TreeHugger Tips: How-to Manage Humanure Composting

Our Green Tips project just keeps on rolling forward., with plenty of useful, inspiring video tips being submitted. From Gary Vaynerchuk's thoughts on car pooling to Lee Welle's musings on how to inspire environmental stewardship in kids, our readers certainly aren't short of useful green advice.

Today we're getting dirty. Joseph Jenkins, author of The Humanure Handbook, delves into an important, if somewhat controversial subject – composting human faeces. In the video above, Joseph explains how to set up a safe, secure humanure composting system. Below he shows how to empty the bins. You can check out more of his videos on composting, gardening and travel via his own YouTube channel.

While some people may be put off by the idea of gardening with human waste, as long as it is done properly there really shouldn't be any safety concerns. And as Joseph explains in a few of his videos, when done properly humanure composting systems are almost odor-free. And there is no doubt it is an important subject. As the blurb for Joseph's book says: "There are almost seven billion defecating people on planet Earth, but few who have any clue about how to constructively handle the burgeoning mountain of human crap."

Check out the rest of our TreeHugger video tips.

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More on Composting
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Green Basics: Compost
Compost Conundrum: Backyard Box, Indoor Bin, Or Can-O-Worms
TreeHugger Picks: For the Domestic Composter