I wish this was surprising to me, but my father-in-law was a biosolids sprayer for a while, and I learned way more than I wanted to from that (including learning that there is a magazine all about manure spreading - he made it on the cover of one issue).
LOL now that is something to be proud of. Some fathers make their kids proud by playing professional football or basketball, some fathers labor in an auto factory with the United Auto Workers union, and some very super awesome fathers make it onto the cover of "Manure Weekly"! LOL.
In the region where I grew up in Germany, the farmers regularly spread the content of our sewage tanks on the fields (also the feces of their farm animals). I don't know how much additional artificial nutrients they use, but our food in Germany is highly regulated, so the risks can't be too bad
@@Faiselmoha I don't know how they treat the sewage after they extract it from our tanks, but it can't be more than heating it up a little, but you don't actually want to kill off all the bacteria that break down the sewage
@@barbarmongrellilet him see how sugar made while it's not as dangerous as bacterial problem the appearance is kinda gross There many other example too but people seriously need to learn that most of them regulated sooo,,,,
Tom !: grey water (wastewater without feces and urine in it) is much easier to treat than regular sewage, and the feces can be easily composted. urine should probably treated seperately as well, as it contains all the pharmaceuticals that shouldn't get into the rivers and it has some nice ressources in it. i'm not exactly sure what the best solution is, but i guess it's a taboo-ish subject which makes it hard to introduce innovation, similar to why people still use tiolet paper instead of washing their butts with bidets..
I grew up in early to late 1960s Japan and I remember the rice farmers using human waste as fertilizer though I do not recall how they processed it to make it any safer. I remember my dad driving us from our home in Tokyo to the southern end of Chiba prefecture to visit our grandparents small farm in the country. Back then much of the country roads were still dirt and through miles of rice paddies. We could smell the waste and my parents said it was "koyashi" the fertilizer made from human waste that was stored in pits along the side of the rice paddies which were along the road. Dad told us a story of one of his buddies visiting him out in the country and on his way home after dark he pulled over to "take a leak" and as he stepped out of his car he fell right into one of these "koyashi" pits (argh). Japan is still a pretty "green" country so I imagine they still use "koyashi" for fertilizer.
I have read that in Haiti they mix it with sugarcane bagas (the material left behind after crushing sugarcane, it looks like hay) to speed up the composting process. Not sure if it heats up on it's own or if they heat it but at around 160 degrees it kills pathogens in the feces. I believe it takes a while for it to become proper compost
I'm Japanese. Even today, though storage tanks still exist, for example next to fields, but they all seem to be empty. Most Japanese believe that the use of koyashi is prohibited by law. If they knew that what they were seeing were vegetables grown using it, there would be no one to buy them, In fact, there are only a few farmers who use it, and even then it would be for their own consumption only. Incidentally, in Edo period Japan, koyashi was an expensive commodity and its price depended on the status of the person who "produced" it.
I've been using a biosolid fertilizer on the lawn for some years now, Milorganite. It's cheap, works well, and has the added benefit of having iron content. I'd like to see more companies in the field as the stuff works pretty well if you can find it in your area.
well, you could contaminate your land with forever chemicals, which has now happened in Texas and all the cattle have to be culled and the land can no longer be used, thats one thing.
There has been a recent uptake in claims that the biosolids over the long term enrich the soil with Polyfluorates (PFAs) which seem to be extremely deadly and do not decay. Have you noticed anything like that?
When I was three, my parents used composted "manure" from the waste treatment plant in Meridian Mississippi, as lawn fertilizer. Downside? Tomato seeds need to be eaten to really grow well so we had tons of little tomato plants growing all over the yard! LOL!
A number of years ago, I bought a house, which was brand new, hence no lawn. At the time we had issues apparently with cow manure and chicken manure, so, they opted for dunking the entire grass slab into the sewage farm, which they then dried out, delivered and subsequently planted in my yard. Being a brand new established area, my property was on a stand that had several spaces around it still unoccupied (Thankfully). However, this did not prevent neighbour's 6 plots away, begging us NOT to water the lawn. To say the least, it still stank like a sewage farm 3 years after the lawn was put into the ground. I must admit, I have Never had such an awesome looking garden, but man, that stench. Won't be agreeing to that process ever again 🤢
well, you could contaminate your land with forever chemicals, which has now happened in Texas and all the cattle have to be culled and the land can no longer be used, thats one thing.
It's true. Humanure is sold by a city in Northern Virginia. They make it at their sewer treatment plant. They give it away in sample packets at their yearly county fairs.
Not surprising considering we use bat guano, cow manure, chicken manure, and more for organic practices. Plus some of the largest organic food manufacturers use biosolids for fertilizer. Great video, and rather informative for people like myself who try to utilize natural materials to live. Also great information on how they can be a problem due to the amount of antibiotics and pharmaceuticals in our poop. Great video guys!
I did some research in a lab focused on anaerobic digestion of dairy manure and learned that the digestor for a herd of a few hundred cows produces enough heat and electricity to run the whole farm and sell power back to the grid. Also, the solids make great bedding for the cows and the liquids were used for fertilizer. The issue I was working on is rebalancing the N:P ratio of the liquids for optimal plant uptake. It's good to hear this sort of solution being discussed!
I have seen things I cannot unsee. There are some things that man was not meant to know. I have gazed into the stinky abyss, and the stinky abyss gazed back at me. I will never be the same again.
In Europe we got so much excrements from pork production, that we pay for its removal. Farmers have been sprinkling their fields with it to such an extent that nearby ponds suffered algae bloom.
They shut down a local brewery (the largest employer in town) partially becuase they claimed it was run off poisoning the big lake in the middle of town. The algea is still so thick that it kills fish and will cause your skin to burn. The dumb thing is thebrewery was harmless but all the government buildings are up hill from the lake and they dump tons of fertilizers on their giant lawns (it's seriously a couple acres of nothing but emerald green grass)
I I hear yea farm ers been ah sprink colon fairy dust a round their fields , may they dar GREENEST grass & ALgae ! Ya know those crazy Ah mericans have Many TOns of PIG excrement from 1 source the whitehouse !
Some water treatment plants use several stages of different microbes that digest the waste in the water, and then clean the water, to generate heat and energy that is used to power the water treatment plant. Its a fascinating part of engineering. These water treatment plants don’t use power from the grid, they are completely self contained systems. This technology has been around for a couple of years now. I think that its brilliant.
Those of you in Yonkers, New York, take notice, the generate electricity with the methane, Lawrence MA also generate electricity. The City of Milwaukee sell theirs commercially, "Milorganite".
So it's speculated that bio solids from human poop may not be harmless when used on crops of food meant for human consumption? (I'm going to ignore the worms for now.) And some organizations are looking to use it to make biofuel? Seems like you could just use it for specially designated crops that can be turned into fuel grade alcohol or biodiesel. That way, the crop it's used to grow won't be consumed by humans.
The issues that make human droppings problematic for use would be the pathogens and medicine. Especially pathogens. No one wants drug resistant cholera or e. coli back to where we eat or drink. No amount of washing veggies would clean that info.
World Theory Biofuel needs a lot of work yet. It currently takes more than a gallon of fossil fuel to get a gallon of ethanol. And ethanol is a weaker product. Yeah but it burns cleaner. Forgetting the gallon of fossil fuel it took to get the gallon of ethanol.
Aereto Don't use pharma. Pee in a bucket. Add 10 parts water. Water your garden. Your plants will love it. If you have close neighbors, don't pee in the front yard. Be discrete.
Heartfelt thanks from your friendly neighborhood wastewater treatment plant professionals. A thoughtful, well written news story on human biosolids is a rare occurrence. And yes, I have far too many poo jokes to share.
It is helpful to mention that the sale of biosolids subsidizes the infrastructure budget for waste water. It isn't just cheaper, but has the potential for a net gain for some areas.
One of the most widespread causes of crops contamination is manure/poop. It happens all the time, such agricultural disease transmission probably began as soon as humans decided to fertilize with organic trash and poop/manure. Using manure, at least from known sources, is great, it does boost crops and it's hugely economical. But mistakes in the process are very costly. Most people growing crops for themselves do not use human poop to fertilize crops because of that, buying processed animal manure instead. However, if a traditional outhouse is used which is a hole in the ground with a small building over it, with a hole gradually filling with feces, after it's full, you can cover it with dirt from the next pit you dig, and maybe next year plant something like currant bush over it, which will grow for next five-seven years, and will use the natural fertilizer without anything being contaminated.
Mark Stumpf-Allen, do you have an alternative to traditional outhouse in rural areas? Keep in mind that a lot of rural people can't afford anything fancy. And not THAT terribly polluting. A lot of people have a well and a simple outhouse in opposite sides of plots of about 0,06 hectare (0,15 acre) or somewhat more, and have no problems with their water.
CatherineZ. Most crop contamination comes from fresh material in fields or water. Ag standards are usually "no applications of fresh manure 4 to 6 months before harvest". Aerobic composting kills pathogens that can live in people. We are not full of compost. E.coli lives in intestines, not dirt or compost. Composting toilets are easily set up to have 0, zero, leakage. Aging a year will give a safe humus that can be used just as any other soil amendment. A simple set-up; search for Omick composing toilet here on YT.
gotnokittys I understand and I agree that it's easy to make it safe, the process is simple enough. But a lot of people are not smart, they don't follow guidelines as much as they should because they don't understand why those rules exist.
CatherineZ Yeah, you'd think with all the years of public education forced upon kids, we'd have this problem solved, but I don't remember anybody teaching me about how to properly compost my poop in school, or even how to grow my own food. Why aren't important things taught in our public schools?
@@got2kittys We have fruit trees. Can you give more detailed information? I don't want to make people sick. but I want to use human excrement as fertilizer. How can I compost in the healthiest and safest way?
Roman already taught me how...alternate 3 or 4 fields, using one for sewage drained from public toiltes whilst using lime from burnt limestone or bones for a full seasonal year, then burn the grass in winter and leave it fallow for the next year....then move to the next field and repeat for the next 2 years...the new field is good for a few years of normal production....intensive farming is another thing altogether.
question, why aren't bihalves used in water purification? in another episode of these series we learned that filtering mollusks like clams, oysters mussels etc can take in heavy metals and soaps with little effect to themselves effectively cleaning the water? being used for water treatment they'd be safe from human consumption and it sounds like they'd be effective.
There's an issue of phosphorus depletion from farm lands. If you read through late Roman writings, the land near the city was wearing out and farm goods had to come from further away. Similar with London and Paris right before the discovery of guano. Probably the reason Sumerian/Babylonian/Persian capitols kept moving every 500-1000 years.
I used to work for a fertilizer spreading company. Spreading biosolids was always the worst. It was the grossest stuff we used and it always had junk in it like tampon applicators and basically anything people flushed that wasn't easily screened out. Only the most cost conscious farmers used it.
Addressed my question about what happens to the residue of medications we take! Raised the specter of antibiotic resistant bacteria! Didn't address this, though: Is the waste, from people who eat nothing but crisps and biscuits, as good for compost as the waste from people who get their five a day? Is the crisp and biscuit people excrement the stuff that will be used for construction? I have digestive tract snobbery! I don't want to eat the fruit and veg that's been grown in the crisp and biscuit person compost.
I say use it for areas that have very low nutrients in the soil. I heard there is this one guy growing a forest in the mountains of Tibet. He's been doing it for many years and only have like a couple acres grown. The biggest issue is water but the second biggest issue is the lack of nutrients in the soil. I doubt this is the only place in the world that could use some good old fertilizer. (Maybe the edges of the Sahara?) Anyways I enjoyed the video. Informative like always.
Can you also make fertilizer using urine? I assume urine and wood ash combine to make ammonia nitrate, which is good for soils. I'm hoping a scientician can explain this to me.
we used it long ago before we got the modern wc . the farmers used to leave it a whole year outside in the air before they used it. the vegetables and fruits original in the area were exellent
In some places on Earth (Haiti), turning human poop into fertilizer is the best option. In Kenya, they turn human poop into charcoal to be used for cooking.
Alot of countries do use human poop as fertilizer, but they almost always compost it first and in some areas they only allow it to be used for crops that arent used for human consumption. But yeah, that happens to North Korea quite a bit and is one of the things responsible for their high rate of parasite infections. It also caused some disease outbreaks in China during the Great Leap Forward when they tried to help fight the food shortage by boosting crop yields and even just told people to start pooping right in the crops isntead of using indoor bathrooms or outhouses. China also used bathrooms that were basically an outhouse over a pig pen, and the pigs would... "recycle?" the poop.
Tacoma, Washington makes a product called "Tagro" from biosolids. The biosolids go thru a 12 step aerobic/anaerobic composting process. It's tested for pharmaceuticals and heavy metals, and have won several awards. I use the compost on my flower beds every Spring and have used the Tagro potting soil in my containers and to build new raised beds.
Yep, Humanure. I mix mine with chicken poop and existing topsoil, then compost it for 6 months in buckets. After that I flip the bucket over and let it sit for another year. The worms in the soil turn it into dark rich topsoil and its not even recognizable as poop.
Dealing with microbes is relatively easy. Dealing with Pharmaceuticals is somewhat more challenging. But dealing with industrial chemicals and heavy metals that cause cancer is much harder. It's also purposely less spoken about.
I once lived in a house with a small block and concrete septic tank in the backyard, and it used to spill the content (dirty water) often into the yard, and I tell you, the coconut tree that was near by, within 3 years began to produce fruit at waist high, and other fruit trees near by also used to produce the sweetest fruits ever, no B.S., only human LOL.
My grandfather was in the US Army, and he, my grandma and mom were stationed in Germany in 1946 or 1947. My grandma told me about how they had to grow their own garden to eat, and yup, they had to use their poop for fertilizer. So, everything, and I mean everything, had to be boiled, including their water, lettuce, tomatoes, etc. A lot of canning, in other words. The infrastructure was just being rebuilt, so they all made due.
People are doing it right now in US. Some have them off grid burning toilets and others a bucket. Out to the garden it goes. Would you like a fresh tomato? No thank you.
I grow tomatoes in coco coir and watered down urine it's perfectly safe and the tomatoes taste much better than shop brought rubbish. You don't have to boil everything grown in urine and you can use urine fertilizer on flowers and green manure and use them composted for next year's vegetables. Tomatoes grown with urine have more vitamins and minerals and protein than tomatoes grown in commercial fertilizers.
I wonder why methane digesters are not mentioned here? Or did I somehow miss that? As a fuel source, it’s a seriously underutilized opportunity. Small scale farmers are finding huge benefits to their bottom line with them, and it’s worth mentioning in conjunction with this video. As always, THANK YOU FOR YOUR HARD WORK AND AMAZING CONTENT!
The same reason why you'll end up taking a dirt nap yourself if you come up with a car that will run on anything but gas (or electricity). That would be positive progress, and that's not allowed in our society.
Herbology/natural remedies would probably reduce the likelyhood of superbugs, plus its healthier to use as we then aren't ingesting the pure substance of something
Human feces are a valuable resource when treated and used correctly and responsibly. Joseph Jenkins wrote "The Humanure Handbook", which explains just about every aspect of this topic. As for the problem of pharmaceuticals in human feces, especially antibiotics, that issue should be solved as "close to the source" as possible, meaning: we should stop our own overuse of antibiotics! (and other drugs as well). Overuse of antibiotics causes the creation, or evolution, of antibiotics resistant disease, and it may also kill or weaken composting organisms in treatment facilities, or in your domestic compost heap. Overuse of anything usually has undesirable consequences, and the way to determine what should be considered "sufficient", "optimal", and "excessive" starts with educating ourselves. Many thanks to SciShow for helping to spread the knowledge :)
Back in the day, the sewage treatment plant in my city exploded with three workers on site. Two were injured but fine. The third fell into the sewage stew. No spoilers, but he died. It took three days to drain the plant enough to retrieve his body, which was just a skeleton at that point. People talk about the worst way to die, but I honestly can't think of anything worse than drowning and boiling alive in a pressurized well of poop. ...But anyway! I've actually wondered this question many times, so it was really cool to see a video on the topic. I was totally down with the green recycling until you mentioned superbugs, of which I have an extreme phobia. (I won't even use antibacterial soap. I'll burn my hands under hot water and scrub if I have to.) I'm not sure I'd advocate implementing a human poo fertilizer initiative until we had solid methods against creating antibacterial resistant monstrosities. o_o (It's MRSA. I'm terrified of MRSA.)
People sometimes use stabilized/digested sludge (end result of sewage treatment) on their lawns as a fertilizer or soil conditioner. They discover that tomato seeds make it through the sludge-making process and sprout in the lawns, resulting in hundreds or thousands of tomato plants grown in the yards.
How is composting done and how long does it take? I will be glad if you give details. I'm thinking of using it for our fruit trees. I'm asking because I don't want my fruit to make people sick.
Here's a thought regarding how to break down most of the contaminants: Pyrolysis. Heat organic material to around 500 degrees and you get a mixture of 20% syngas, 60% bio-oil and 20% biochar. The syngas and bio-oil can be used for chemical processes or fuel, while the biochar can be used as fertiliser.
This is a very interesting video, it has several different arguable sides. To start, it could be argued that biosolids aren't actually better for the environment due to the existence of non-point source pollution from farmland. This would lead to all of the excess nutrients and emerging contaminants entering the native stream ecosystem rather than just (somewhat) safely decomposing in a properly sealed landfill. But on the other hand, it could be argued that fertilizer infiltration would happen either way, as farmers will just use another source. Great video, and I wouldn't mind a follow up video on the growing presence of emerging contaminants! Going into stream toxicology, this is one of the largest threats we may have in the future, and the general public knows little to nothing about it.
I'm not surprised that human feces can be used as fertilizer. In nature poop is used as fertilizer all the time. I think diet would have to be taken into consideration, though. A lot of people in North America eat diets that are not nourishing to them, so I imagine they wouldn't be nourishing to the soil either.
Sara Makes Art uhhhh... the average American gets way more than enough nutrients than is needed. Otherwise we’d be seeing people everywhere dying of scurvy, anemia, etc.
trumpetpunk42 And when I hear deregulation I think of the Great Depression, horizontal and vertical monopolies, awful working conditions, and a lack of worker’s rights. Scott just happens to want to destroy the EPA.
HANK GREEN IS THAT YOU??‼️‼️ I REALLY THINK IT'S YOU...I DO RECOGNIZE YOUR VOICE 100% ..... I USED TO WATCH CRASH COURSE IN MY SENIOR YEAR I. HIGH SCHOOL THOUGH I STILL LISTEN TO THEM FROM TIME TO TIME... SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU HERE 💖💖💖💖💖
Yeah, any carnivore poop is usually fairly devoid of useful nutrients since most of our food is very easy to digest (alot of sugar and protein). Our urine is very good for plants though, but the poop is pretty useless. That's why grass will often die around cat and dog poop.
But if everybody, not necessarily be vegan but eat a lot healthier, not only would our mental, physical and emotional health benefit, the fertilizers would be much more useful
When I worked at a food bank, I once had to shovel bags of potatoes off a pallet, that were so rotten, they were creating heat(and a ton of smell) that you could feel radiating from it from a good meter away... They were already old considering they were donations, but they rotted so quickly it was ridiculous.(over the week end, from not so bad on friday to god awful on monday)
Music itself is repetition and change, indeed every sound is a wave whose frequency is a measure of its repetition, so it makes sense that similarities, or what you're used to, forms the basis of your taste, with that tiny difference added that makes it interesting. Of course, the same is true for how our taste in food develops and that has nothing to with repetitions like sound frequency so maybe that's just a coincidence unless we look at consciousness as a wave rather than as a thing.
I wish this was surprising to me, but my father-in-law was a biosolids sprayer for a while, and I learned way more than I wanted to from that (including learning that there is a magazine all about manure spreading - he made it on the cover of one issue).
Lol, you must be real proud of this specific achievement of his.
LOL now that is something to be proud of. Some fathers make their kids proud by playing professional football or basketball, some fathers labor in an auto factory with the United Auto Workers union, and some very super awesome fathers make it onto the cover of "Manure Weekly"! LOL.
As long as he didn't make the centerfold, I wouldn't be too concerned.. 😄
In the region where I grew up in Germany, the farmers regularly spread the content of our sewage tanks on the fields (also the feces of their farm animals). I don't know how much additional artificial nutrients they use, but our food in Germany is highly regulated, so the risks can't be too bad
🤢
Hallo Nicola.
Is the content they spread on farms (which contains human urine and feces) is untreated? With Pathogens? 😮
@@Faiselmoha I don't know how they treat the sewage after they extract it from our tanks, but it can't be more than heating it up a little, but you don't actually want to kill off all the bacteria that break down the sewage
@@marshallsvideoOh grow up. If you think that’s bad, I’d hate to see your reaction to how chocolate is made.
@@barbarmongrellilet him see how sugar made while it's not as dangerous as bacterial problem the appearance is kinda gross
There many other example too but people seriously need to learn that most of them regulated sooo,,,,
When done properly, composting human waste is probably safer than shitting into water.
now: "people used to throw their fecies in to the streets?!"
2100: "people used to flush their fecies into the sewers?!"
sofias. orange ha, that's perfect
jeremy robinsonartist ....why do you say that?
Tom !: grey water (wastewater without feces and urine in it) is much easier to treat than regular sewage, and the feces can be easily composted. urine should probably treated seperately as well, as it contains all the pharmaceuticals that shouldn't get into the rivers and it has some nice ressources in it.
i'm not exactly sure what the best solution is, but i guess it's a taboo-ish subject which makes it hard to introduce innovation, similar to why people still use tiolet paper instead of washing their butts with bidets..
sofias. orange ..... Thank you for the explanation
I grew up in early to late 1960s Japan and I remember the rice farmers using human waste as fertilizer though I do not recall how they processed it to make it any safer. I remember my dad driving us from our home in Tokyo to the southern end of Chiba prefecture to visit our grandparents small farm in the country. Back then much of the country roads were still dirt and through miles of rice paddies. We could smell the waste and my parents said it was "koyashi" the fertilizer made from human waste that was stored in pits along the side of the rice paddies which were along the road. Dad told us a story of one of his buddies visiting him out in the country and on his way home after dark he pulled over to "take a leak" and as he stepped out of his car he fell right into one of these "koyashi" pits (argh). Japan is still a pretty "green" country so I imagine they still use "koyashi" for fertilizer.
koyashi. I will look that up. Thank you.
I have read that in Haiti they mix it with sugarcane bagas (the material left behind after crushing sugarcane, it looks like hay) to speed up the composting process. Not sure if it heats up on it's own or if they heat it but at around 160 degrees it kills pathogens in the feces. I believe it takes a while for it to become proper compost
I use period blood for my plants and vegetables! Works great
I'm Japanese.
Even today, though storage tanks still exist, for example next to fields, but they all seem to be empty.
Most Japanese believe that the use of koyashi is prohibited by law.
If they knew that what they were seeing were vegetables grown using it, there would be no one to buy them,
In fact, there are only a few farmers who use it, and even then it would be for their own consumption only.
Incidentally, in Edo period Japan, koyashi was an expensive commodity and its price depended on the status of the person who "produced" it.
It's not dangerous. The vaccines and herbicides are though
I've been using a biosolid fertilizer on the lawn for some years now, Milorganite. It's cheap, works well, and has the added benefit of having iron content. I'd like to see more companies in the field as the stuff works pretty well if you can find it in your area.
well, you could contaminate your land with forever chemicals, which has now happened in Texas and all the cattle have to be culled and the land can no longer be used, thats one thing.
There has been a recent uptake in claims that the biosolids over the long term enrich the soil with Polyfluorates (PFAs) which seem to be extremely deadly and do not decay. Have you noticed anything like that?
When I was three, my parents used composted "manure" from the waste treatment plant in Meridian Mississippi, as lawn fertilizer.
Downside? Tomato seeds need to be eaten to really grow well so we had tons of little tomato plants growing all over the yard! LOL!
Moe weeding for you!
Milwaukee Wisconsin sewer plant processes their solid waste for fertilizer too. It also goes to the Menomonee Falls garage dump.
A number of years ago, I bought a house, which was brand new, hence no lawn. At the time we had issues apparently with cow manure and chicken manure, so, they opted for dunking the entire grass slab into the sewage farm, which they then dried out, delivered and subsequently planted in my yard.
Being a brand new established area, my property was on a stand that had several spaces around it still unoccupied (Thankfully). However, this did not prevent neighbour's 6 plots away, begging us NOT to water the lawn.
To say the least, it still stank like a sewage farm 3 years after the lawn was put into the ground. I must admit, I have Never had such an awesome looking garden, but man, that stench.
Won't be agreeing to that process ever again 🤢
I'm from Meridian, MS. Cool story lol
Have you seen that new movie Constipated? Wait, it hadn't not came out yet.
AAAAYYYYY
😆
Lol
You want to hear a construction joke?
I'm still working on it...
Constipated 3
the trilogy
wiping the slate clean
Raw sewage is the best fertilizer. I've never seen such beautiful colorful growth
well, you could contaminate your land with forever chemicals, which has now happened in Texas and all the cattle have to be culled and the land can no longer be used, thats one thing.
I once got thrown in jail for using humans as fertilizer
Hustle Hank secret window?
I like you.
Lots of calcium good for plants.
Fitting bio pic
😆
Humanure.
PUNS.
Ha
James Smith That’s a trademark, right there! Quick, make sure you secure www.humanure.com !!!!
Vsauce2: The Water Fountain You Pee In: 8:58 Humanure. I didn't come up with "humanure" but I wish I did.
It's true. Humanure is sold by a city in Northern Virginia. They make it at their sewer treatment plant. They give it away in sample packets at their yearly county fairs.
Not surprising considering we use bat guano, cow manure, chicken manure, and more for organic practices. Plus some of the largest organic food manufacturers use biosolids for fertilizer. Great video, and rather informative for people like myself who try to utilize natural materials to live. Also great information on how they can be a problem due to the amount of antibiotics and pharmaceuticals in our poop. Great video guys!
aren't biosolids prohibited for production of organic food? where did you find this info
I did some research in a lab focused on anaerobic digestion of dairy manure and learned that the digestor for a herd of a few hundred cows produces enough heat and electricity to run the whole farm and sell power back to the grid. Also, the solids make great bedding for the cows and the liquids were used for fertilizer. The issue I was working on is rebalancing the N:P ratio of the liquids for optimal plant uptake.
It's good to hear this sort of solution being discussed!
electrishity!!!
That would be more using the gasses of poop.
Actually that's what happens with a septic tank. It actually transfers the broken down feces into the ground.
Maybe they could terraform Uranus with poop?
Bobby Harper call Elon Musk
Nah, NASA already had probed Uranus and it's unsuitable for terraforming. It's just a gas giant with large amounts of methane in its atmosphere.
Trust me when I say that Uranus has enough poop in it already.
QVear hi
I have seen things I cannot unsee. There are some things that man was not meant to know. I have gazed into the stinky abyss, and the stinky abyss gazed back at me. I will never be the same again.
@0.58 “I don’t need to explain that, right?”. I don’t know why I laughed so hard at that line... it’s probably the way he said it!
ditto!
I would have commented the same but scrounged to see if someone already did. thankfully you did Saifu bhai!
Same
i wonder if i have ever eaten any crops that were fertilized by my own poop...🤔
I hope not.
You would know
utop ia u get it
Alyssa M + those poop carrots were delicious and poop corn was to die for
By taste?
Poo dealer: its not the hero we needed, but the hero we deserved
I love SciShow and Hank's delivery of information in a humorous method. It makes learning about even human poop fertilizer entertaining.
That was not an easy topic to cover but I’m glad you didn’t let the taboo stop you. I definitely learned something.
In Europe we got so much excrements from pork production, that we pay for its removal. Farmers have been sprinkling their fields with it to such an extent that nearby ponds suffered algae bloom.
They shut down a local brewery (the largest employer in town) partially becuase they claimed it was run off poisoning the big lake in the middle of town. The algea is still so thick that it kills fish and will cause your skin to burn. The dumb thing is thebrewery was harmless but all the government buildings are up hill from the lake and they dump tons of fertilizers on their giant lawns (it's seriously a couple acres of nothing but emerald green grass)
It must be spring in Europe , wonder if the flowers would like some suffered algae !
I I hear yea farm ers been ah sprink colon fairy dust a round their fields , may they dar GREENEST grass & ALgae ! Ya know those crazy Ah mericans have Many TOns of PIG excrement from 1 source the whitehouse !
Algae can be collected and dried up to be used as more fertilizer.
denmark?
I was just having breakfast, saw the video title and thought yep! This is what I need right now~
Some water treatment plants use several stages of different microbes that digest the waste in the water, and then clean the water, to generate heat and energy that is used to power the water treatment plant. Its a fascinating part of engineering. These water treatment plants don’t use power from the grid, they are completely self contained systems. This technology has been around for a couple of years now. I think that its brilliant.
Those of you in Yonkers, New York, take notice, the generate electricity with the methane, Lawrence MA also generate electricity. The City of Milwaukee sell theirs commercially, "Milorganite".
Is so nice when you make an episode and it’s actually just about the topic in the title
Oh poop! Sorry i'm late.
Synthetic fertilizer companies are probably spending money in preventing human waste from being turned into fertilizer.
So it's speculated that bio solids from human poop may not be harmless when used on crops of food meant for human consumption? (I'm going to ignore the worms for now.) And some organizations are looking to use it to make biofuel? Seems like you could just use it for specially designated crops that can be turned into fuel grade alcohol or biodiesel. That way, the crop it's used to grow won't be consumed by humans.
The issues that make human droppings problematic for use would be the pathogens and medicine. Especially pathogens. No one wants drug resistant cholera or e. coli back to where we eat or drink. No amount of washing veggies would clean that info.
The WHO says that humanure is safe for any crop after 2 years of proper composting.
World Theory Don't leave out methane from a biodigester.
World Theory Biofuel needs a lot of work yet. It currently takes more than a gallon of fossil fuel to get a gallon of ethanol. And ethanol is a weaker product. Yeah but it burns cleaner. Forgetting the gallon of fossil fuel it took to get the gallon of ethanol.
Aereto Don't use pharma. Pee in a bucket. Add 10 parts water. Water your garden. Your plants will love it. If you have close neighbors, don't pee in the front yard. Be discrete.
Thank you for a straight forward no bs video on this topic!
Id be less worried about pathogens and more concerned about pharmaceutical contamination.
Clicked on a Recycling Poop video and the first ad was for Hungry Jacks.
So basically,if we all human in the world send our poops to the mars,we can start a new live there 😂😂
Your shirt is so interesting. Its kind of soothing to look at as I listen to you speak.
Heartfelt thanks from your friendly neighborhood wastewater treatment plant professionals. A thoughtful, well written news story on human biosolids is a rare occurrence. And yes, I have far too many poo jokes to share.
Dude you had me rolling with all the one liners. Great video!!
It is helpful to mention that the sale of biosolids subsidizes the infrastructure budget for waste water. It isn't just cheaper, but has the potential for a net gain for some areas.
Do a video on MS. Symptoms, diagnosis, testing, prognosis, history, what exactly it is, treatment/future treatment etc.
That’s how they get world record size plants. I have seen mint leaves become the size of ping pong paddles from a sewage spill.
One of the most widespread causes of crops contamination is manure/poop. It happens all the time, such agricultural disease transmission probably began as soon as humans decided to fertilize with organic trash and poop/manure.
Using manure, at least from known sources, is great, it does boost crops and it's hugely economical. But mistakes in the process are very costly. Most people growing crops for themselves do not use human poop to fertilize crops because of that, buying processed animal manure instead.
However, if a traditional outhouse is used which is a hole in the ground with a small building over it, with a hole gradually filling with feces, after it's full, you can cover it with dirt from the next pit you dig, and maybe next year plant something like currant bush over it, which will grow for next five-seven years, and will use the natural fertilizer without anything being contaminated.
Mark Stumpf-Allen, do you have an alternative to traditional outhouse in rural areas? Keep in mind that a lot of rural people can't afford anything fancy.
And not THAT terribly polluting. A lot of people have a well and a simple outhouse in opposite sides of plots of about 0,06 hectare (0,15 acre) or somewhat more, and have no problems with their water.
CatherineZ. Most crop contamination comes from fresh material in fields or water.
Ag standards are usually "no applications of fresh manure 4 to 6 months before harvest".
Aerobic composting kills pathogens that can live in people. We are not full of compost. E.coli lives in intestines, not dirt or compost.
Composting toilets are easily set up to have 0, zero, leakage. Aging a year will give a safe humus that can be used just as any other soil amendment.
A simple set-up; search for Omick composing toilet here on YT.
gotnokittys I understand and I agree that it's easy to make it safe, the process is simple enough. But a lot of people are not smart, they don't follow guidelines as much as they should because they don't understand why those rules exist.
CatherineZ Yeah, you'd think with all the years of public education forced upon kids, we'd have this problem solved, but I don't remember anybody teaching me about how to properly compost my poop in school, or even how to grow my own food. Why aren't important things taught in our public schools?
@@got2kittys We have fruit trees. Can you give more detailed information? I don't want to make people sick. but I want to use human excrement as fertilizer. How can I compost in the healthiest and safest way?
As long as it's safe, I am all for this.
You have an impressive style of speaking. Especially the part where you say, "We need more!... DATA, not Poop! We've got plenty of poop!..."
Biosolids are already used to produce energy here in europe. It is almost forbidden to use them for anything else.
Too Bad i wanted to sling a wad @ president ( PIG ) !
Roman already taught me how...alternate 3 or 4 fields, using one for sewage drained from public toiltes whilst using lime from burnt limestone or bones for a full seasonal year, then burn the grass in winter and leave it fallow for the next year....then move to the next field and repeat for the next 2 years...the new field is good for a few years of normal production....intensive farming is another thing altogether.
Instructions not clear I pooped in my moms flower pot and this will probably be my last youtube comment until I'm 18 thx sci-show
Meh
HiatusMobs, Your words say meh but your smile says heh
Sar Agorn LMFAO
I don't think your mom was happy about that.
Like how it happens naturally?
Wow. What a break through.
question, why aren't bihalves used in water purification? in another episode of these series we learned that filtering mollusks like clams, oysters mussels etc can take in heavy metals and soaps with little effect to themselves effectively cleaning the water? being used for water treatment they'd be safe from human consumption and it sounds like they'd be effective.
There's an issue of phosphorus depletion from farm lands. If you read through late Roman writings, the land near the city was wearing out and farm goods had to come from further away. Similar with London and Paris right before the discovery of guano. Probably the reason Sumerian/Babylonian/Persian capitols kept moving every 500-1000 years.
this stuff is amazing . i've used it on lawns, shrubs, roses etc. nothing edible.
I used to work for a fertilizer spreading company. Spreading biosolids was always the worst. It was the grossest stuff we used and it always had junk in it like tampon applicators and basically anything people flushed that wasn't easily screened out. Only the most cost conscious farmers used it.
Addressed my question about what happens to the residue of medications we take! Raised the specter of antibiotic resistant bacteria!
Didn't address this, though: Is the waste, from people who eat nothing but crisps and biscuits, as good for compost as the waste from people who get their five a day? Is the crisp and biscuit people excrement the stuff that will be used for construction?
I have digestive tract snobbery! I don't want to eat the fruit and veg that's been grown in the crisp and biscuit person compost.
Ha!! Hilarious…..
I say use it for areas that have very low nutrients in the soil. I heard there is this one guy growing a forest in the mountains of Tibet. He's been doing it for many years and only have like a couple acres grown. The biggest issue is water but the second biggest issue is the lack of nutrients in the soil. I doubt this is the only place in the world that could use some good old fertilizer. (Maybe the edges of the Sahara?)
Anyways I enjoyed the video. Informative like always.
Can you also make fertilizer using urine? I assume urine and wood ash combine to make ammonia nitrate, which is good for soils. I'm hoping a scientician can explain this to me.
Sizukun1 yep! Struvite.... google it ;)
A scientician can usually explain most things…
Yes. You can dilute urine with water to fertilize, but unless composted it's probably best to use this on flowers instead of veggies.
Plenty do it. Research it.
It's called biochar. Basically the charcoal from a campfire mixed with urine. Unlike poop, you can use it immediately since urine is sterile.
we used it long ago before we got the modern wc . the farmers used to leave it a whole year outside in the air before they used it. the vegetables and fruits original in the area were exellent
He he... Uranus is a perfect place for biosolids
Hey leave my Uranus alone!
I hear the moon is hollow ---- Lets Fill it Up !
Add fresh green leaves to composting is safer quickly.
what happens if you use your feces for a protein shake?!
Muscle Hank Our feces is for the weak, you gotta use your own for protein shakes, Muscle Hank.
I expected something along the lines of "feces are for the weak, i poop pure protein."
Muscle Hank actually japan beat your idea for it , they already created "edible" poo
I'm sure you can recycle undigested protein from poop...
Funny
In some places on Earth (Haiti), turning human poop into fertilizer is the best option. In Kenya, they turn human poop into charcoal to be used for cooking.
That's how North Koreans use compost, but they don't break it down enough I guess cause that's how they get types of worms.
Darlene Troise in Japan too
Darlene Troise Traditionally throughout Asia fertilizers were animal(human) manure + leftover plant decomposed together. It was pretty effective.
Pretty cold up there in North Korea . I think they don’t have enough warm weather to compost those poop
Jeffrey Tan: maybe so, and perhaps they use it too soon. It does take some months and heat to properly compost night soil.
Alot of countries do use human poop as fertilizer, but they almost always compost it first and in some areas they only allow it to be used for crops that arent used for human consumption. But yeah, that happens to North Korea quite a bit and is one of the things responsible for their high rate of parasite infections. It also caused some disease outbreaks in China during the Great Leap Forward when they tried to help fight the food shortage by boosting crop yields and even just told people to start pooping right in the crops isntead of using indoor bathrooms or outhouses. China also used bathrooms that were basically an outhouse over a pig pen, and the pigs would... "recycle?" the poop.
You can purchase it a Menards. It's called Milorganite. It is treated sewage sludge sold by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. Look it up.
A lot of people don't know that. You can also buy Zoo poo. Both work as fertilizer and animal deterants.
*Oh joy I just can’t wait for an excuse for the comments to blow up with punny poop jokes*
Just don’t make a big stink about it.
if you're not selling your biosolids, you're just flushing money down the drain.
Poop.
...or funny foop jokes!
Thats kinda crappy guys
Tacoma, Washington makes a product called "Tagro" from biosolids. The biosolids go thru a 12 step aerobic/anaerobic composting process. It's tested for pharmaceuticals and heavy metals, and have won several awards. I use the compost on my flower beds every Spring and have used the Tagro potting soil in my containers and to build new raised beds.
Worms with pharmaceuticals? Even hermaphrodite annelids need to look good on a night out.
video idea: What's an itch and what causes it? (physical)
Using biosolids as fertilizers might make the Mars *colon* y a little 'Musky.'
Condor Boss Elon would find this funny being a muskrat n all😂😂😂😂
Elon Musky ?
Yep, Humanure. I mix mine with chicken poop and existing topsoil, then compost it for 6 months in buckets. After that I flip the bucket over and let it sit for another year. The worms in the soil turn it into dark rich topsoil and its not even recognizable as poop.
My dog (rip) used to fertilize himself by eating the cats poop.
May your Dog Rest IN Peace !
Dealing with microbes is relatively easy. Dealing with Pharmaceuticals is somewhat more challenging. But dealing with industrial chemicals and heavy metals that cause cancer is much harder. It's also purposely less spoken about.
@3:12 yeah but monsanto will go all apeshit on us.
I once lived in a house with a small block and concrete septic tank in the backyard, and it used to spill the content (dirty water) often into the yard, and I tell you, the coconut tree that was near by, within 3 years began to produce fruit at waist high, and other fruit trees near by also used to produce the sweetest fruits ever, no B.S., only human LOL.
Damn
Wouldn't the nutrients not be concentrated?
@@knockhello2604 The water went into the ground and the trees were probably 10 to 20 feet away, so it was not directly next to the trees.
My grandfather was in the US Army, and he, my grandma and mom were stationed in Germany in 1946 or 1947. My grandma told me about how they had to grow their own garden to eat, and yup, they had to use their poop for fertilizer. So, everything, and I mean everything, had to be boiled, including their water, lettuce, tomatoes, etc. A lot of canning, in other words. The infrastructure was just being rebuilt, so they all made due.
People are doing it right now in US. Some have them off grid burning toilets and others a bucket. Out to the garden it goes.
Would you like a fresh tomato? No thank you.
I grow tomatoes in coco coir and watered down urine it's perfectly safe and the tomatoes taste much better than shop brought rubbish.
You don't have to boil everything grown in urine and you can use urine fertilizer on flowers and green manure and use them composted for next year's vegetables.
Tomatoes grown with urine have more vitamins and minerals and protein than tomatoes grown in commercial fertilizers.
I wonder why methane digesters are not mentioned here? Or did I somehow miss that? As a fuel source, it’s a seriously underutilized opportunity. Small scale farmers are finding huge benefits to their bottom line with them, and it’s worth mentioning in conjunction with this video. As always, THANK YOU FOR YOUR HARD WORK AND AMAZING CONTENT!
The same reason why you'll end up taking a dirt nap yourself if you come up with a car that will run on anything but gas (or electricity).
That would be positive progress, and that's not allowed in our society.
Herbology/natural remedies would probably reduce the likelyhood of superbugs, plus its healthier to use as we then aren't ingesting the pure substance of something
So I guess this was a ShitShow?
In the best possible way, of course.
allluckyseven no it's just a shitty show
Shi-show
Well done
Pretty SHITY joke bruh
Human feces are a valuable resource when treated and used correctly and responsibly.
Joseph Jenkins wrote "The Humanure Handbook", which explains just about every aspect of this topic.
As for the problem of pharmaceuticals in human feces, especially antibiotics, that issue should be solved as "close to the source" as possible, meaning: we should stop our own overuse of antibiotics! (and other drugs as well).
Overuse of antibiotics causes the creation, or evolution, of antibiotics resistant disease, and it may also kill or weaken composting organisms in treatment facilities, or in your domestic compost heap.
Overuse of anything usually has undesirable consequences, and the way to determine what should be considered "sufficient", "optimal", and "excessive" starts with educating ourselves.
Many thanks to SciShow for helping to spread the knowledge :)
I'm here to ask the real questions.
_why does my cat like having his armpits rubbed??_
A valid query.
Because it can't stratch only lick.
Back in the day, the sewage treatment plant in my city exploded with three workers on site. Two were injured but fine. The third fell into the sewage stew. No spoilers, but he died. It took three days to drain the plant enough to retrieve his body, which was just a skeleton at that point.
People talk about the worst way to die, but I honestly can't think of anything worse than drowning and boiling alive in a pressurized well of poop.
...But anyway! I've actually wondered this question many times, so it was really cool to see a video on the topic. I was totally down with the green recycling until you mentioned superbugs, of which I have an extreme phobia. (I won't even use antibacterial soap. I'll burn my hands under hot water and scrub if I have to.) I'm not sure I'd advocate implementing a human poo fertilizer initiative until we had solid methods against creating antibacterial resistant monstrosities. o_o (It's MRSA. I'm terrified of MRSA.)
Who else clicked while making fertilizer
People sometimes use stabilized/digested sludge (end result of sewage treatment) on their lawns as a fertilizer or soil conditioner. They discover that tomato seeds make it through the sludge-making process and sprout in the lawns, resulting in hundreds or thousands of tomato plants grown in the yards.
I'm doing my PhD in this! Waste to energy woop woop!!
How is composting done and how long does it take? I will be glad if you give details. I'm thinking of using it for our fruit trees. I'm asking because I don't want my fruit to make people sick.
Here's a thought regarding how to break down most of the contaminants: Pyrolysis. Heat organic material to around 500 degrees and you get a mixture of 20% syngas, 60% bio-oil and 20% biochar. The syngas and bio-oil can be used for chemical processes or fuel, while the biochar can be used as fertiliser.
"they could make the biggest difference in countries that struggle with sanitation" (I'm looking at you india)
Damn
Racist. Indians were the first ones to have massive sanitation systems when the rest of the world pooped on the ground.
This is a very interesting video, it has several different arguable sides. To start, it could be argued that biosolids aren't actually better for the environment due to the existence of non-point source pollution from farmland. This would lead to all of the excess nutrients and emerging contaminants entering the native stream ecosystem rather than just (somewhat) safely decomposing in a properly sealed landfill. But on the other hand, it could be argued that fertilizer infiltration would happen either way, as farmers will just use another source. Great video, and I wouldn't mind a follow up video on the growing presence of emerging contaminants! Going into stream toxicology, this is one of the largest threats we may have in the future, and the general public knows little to nothing about it.
I'm not surprised that human feces can be used as fertilizer. In nature poop is used as fertilizer all the time. I think diet would have to be taken into consideration, though. A lot of people in North America eat diets that are not nourishing to them, so I imagine they wouldn't be nourishing to the soil either.
Doctor Obscure I guess that's good news for the soil.
SDD525 That's not diet, that is chemical contaminant.
Sara Makes Art uhhhh... the average American gets way more than enough nutrients than is needed. Otherwise we’d be seeing people everywhere dying of scurvy, anemia, etc.
Doctor Obscure “the bad stuff tends to stay in the body”
I feel like I’ve just been run over by a short bus.
Sara Makes Art Did you even watch the video?
The HUMANURE HANDBOOK IS AREAL BOOK AND A BEST SELLER!
Regulated by the EPA...the EPA...EPA...Scott Pruitt, oh god, no.
EPA! EEEEEEPAAAAAAAA!!!
Damaged Industries maybe scott needs more poop.
Exactly. Some people when you say "regulated" hear "safe." I hear "all f'd up by the government"
trumpetpunk42
And when I hear deregulation I think of the Great Depression, horizontal and vertical monopolies, awful working conditions, and a lack of worker’s rights.
Scott just happens to want to destroy the EPA.
If a chemical doesn't kill you, it probably made you stronger! -Scott Pruitt
This is the house that poop built. Catchy! I bet it would be amazing tho!
Many years ago, my aunt pooped always in her garden. 😭😱🥵 What do you think ???
Now I know how to grow better shitake mushrooms.
Combat King 0 Psst... take-a-shit mushrooms.
HANK GREEN IS THAT YOU??‼️‼️ I REALLY THINK IT'S YOU...I DO RECOGNIZE YOUR VOICE 100% ..... I USED TO WATCH CRASH COURSE IN MY SENIOR YEAR I. HIGH SCHOOL THOUGH I STILL LISTEN TO THEM FROM TIME TO TIME... SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU HERE 💖💖💖💖💖
Magic
*SNORT SNORT*
This is the video I have always waited for
It's actually pretty shitty as a fertilizer compared to other manures.
Yeah, any carnivore poop is usually fairly devoid of useful nutrients since most of our food is very easy to digest (alot of sugar and protein). Our urine is very good for plants though, but the poop is pretty useless. That's why grass will often die around cat and dog poop.
@@arthas640 so change your damn diet
Is Bird (chicken) Best ?
But if everybody, not necessarily be vegan but eat a lot healthier, not only would our mental, physical and emotional health benefit, the fertilizers would be much more useful
@@woden__ it's more to do with the diseases that the quality as their would be disease from the plant, the animal you are and you.
That's how they grow "organic vegetables"
I watched this while pooping
Hope was a phone or laptop & not a Gaming Tower !
When I worked at a food bank, I once had to shovel bags of potatoes off a pallet, that were so rotten, they were creating heat(and a ton of smell) that you could feel radiating from it from a good meter away... They were already old considering they were donations, but they rotted so quickly it was ridiculous.(over the week end, from not so bad on friday to god awful on monday)
Is there any kind of scientific reason behind why people like the music that they like?
Sam Ringle Mostly what you're used to, and the similarities with what you grew up to.
Music itself is repetition and change, indeed every sound is a wave whose frequency is a measure of its repetition, so it makes sense that similarities, or what you're used to, forms the basis of your taste, with that tiny difference added that makes it interesting. Of course, the same is true for how our taste in food develops and that has nothing to with repetitions like sound frequency so maybe that's just a coincidence unless we look at consciousness as a wave rather than as a thing.
Sam Ringle
I already told you, Sideways has done videos on this subject
Homo sapiens so simple alternating patterns in the sound spectrum gives them different emotions
Millenial whoop
Been doing it for years in my neighboors garden. It looks great.
I used to deliver bio-solid human poop, in a dry, sterile, pelletised form from Aesops, Irvine, Scotland back in the day... 😉
Most is burned in a power plant at Daldowie, Scotland. 😉
sounds like a shitty job ;-)
Arthas Menethil it’s a dirty job but someone gots to do it
You can also change methane to harmless natural gas.
It's fungi, not funji.
5:18 makes me laugh out loud for his choice of words. 😅😅
WTF difference does it matter that pharmaceutical drugs end up in compost?
EVERYthing gets broken down by microbes to very simple non-toxic compounds.
well a superbug might survive and spread and say hypothetically a issue of the global scale involving a superbug might occur