in their disposable bags, I found that if I put some water
in the bucket before use, the dilution was enough to eliminate odor and it was easy to
dump out once I was up. I simply watered
a tree or bush with the bucket, gave it a really good rinse, put in a few
inches of water, and then put it back in the tent. Presto, ready to go whenever the time came.
And then, after the litter box revelation, it struck
me. Why not put the Luggable Loo into
use at home with wood stove pellets? I
couldn’t think of any good reason not to give it a try.
So into my bathroom it went with a small layer of pellets in the
bottom. It’s enough to last for a few
days. I didn’t want to be lugging a
heavy full loo with my bad back. So I
settled on a more reasonable amount, lighter weight, and regular routine. And if guest are coming by, why it’s super
simple to empty the bucket and put it into the spare room or garage. Out of sight, out of mind where visitors are
concerned.
So that’s it. Human
and cat feces are flushed. Human and cat
urine are composted. Not all the
time. I’m not perfect. If I have to do double doodie so to speak, I’m
sticking with the toilet. But the system
works for me most of the time. It might
not be practical with a family of four.
But for a single gal who has a regular 9 to 5, it works just fine. And yes, I still cop a squat in the barnyard sometimes
when I’m out working in the yard. It’s
just natural to me.
Now, I wonder how many interesting comments I’ll get on this
post.
I love this! Thanks for sharing, Kitty! The woodstove pellets idea is fantastic, I'm going to look into that for use in my chicken coop, too.