Who owns your sewage?

Biosolid composts are being developed for soil blending, landfill cover, mine reclamation, degrading toxins, fertilising golf-courses, even as fuels. “With chemical fertilisers, you feed the plant directly. With sludge, you feed the soil, building it up by feeding naturally occurring bacteria.” (Robert Brobst.)

Ways are also being developed to prevent the problem of biosolids permeating into water systems, as can happen with septic tanks. Current types of sewage disposal programs cannot be allowed on ground which may be permeable, to contaminate groundwater, or potentially runoff into water-courses. Other questions being tackled include the quality of food grown with these organic fertilisers.

Liquid human waste

Human urine costs a tremendous amount of water to flush it down lavatory water-closets - from three to 11 litres a flush - and even water-saving means of disposal through sewerage systems are still usually wasting a potential resource, although this will change. Urine has been put to many uses in the past, and still today, from medicines to bleaching and treating materials such as Harris tweed.

There are ways to use urine at source for gardens, added to compost, since fresh urine is sterile, although caustic for worm-farms or directly on plants without dilution. Householders can make dramatic differences in their water bills, although some fluids must still keep drains flowing.

Drinking water recycled from the sewerage system is being urged upon us as we continue to rashly increase population and droughts are becoming more prolonged. Living in Melbourne, which has been proud of having “the best tapwater for drinking in the world”, I object to this solution. Let us act on the causes of shortages of pure water - including over-populating.

Bottled-water manufacturers aim for great profits when tap water is recycled sewage - and scandalously they are allowed to bottle cheaply from our own springs. Let us work on the many possible strategies to use water recycled from sewage for other purposes - but let us still be able to enjoy drinking rainwater from the tap, and not from environmentally-costly plastic bottles or the sewage farm. Quality of life is an aim of No More Waste - not even of waste.