How come animal manure is called fertilizer and human excrement is called waste?

Question

On a side note; not to be gross, but why can't you fertilize your lawn with your own poo? Not that I would do that, but it seems weird that our waste has to be treated at a plant, but animal waste can be composted and used effectively? Maybe a farmer can answer me this....

Answer 1

Often the "manure" we use is from ruminant animals which are not only herbiovres so only are made up of plant material waste but also have bacteria to help break it down....better than with humans.

So its pretty much what is in the "manure"...as pointed out our waste has been used, but humans carry more bacteria that are harmful to other humans.....with animals waste ( again herbivores) there is not the same levels of dangerous bacteria AND there are likely to be different bacteria that may not be as danergous to us.

Again as pointed out there are high levels of parasitic worms in the majority of people faeces and this would spread them more if we used human waste.

Our faeces is treated with ( good) bacterai at treatment plants to turn them into a virtually low risk at the end of the treatment.

Answer 2

You're mixing terms. Animal manure is just that: manure. Human waste or feces is also manure. Manure can be composted and made into fertilizer. In some locations, composted sewage from a treatment plant can be used on agricultural soils. However, because heavy metals are somewhat concentrated, the amounts of composted sewage that can be used are regulated. As for your lawn, you might be surprised at what grows if you applied composted sewage: a lot of seeds are not broken down by the composting process. You might wind up with a lawn full of tomato plants...

Answer 3

Weird? No. Human waste is the MOST dangerous substance to human life. Human waste contains every nasty virus, bacteria, prion or fungus that can cause all kinds of disease.

Animals waste that is sold as "manure" has been treated. You just cant walk out in a cow field and start collecting cow chips. It to has the potential to cause serious health concerns.

So, there is nothing weird about it at all. Why in the world would cities all across the developed countries spend billions of dollars on human waste treatment? Just because it smells bad?

Answer 4

It's more likely that human waste will contain microbes that might cause disease. That's also true of carnivores like housecats. So while you might put composted horse manure on the garden, you would not be advised to use human or cat manure.

In that way, human feces are wasted, and are called waste.
Note that sewage sludge can be composted and digested to make fertilizer.

Answer 5

For centuries--perhaps millenia--human poo -was- used as fertilizer!

In fact one of the most common health problems in the world is schistosomiasis (sp?), a disease people get from working barefoot in rice paddies. People poop in the paddies and a little worm called a schistosome eats the poop and then burrows into people's bare feet while they worked in the paddies. The World Health Organization sends people to Asia to warn the paddy-poopers not to poop in the paddies! (You can also get it from swimming in lakes, etc.)

In the west we don't use human poo for fertilizer because it's gross. We don't even like animal manure that much, we like artificial fertilizer made from petroleum. 'Cos it costs a lot more!

Answer 6

Probably has something to do with what we eat. Cows eat grass and grain, we eat fried foods, and...well cows.

Also, remember that fertilizer isn't just cow poo in a bag. It is also processed and dried to some degree (I dont't know the exact procedure).

Answer 7

Because we're carnivores, our poop is much more smelly...

...in some countries, they do use human waste and they have high rates of intestinal worms, and I would think that we would also pass hepatitis C, and other fecal buggies that can kill us if we did...