ed skull murphy
Trollish behavior - quit the forum
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2017
- Location
- Albion
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!
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