.png)
Poop is basically compost, right, so it’s good for the environment? Well, not quite. Poop can be turned into compost, but isn’t compost on its own.
In fact, poop on its own can be actively harmful to the environment.
Untreated poop can harm the air, soil, water, and wildlife.
Poop stinks, right? That stink is an environmental contaminant. The smell itself can be offensive, it’s no fun to play in the river if it smells like poop.
Uncomposted or untreated poop also affects soil quality. Poop changes the composition of the soil, which has many downstream (sometimes literally) effects.
Poop can introduce human pathogens and parasites into the soil, contaminating it, and in turn contaminating the plants that grow there. This change in the soil composition can even affect seed germination, meaning that farmers get a worse return on their crops.
Once the soil is contaminated, the water that flows over it or drains through it can also become contaminated. Soil is often a good filter, straining out particles and contaminants before they get into the groundwater supply. When there’s a heavy rain, though, the water rushes through too quickly to be properly filtered or carves its way into areas it isn’t normally.
Heavy rains can lead to contaminated groundwater, lakes, and rivers. This can increase the chance of waterborne diseases, like we talked about last month with the Colorado River and the Palisade Peaches that are in season right now.
In areas where there are a lot of people pooping in the open, this can cause a ‘faecal field’: basically an area with a lot of poop concentrated in the environment.
In heavy rains, these fecal fields can flood, causing huge contamination of local water sources and soil, and putting anyone living nearby at risk.
All these environmental contaminants can affect wildlife as well. Wildlife can drink the contaminated water or eat the contaminated plants.
Wildlife can also contract diseases by coming into contact with human poop.
These diseases include cryptosporidium, giardiasis, leptospirosis, and toxoplasmosis. Sharing disease between species like this can also increase the chances of another pandemic.
This can all be avoided by making sure that people have a place to poop in a consolidated, maintained area (like a toilet!) and that that poop is treated to make sure it isn’t a potential contaminant. Traditional portapotties do this with chemicals; Toilet Equity toilets do this through the composting process.
Our compost piles get over 131°F for several days to make sure that all potential human pathogens are killed off. As part of this process, the poop is mixed with sawdust, straw, and hay so that the natural bacteria in the compost piles can decompose everything into usable compost. Our toilets get around 200 uses per day; that’s a lot of poop that isn’t becoming an environmental contaminant!
“Open defecation not only affects land, water and air, but also plants and animals…. People have a misconception that human feces comes into contact with soil, it equals manure; as a fertilizer…. It can be used as a fertilizer only after it is treated properly and not deposited directly on the ground.”
- Tilak Bandara, Professor of Environmental Geography
This article originally appeared in our September 2024 Newsletter.
Comments