Humanure: it's all poop to me

Over at Root Simple, Mr. Homegrown has a very interesting post, Emergency Toilet Sanitation. In other words, where ya gonna poop when TSHTF? We cannot just throw the contents of our  chamber pots into the street like people in England did.

to spare you,
no pictures of
poop

The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 had its genesis in The Jungle  by Upton Sinclair. Theodore Roosevelt read the book and pushed through the legislation to protect the public from the meat-packing industry practices that Sinclair described. 

In The Jungle Sinclair describes how sewage flowed in open trenches in the street, down to a lake that held human waste. Rain carried it along to the lake and also caused it to overflow into streets, yards, and houses.  In the winter chunks of ice from the sewage-laden lake were cut and stored for the following summer. The ice with human waste bacteria sold from ice trucks, was served in hotels, and was common in the homes of the wealthy. We know that untreated sewage, sewage left to pollute our neighborhoods, our mountain streams, and the playgrounds of our children is not what we desire, based on our knowledge of pathogens.

Although the story took place in Chicago, IL, the horror of untreated sewage still looms in Third World countries. In the event of a catastrophe or a minor problem, do you want your children exposed to untreated sewage--human excrement? Do you want to step in your neighbors poop? Do you want the neighborhood poop in your garden? No, I didn't think so.

Root Simple is the first link on this post. Really, all you need is a five gallon bucket and a toilet seat and leaves. You now have a composting toilet. The Humanure Handbook has a drawing for a toilet, but I could never make that. Download the pdf and share it. After all, you want your friends and neighbors to know all about this. It might be your neighbor's poop into which you step. Lovely!

I am a confirmed, committed non-camper. But, I will do what needs to be done if the worst comes. A composting toilet saves a valuable resource, water, but it saves money for the consumer. Yes, I can be that parsimonious.

Your turn
Have you ever used any other toileting method than a flush commode? Are you a camper? Do you have a composting toilet?