~Why, oh why, couldn't I have had this article for current events last during the school year? It would have brought up an interesting debate. Oh well.
Some years ago, there were plans to build a sewage sludge incinerator at Howden, near Newcastle (England). This reduces the volume of land-disposal sewerage by straining off some of the water, then burning the rest by using chemical waste as fuel. It's a lousy idea - nearby waste incinerators were already a problem because of insufficient temperatures to avoid producing dioxins. How was a burner that also took heat out to cook the sludge going to avoid this ?
One of its most vociferous opponents was Roy Hilton, a local Green campaigner and the canonical straggly-bearded vegetarian. A splendid chap, he produced all manner of alternative schemes to operate Tyneside's nettys by earth composting, schemes that often made far more sense than the Howden plan.. A standing joke amongst Newcastle greens was that Roy is so old he'd been a communist when it wasn't a dumb thing to be (the Spanish war era). He's still regularly standing for local council elections.
For a wet climate like England's, water closets are viable. But in anywhere vaguely arid, earth composting is the way to go. I'm even looking at builidng one for an isolated site in some local woodland.
One of its most vociferous opponents was Roy Hilton, a local Green campaigner and the canonical straggly-bearded vegetarian. A splendid chap, he produced all manner of alternative schemes to operate Tyneside's nettys by earth composting, schemes that often made far more sense than the Howden plan.. A standing joke amongst Newcastle greens was that Roy is so old he'd been a communist when it wasn't a dumb thing to be (the Spanish war era). He's still regularly standing for local council elections.
For a wet climate like England's, water closets are viable. But in anywhere vaguely arid, earth composting is the way to go. I'm even looking at builidng one for an isolated site in some local woodland.
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