Saving money and saving the planet

[ed skull murphy]

A popular myth has it that a certain Thomas Crapper, esq. invented the flushing lavatory.

This is not true, of course, because water closets have been a fixture in many a palatial residence, going back centuries, if not millenia.

Crapper was, however, a master plumber, who developed the flushing lavvie (and the associated high pressure plumbing) to the extent that the lower classes of Victorian/Edwardian England could afford to install it safely in their homes, without fear of accidental flooding. He thus made the contraption popular and widely adopted.

Bravo to Crapper! Because the industrial revolution had forced unnaturally large numbers of folk out of the shires and into an urban environment, and the disposal of human waste was becoming a health issue in the cities. A modern sewerage system to cater to Crapper's contraption was just the ticket!

The only downside to this new system was the copious volumes of water required to flush it; not such a problem whilst the water supply was in public hands, but, since the water companies have been sold off to private corporate interests, not so cheap anymore.

Now, I despise giving money to private corporate interests, if I can help it, so I have recently taken to crapping in a bucket. Or to put it more politely, doing my business in a composting toilet.

OK, so it only saves me a hundred-and-fifty pounds per year, but it just feels so right!

My garden shall be the beneficiary, once the stuff has been given a year to safely decompose, and the urine can be mixed with collected rainwater at the ratio of 1:8 to make excellent feed for fruit trees and lawns (and tobacco plants).

Essentially, it consists of a laundry bin with lid (£5 from the poundshop), a builders bucket (£1), a garden trowel (£1), and a recycled jerrycan for peeing in.

I fill the bucket with some soil from the garden, and trowel some of it onto my latest deposit. When the bin is full, I pour the contents into a composting bin, which stands outside on some pond liner (to prevent any eventual pathogens from entering the water table) and next year I shall have some rich compost for my plants.

Job's a good'un!

 

[goatwack]

............actually, I don't disbelieve you.

I just do my business in next door's garden at night, you should see their faces in the morning

 

[ed skull murphy]

............actually, I don't disbelieve you.

I just do my business in next door's garden at night, you should see their faces in the morning

Be careful you don't get filmed... you might end up on YouTube, lol.

But I can't emphasise enough, how right it felt, the first time I used this thing. It just makes sense.

 

[goatwack]

Hard to get out of carpets when it goes awry though Ed

 

[mack341]

A popular myth has it that a certain Thomas Crapper, esq. invented the flushing lavatory.

This is not true, of course, because water closets have been a fixture in many a palatial residence, going back centuries, if not millenia.

Crapper was, however, a master plumber, who developed the flushing lavvie (and the associated high pressure plumbing) to the extent that the lower classes of Victorian/Edwardian England could afford to install it safely in their homes, without fear of accidental flooding. He thus made the contraption popular and widely adopted.

Bravo to Crapper! Because the industrial revolution had forced unnaturally large numbers of folk out of the shires and into an urban environment, and the disposal of human waste was becoming a health issue in the cities. A modern sewerage system to cater to Crapper's contraption was just the ticket!

The only downside to this new system was the copious amounts of water required to flush it; not such a problem whilst the water supply was in public hands, but, since the water companies have been sold off to private corporate interests, not so cheap anymore.

Now, I despise giving money to private corporate interests, if I can help it, so I have recently taken to crapping in a bucket. Or to put it more politely, doing my business in a composting toilet.

OK, so it only saves me a hundred-and-fifty pounds per year, but it just feels so right!

My garden shall be the beneficiary, once the stuff has been given a year to safely decompose, and the urine can be mixed with collected rainwater at the ratio of 1:8 to make excellent feed for fruit trees and lawns (and tobacco plants).

Essentially, it consists of a laundry bin with lid (£5 from the poundshop), a builders bucket (£1), a garden trowel (£1), and a recycled jerrycan for peeing in.

I fill the bucket with some soil from the garden, and trowel some of it onto my latest deposit. When the bin is full, I pour the contents into a composting bin, which stands outside on some pond liner (to prevent any eventual pathogens from entering the water table) and next year I shall have some rich compost for my plants.

Job's a good'un!

£150 a year to flush your number 2's you must be having to take a dump at least 4 times a day!! The thing is you could make all this effort and then lose the money in one hour playing slots.

 

[mack341]

Be careful you don't get filmed... you might end up on YouTube, lol.

But I can't emphasise enough, how right it felt, the first time I used this thing. It just makes sense.

you gotta to be having a laugh, you've got to give it a name if you want to demonstrate it on dragon's den, you can't keep calling it 'this thing'.

oh you've given me a good chuckle tonight

 

[ed skull murphy]

Hard to get out of carpets when it goes awry though Ed

If that happens, I'll take the poundshop to the small claims court. I still have the receipt.

£150 a year to flush your number 2's you must be having to take a dump at least 4 times a day!! The thing is you could make all this effort and then lose the money in one hour playing slots.

You are right, Mack, but it's more than that. I'm trying to get into a more self-sufficient lifestyle. Trying to extricate myself from 'their' clutches wherever possible. It all adds up, and you get a feeling of satisfaction from it, too.

I use it more than four times a day, due to a health issue caused by excessive binge-ing in my mis-spent youth, straight up!

 

[ed skull murphy]

you gotta to be having a laugh, you've got to give it a name if you want to demonstrate it on dragon's den, you can't keep calling it 'this thing'.

oh you've given me a good chuckle tonight

I wouldn't take it to them shysters, they'd rip me off! I'm gonna keep this one under my hat.

 

[mack341]

If that happens, I'll take the poundshop to the small claims court. I still have the receipt.
You are right, Mack, but it's more than that. I'm trying to get into a more self-sufficient lifestyle. Trying to extricate myself from 'their' clutches wherever possible. It all adds up, and you get a feeling of satisfaction from it, too.

I use it more than four times a day, due to a health issue caused by excessive binge-ing in my mis-spent youth, straight up!

ok fair enough, 'extricate' is an apt word... suppose if the neighbours complain you can just tell them its on doctor's orders.

 

[ed skull murphy]

ok fair enough, 'extricate' is an apt word... suppose if the neighbours complain you can just tell them its on doctor's orders.

Nah, they wouldn't complain, they love me.

 

[mack341]

Nah, they wouldn't complain, they love me.

f'kin hell they must be besotted with you not to kick up a stink over this 'natural' compost your producing.

 

[ed skull murphy]

f'kin hell they must be besotted with you not to kick up a stink over this 'natural' compost your producing.

It doesn't stink. Once it is covered with soil, or other organic material, it does not give off any odour. If anything, it is better than a flushing loo in that regard.

You should check it out Mack. Organic gardening is great fun.

 

[mack341]

I wouldn't take it to them shysters, they'd rip me off! I'm gonna keep this one under my hat.

Shame...I'm sure a 'certain' type of person would pay hundreds to see deborah meaden test out your device.

 

[mack341]

It doesn't stink. Once it is covered with soil, or other organic material, it does not give off any odour. If anything, it is better than a flushing loo in that regard.

You should check it out Mack. Organic gardening is great fun.

I use to do a bit on my allotment back in the day, Organic tastes best but are you using your 'compost' to grow fruit and veg or just for the roses etc..?

 

[ed skull murphy]

Shame...I'm sure a 'certain' type of person would pay hundreds to see deborah meaden test out your device.

You old perv!

I use to do a bit on my allotment back in the day, Organic tastes best but are you using your 'compost' to grow fruit and veg or just for the roses etc..?

etc...

No, not food. But it wouldn't matter, the compost is perfectly safe after a year of decomposing.

Human waste is really only dangerous when coming from a seriously ill individual; cholera, typhus, etc., but the authorities have their legal guidelines to follow, so it's best to follow certain procedures, when doing this; hence why I stand the compost bin on a plastic sheet, and leave it to rot for a year before use.

 

[Reelsoffun]

£150 a year to flush your number 2's you must be having to take a dump at least 4 times a day!! The thing is you could make all this effort and then lose the money in one hour playing slots.

That was exactly my first thought, I doubt he has his figures right, £150 to flush a toilet don't seem right to me! He must be really be full of crap LOL

Seriously tho how do you come to that figure that's over 45% of our total annual bill and we are on a meter in 3 bed house with 3 of us, with the misses using baths all the time ( what is it about women! ) , dishwasher and kids having pools in summer etc.

I would say if we did this we would struggle to save even £20 a year!, and doubt the missus would be up for it ROFL

 

[ed skull murphy]

That was exactly my first thought, I doubt he has his figures right, £150 to flush a toilet don't seem right to me! He must be really be full of crap LOL

Seriously tho how do you come to that figure that's over 45% of our total annual bill and we are on a meter in 3 bed house with 3 of us, with the misses using baths all the time ( what is it about women! ) , dishwasher and kids having pools in summer etc.

I would say if we did this we would struggle to save even £20 a year!, and doubt the missus would be up for it ROFL

Alright, calm down sunshine, ROFLMFAO

My annual bill is £300, I do a couple of laundries per week I take shortish showers (not too often ), the only thing left was the Thomas Crapper.

I've estimated half. I may be wrong. Have a problem with that?

 

[goatwack]

Until we get the exact amount saved by crapping in a bucket I will deem this thread irrelevant and wholly inaccurate

 

[mack341]

I wonder if ed's system will be used more round the world where there is a water shortage, although they keep telling us here[ in the uk ]that water stocks are low even though it rains 1/2 the blinkin year.

I think in rural china some residents keep a pig to eat the human waste that they create and then when the pig is big enough they slaughter and eat it.

 

[ed skull murphy]

Until we get the exact amount saved by crapping in a bucket I will deem this thread irrelevant and wholly inaccurate

I'm not doing it to save money, Goatie, but I hate the idea of private water companies making millions from supplying water, and via an infrastructure that both lawfully belong to us.

Also, there is environmental aspect to it. Living on the coast, I have come to notice that after flash flooding, the infrastructure is sometimes overloaded, and thousands of tons of raw sewage end up in the sea. Not brilliant, if your town's income depends on the tourist trade, and clean sandy beaches.

The whole idea of a flushing crapper just seems ridiculous to me, in my current situation; I can decompose it instead, to make an excellent compost. Unless you have a garden, you won't know what I am talking about.

But you are correct; I don't know what the saving will be, it was just a rough estimate.

 

[ed skull murphy]

I think in rural china some residents keep a pig to eat the human waste that they create and then when the pig is big enough they slaughter and eat it.

Sounds delightful! Actually, I have seen the same thing in India.

The shantytowns around Mumbai airport, nothing more than unpaved streets of small dwellings made from old pallets and sheets of corrugated iron, all have a pile of rotting waste by the street entrance, with a couple of pigs sorting through it, shocking stuff. We, the British, did this to them, makes you proud, don't it?.

 

[mack341]

Sounds delightful! Actually, I have seen the same thing in India.

The shantytowns around Mumbai airport, nothing more than unpaved streets of small dwellings made from old pallets and sheets of corrugated iron, all have a pile of rotting waste by the street entrance, with a couple of pigs sorting through it, shocking stuff. We, the British did this to them, makes you proud, don't it?.

We don't realise how lucky we are really, but we've got to keep this way. The indians still have that caste system as well, spending billions on spacecraft and research while millions of people are left to live like that, madness.

 

[ed skull murphy]

We don't realise how lucky we are really, but we've got to keep this way. The indians have that caste system still, spending millions on spacecraft and research while millions of people are left to live like that, madness.

They also have a belief, I think it must be Hindu, that people who are poor, were wicked in a previous incarnation, and are paying for their sins in this life. That's how they live with it.

But the British went in there and totally screwed it up, deliberately, of course; divide and rule.

 

[pinnit2014]

Someone likes their Weetabix

 

[ed skull murphy]

Someone likes their Weetabix

I do crap a lot, but it's because I partied a bit too hard in my younger years, damaging some of my internal organs.

 

[mack341]

They also have a belief, I think it must be Hindu, that people who are poor, were wicked in a previous incarnation, and are paying for their sins in this life. That's how they live with it.

But the British went in there and totally screwed it up, deliberately, of course; divide and rule.

Yeah if you think about it India is a powerful/rich country but it would have been more so without partition. we effectively removed a 1/3 of their country just before we left, and india and pakistan have been at conflict for long periods since. So the british decided the muslims and hindus can't get on in the subcontinent, its dangerous etc..they must be seperated. Just looking at wikipedia and 14% of India is muslim so they must be able to get on to some degree.

 

[Jono777]

............actually, I don't disbelieve you.

I just do my business in next door's garden at night, you should see their faces in the morning

Possibly "subliminally programmed" by reading the OP but I read this at first as "You should see their faeces in the morning!" (IE: Revenge tour )

 

[goatwack]

Possibly "subliminally programmed" by reading the OP but I read this at first as "You should see their faeces in the morning!" (IE: Revenge tour )

Nice, nice. I missed a trick there

 

[ed skull murphy]

Yeah if you think about it India is a powerful/rich country but it would have been more so without partition. we effectively removed a 1/3 of their country just before we left, and india and pakistan have been at conflict for long periods since. So the british decided the muslims and hindus can't get on in the subcontinent, its dangerous etc..they must be seperated. Just looking at wikipedia and 14% of India is muslim so they must be able to get on.

India is being pushed right now, by the globalists, they are still totally controlled despite their 'independence', it's hard to say what state the Indian subcontinent would be in now, had the British never interfered, I think they would have continued in a more natural way of life, the various religions all got on perfectly well with each other under the old system..

Possibly "subliminally programmed" by reading the OP but I read this at first as "You should see their faeces in the morning!" (IE: Revenge tour )

I thought the same, but decided it might be a bit too potty-talk to mention it, after laying it on a bit thick in my OP.

 

[Jasminebed]

Urine is an excellent compost accelerant, and boosts nitrogen. I no longer maintain my composter, because our city offers pickup of compostable materials that includes things that could not go into my garden one, like some weeds, bones, meat, fat, dairy etc.

You have my sympathy and understanding with the bowel issues. Prior to a bowel resection about 10 years ago, I would hit 40x a day on a bad day, 25 on a normal one. Now I'm down to a more manageable 8-10 unless I have some kind of flare-up.

I only paid $30 CAD for a used medical commode chair.

Would it not be simpler (and probably longer lasting) to use something like that and empty a little more often, adding the soil in the outside composter? Or for someone else that hasn't already spent the money and made their homemade one.

I know I couldn't handle a bin full of soil and compostable waste.

Grey water systems are also used in a lot of places for flushing toilets. Greywater is previous used water from your showers, laundry, kitchen sink.

Most people with wells and septic systems only flush for "number two".

 

[ed skull murphy]

Urine is an excellent compost accelerant, and boosts nitrogen. I no longer maintain my composter, because our city offers pickup of compostable materials that includes things that could not go into my garden one, like some weeds, bones, meat, fat, dairy etc.

You have my sympathy and understanding with the bowel issues. Prior to a bowel resection about 10 years ago, I would hit 40x a day on a bad day, 25 on a normal one. Now I'm down to a more manageable 8-10 unless I have some kind of flare-up.

I only paid $30 CAD for a used medical commode chair.

Would it not be simpler (and probably longer lasting) to use something like that and empty a little more often, adding the soil in the outside composter? Or for someone else that hasn't already spent the money and made their homemade one.

I know I couldn't handle a bin full of soil and compostable waste.

Grey water systems are also used in a lot of places for flushing toilets. Greywater is previous used water from your showers, laundry, kitchen sink.

Most people with wells and septic systems only flush for "number two".

I can handle the bin at the moment, no problem. Whether I shall be so keen to go down the garden with it in a force nine gale, in a rainstorm, in the middle of winter, remains to be seen, I may have to buy more bins..

I have been recycling the urine for a couple of years now, tobacco plants and fruit trees thrive on it.