Compost
Watching Sunday's "Countryfile" on BBC2, I viewed the piece about composting human waste with interest. To me it was nothing new. A couple of years ago I was privileged to go to "New Earth Solutions" Research and Development site in Poole, Dorset. We saw the whole process. I was fascinated by the fact that they take in a bin lorry which is filled with "Black Bag" refuse at one end and output compost at the other. With just a little sorting, all mechanised, they could remove the non compostables, including the plastic bags, and turn it into rich compost in just six weeks. This was in the final testing stages. The other part of the site that we saw was human waste composting. Which they were just starting trials for. The whole day was fascinating and not a bit smelly. So you see my interest was how the technology had progressed to perfect this.
This picture is of refuse composting
So, it was only talking to my father later that made me think about it a little more. He was amazed at the vox pops, as they are known in the trade. Members of the public were asked, "would they buy foods that had been fertilised with Bio-Solids compost." The overwhelming answer was "Uuugghh." But yet they are presumably happy to have their potatoes grown with lashings of horse manure!
According to the report on Countryfile, Tesco does not currently support Bio-Solids use on crops. Some of the other supermarkets do. I would have thought that the main problem would be the level of "drugs" both legal and illegal still remaining in the compost.
It appears that the problem is not the technology here, it's back to the education of the population. With the rising price of fertiliser and an ever increasing source of human waste there is an opportunity to perfect the techonolgy and we could all benefit.