Читать книгу The Self-Sufficiency Handbook - Alan Bridgewater - Страница 49

When we go to the bathroom on our beautiful, shiny, hygienic toilets, we do our business and then flush it on its way with a lot of expensive, clean drinking water. There is no denying that the development of the flush toilet is wonderful in the sense that we have done away with flies, rats, cholera, and all the other problems associated with open sewers, but the issue that we now have is the vast amount of high-quality drinking water that we use for flushing. It is expensive and wasteful in terms of energy and resources.

A modern toilet is convenient but wastes high-quality water.

As to what happens to our excrement after flushing, much depends upon where you live. Now, more often than not, it is sent to the sewers. If you live in the country, chances are that you have either a cesspool or a septic tank.

When I was a kid in England in the 1950s and living in the country, going to “the bog,” or earth closet, was a very primitive affair that involved walking outside to a little windowless building at the edge of the orchard, sitting over a great dark hole on a wooden shelf-like seat, peering out through a line of little V-cuts that ran along the top of the door, doing my business, and then, at the end of it all, sifting a handful of dry earth or ash over my excremental offerings. It was an ordinary, everyday, never-give-it-a-thought experience—no shiny white tiles or running water, just lots of spiders, mice, strong smells, darkness, and strange gurgling noises.

An earth closet is a type of outhouse: a toilet with no plumbing.

Every day or so, when the bucket was just about overflowing, my grandfather would take it to the back end of the orchard, empty it into an open pit, and cover it with a few shovelfuls of earth. When the pit was nearly full, he would fill it up with earth and then dig another pit. After about two years and twelve or so pits, he would go back to the first pit and dig out the contents—a beautiful, brown, friable (crumbly and loamy) mix with no unpleasant odors—and spread it over the garden.

An example of a dry closet, or composting toilet.