Poop Happens

[SidecarFlip]

Inherent costs in transportation as well as the investment in the rolling stock is pretty high in itself. I'm happy MSU is using my tax dollars for a digester and I'm sure the ag college generates enough manure to keep it full.

We don't run enough head to justify the cost of a system and, under GAMP we can, under guidelines, do direct incorporation of manure. Our manure is semi-solid, mixed with straw, unlike diary manure thats a slurry.

 

[begreen]

The best use of AD is municipal sewerage. This provides a continuous predictable feedstock that is high in energy content. But there are also some good successes showing up on college campuses that have a steady stream of food waste. Uof W in Oshkosh has both a dairy digester system and one on the campus that has been successful enough that they are expanding it to take the city of Oskosh's food waste too.

 

[Highbeam]

OK, this sounds like sewage sludge, similar to Milorganite. The stuff that comes from an anaerobic digester does not smell, it's been predigested. They mix it 3 to 1 with sawdust and compost it. The result is a great fertilizer with no concerns of pathogens, heavy metals, etc..

Of course it was sewage sludge but it is after the anaerobic digester and you are wrong about the smell, there is certainly a smell, just not like a fresh pile of poo. Mixing it 3:1 with sawdust and composting it yet again does NOT remove heavy metals. The pathogens are killed by burning it, that's what makes it class A biosolids. It ends up bone dry and "granular". There are metals in it but not much, it is legal for distribution as fertilizer. The pickup point has a sheet that discloses tested levels of all kinds of things including metals along with the allowable limits.

 

[DougA]

I read the other day that human waste is full of gold. I'll start working on an invention for a gold magnet as soon as I perfect the chick magnet.

One of the problems with human waste is that it is full of hormones from birth control pills. I'm going to work on recycling waste into dollar store birth control pills.

OK, I'll crawl back to my cave now.

 

[begreen]

Of course it was sewage sludge but it is after the anaerobic digester and you are wrong about the smell, there is certainly a smell, just not like a fresh pile of poo. Mixing it 3:1 with sawdust and composting it yet again does NOT remove heavy metals. The pathogens are killed by burning it, that's what makes it class A biosolids. It ends up bone dry and "granular". There are metals in it but not much, it is legal for distribution as fertilizer. The pickup point has a sheet that discloses tested levels of all kinds of things including metals along with the allowable limits.

Of course mixing it does not remove heavy metals. Never said that. I'm only speaking of GroCo, when I mentioned the heavy metal content. This product has been well tested and has lower heavy metal, herbicide and pesticide content than composted green waste. Milorganite has been tested with higher heavy metal content. That's why I mentioned it. I haven't found the Pierce county product. What is the name of the product you are using? Can you provide some links to the product(s) data and testing?

http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/wastewater/Biosolids/GardenCompost/GroCoSafety.aspx

 

[begreen]

I read the other day that human waste is full of gold. I'll start working on an invention for a gold magnet as soon as I perfect the chick magnet.

One of the problems with human waste is that it is full of hormones from birth control pills. I'm going to work on recycling waste into dollar store birth control pills.

OK, I'll crawl back to my cave now.

Actually you are not far off, the main issue is antibiotics. We take them in mass quantities. That is the highest pollutant from our solid waste facility.

 

[Dune]

People compost the strangest things using it.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/21/man-found-dead-wife-charged/26125341/

Good in the short term but not truly sustainable.

 

[Ambient]

OK, this sounds like sewage sludge, similar to Milorganite. The stuff that comes from an anaerobic digester does not smell, it's been predigested. They mix it 3 to 1 with sawdust and compost it. The result is a great fertilizer with no concerns of pathogens, heavy metals, etc..

I've used this product for years on our lawns, I'm not sure it would be a good fit for the gardens.

 

[begreen]

Looks like Detroit's neighbors want to get in on some zoo power of their own.
http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-04-27/torontos-zoo-plans-turn-its-animal-waste-electricity

 

[SidecarFlip]

Toronto is quite a ways from Detroit. Much closer to Buffalo actually.

 

[begreen]

You're right. But closer than it is to Seattle.

 

[SidecarFlip]

You're right. But closer than it is to Seattle.

Fair statement. Never been to Seattle or Toronto. Don't it rain constantly up there?

 

[DougA]

Don't it rain constantly up there?

Seattle, Toronto, Buffalo or Detroit?

It snows a lot in Buffalo.

 

[begreen]

Fair statement. Never been to Seattle or Toronto. Don't it rain constantly up there?

Definitely, we're covered in moss here. No one has a tan. If they look like they do it's actually rust.

 

[BrotherBart]

Annual rainfall in Seattle: 37.7 inches. Annual rainfall here: 39.7 + da snow.

 

[begreen]

Shhhh!

 

[SidecarFlip]

Definitely, we're covered in moss here. No one has a tan. If they look like they do it's actually rust.

The mushroom population is probably good though.......

 

[begreen]

Indeed. We grow them between our toes.

 

[BrotherBart]

Leave an oak log on the ground here and you have a fungus farm in a heartbeat. Every split I burned this season still had the stuff on it. Next years has too.

A 90 footer hung up down in the woods for the last three years is covered with the stuff from top to bottom.

 

[begreen]

Might be worth identifying. Could be a goldmine of edible shrooms.

 

[BrotherBart]

A neighbor actually farms mushrooms on oak logs.

 

[Ashful]

Over 45 head, the containment structure has to be solid concrete floored with containment walls and liquid effulent capture. Under 45 head can be composted on the ground so long as the compost area is 500 feet from any water source or creek.

Can you do more, if you remove their heads?

 

[BrotherBart]

 

[billb3]

Many cities have their own treatment plants. I am finding the fertilizer at the City of Sumner which is near Tacoma, about10,000 residents. Note that you can get this as fertilizer 100% strength or you can get a topsoil where they add sand and sawdust. Tacoma does the mix and makes a product called Tagro. Sumner is only 100%.

From the city it is free and there is a covered bin that is available 24/7 with a fresh pile. You can call ahead an have them load your truck with a bobcat or you can order a 10 yard dump for free if you're pretty close to the plant. It's a waste product for them so there is no charge.

You've got to understand that this is a sludge product so it will have a smell for a few days if surface broadcast but no smell when you till it in. Also, if you look real close you can see hair/lint that is not digestable and that may gross you out if you're weak in the stomach.

I usually bring empty garbage cans and fill them in the bed of the truck. The stuff is dense so you won't be able to move a full garbage can. Sometimes it is even pretty warm if it is fresh from the oven. You an spread it with a regular rotary broadcast spreader.

If you look real close how many toxic heavy metals can you see ?


Our town's treatment sludge is mixed with bark/wood chips/sawdust and bulk sold to a company that bags it as potting soil. It is intended as a flower growing medium and not for vegetables or anything edible.

 

[Highbeam]

That's just the yuk factor. Turns out that the sewage plant liquid effluent, what goes to the rivers, is actually cleaner than the drinking water. Certainly cleaner than the river water in the receiving river. We should drink it right? The yuk factor will always prevent it.