human waste used as slurry on agricultural land????

Question

i live in wicklow, ireland. Ive just found out that human waste is used as slurry in all but four counties in ireland and is banned in three countries in europe. wicklow imports 6000tons of it a year from all over ireland. i think it's a; disgusting and b;probably not safe as hospital waste is used too.i had been getting a smell of poo on my drive home from work and thought it was a broken sceptic tank, turns out it was human poo being spread on land used to graze cattle, its aslo used to fertilise veg...

Answer 1

think about it; its the perfect fertilizer, and the perfect recycling material.

Consider the variety of the human diet; that waste is loaded with nutrients. Perfect growing material. And furthermore, it is recycling, part of our drive to go green. Recycling isn't always the most pleasant smelling job, but few deny its usefullness.

Answer 2

Despite what Tucksie just said, it IS still used on crops in the UK.

It's not at all dangerous and here's why:

After undergoing several days of biological digestion at the sewage works, the 'solid bits' are given a final blast of UV light to kill any existing pathogens, before being sold to farmers.

The biological process is so efficient and so closely monitored that the slurry (that is actually quite solid by now) has LESS pathogens than the soil it is being spread on!! In fact, the sewage plant manager was quite angry that the waste had to pass loads of tests whilst farmer's soil passes none! He said the UV light was a waste of time as the stuff was so harmless.

Answer 3

If it is used in a common sense way it is not a problem where the source of manure comes from. Irregardless, it needs to be either composted or allowed to spend time in green pasture to allow the microbes to work and keep the pathogens minimized. We can't be such a huge population on this planet and keep burying our excrement down by the water table, or let it run to the rivers and ocean, then we all suffer along with the rest of life on the planet. We need to allow ourselves to be an important part of the cycle and benefit, not be a closed output with no input, that is where all our problems come from. We can manage and know about disease and how it works, we can now hug our poo and share it.

Answer 4

In some countries it is used regularly with no treatment. The root vegetables have to be soaked in a chlorox solution to kill germs.

In the US, in nonindustrial areas, where theres no industrial wastes in the sewage, the solids are composted and injected into fields where grasses are grown.

In areas where there might be industrial wastes, the composted materials can only be used on flower gardens. They have found that using it on fields where sports are played can be a hazard for the players. Some areas spray it on state grasses along highways, and it does smell. It istreated or composted first though.

I would check to see if he slurry is composted at all first, that decreases bacteria. Otherwise it does need to be teated regarding pathogens.

Answer 5

I think you need to get your facts straight before you run around accusing farmers of poisoning you with unsafe waste. How do they spread that "medical waste" on the fields? If they amputate a hand do they sprinkle a certain number of fingers on each acre?

As far as what you are smelling, the effluent (which does stink) but which is usually chlorinated to kill bacteria is often used as grass fertilizer. If you are talking sludge it has been run through a digester or drying drum that kills the bacteria in it (and is tested before the batch is released for sale).

That is the beauty of organic farming, its ability to recycle that waste to make useful food. If you don't like the concept then picket the organic food stores.

Answer 6

It has been for a long time. I used to live and work in England on lorries hauling bulk containers. We used to pick up sewerage at different stages of treatment and deliver it to farmers to spread on their land/crops. It's big money business nowadays, the companies doing it have scientific data analysing the goods and breaking it down into groups of nutrients so they can tell farmers the mineral content of the sewerage. If i remember rightly though, there is a small % of the slurry unidentifiable even through rigid scientific analysis.

Answer 7

Human waste, or west of any animal is nothing but just recycled food, which still has nutrients left (and added - dead cells) in it, complete with digesting bacterias (useful in farming). Therefore it is useful as fertilizers, and it is a natures way of recycling.

Of course you are right about hospital wast, containing lot many harmful bacterias, but these are killed if proper way is adapted for turning it in to compost.

Some countries do not allow human waste or sick animal wast as fertilizers; especially for organic farming; since now a days there is lot of sickness and many people take "N" number of drugs; more than 70 % of which are passed through undigested and contaminate environment.

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Answer 9

i live in a rural area here in north east & about 2 years ago they started spreading it in the fields around here. the smell as really sickening & in the summer on what few hot days we get you couldn't open windows or sit out in the garden. despite complaints from people who live around here they did the same the following year. i believe it has now been banned in this neck of the woods. we are told it is perfectly safe & people are in no danger but sometimes i wonder, we wouldn't get the truth anyway from the powers that be even if there was a health risk.

Answer 10

Wow. Most gardening books I've read strongly recommend AGAINST using human waste as fertilizer due to the high levels of harmful bacteria. I can't believe that it's good for the food or the land - sounds like an E. coli or typhoid outbreak in the making.