One of our most valuable human products is something we call waste in modern times.
Our urine is an incredible resource
- Sterile
- High nitrogen
- Valuable in fibre processing, dyeing and fabric setting
- Also used in tanning skins
In permaculture there is a recognition that this is NOT A WASTE .. and we should find ways to collect and utilize this valuable free resource
- Bale of straw surrounded by shelter to pee on outside
- Compost toilets
Bird Urine is part of their faecal output GUANO and together is one of the richest sources of naturally available Phosphorus as phosphate (P2O5) (and Nitrogen), particularly that of seabird colonies and bat caves.
- In the 1800s the natural soils across Europe were already so depleted that the GUANO resources of South America were being exploited, shipped by Tall Sailing Ships facing the wrath of the Cape Horn to get to rich pickings on the West coast.
- These expeditions and trade brought us the Araucana blue egg laying chicken to Europe
- The word “guano” originates from the Andean indigenous language Quechua, where it refers to any form of dung used as an agricultural fertilizer
- Unsurprisingly many of these areas were mined and stripped unsustainably destroying the habitats.
- Demand for guano rapidly declined after 1910 with the development of the Haber–Bosch process for extracting nitrogen from the atmosphere.
- HOWEVER this requires fossil fuels so we need to find natural ways to fertilize and repair our soils
- All birds provide these nutrients so encouraging breeding and activity of native wild birds in the places we need Phosphorus and Nitrogen is a useful way to increase these naturally
Idioms
- Spend a penny : Londoners could make a penny a bucket for their urine. So spending a penny to earn a penny
- Taking the piss : in 1612 13,000 gallons of London urine was transported up to the tweed mills of Whitby to soften the fibres of wool. The captains of the ships delivering the payload were often embarrassed of their cargo and when asked what they were transporting would oft say wine, to which their detractors would reply ‘No, you are taking the piss’.
- Piss poor : some think this was from being so poor you needed to sell your pee, but then the dictionaries say the earliest use is mid 1900s Maybe the use just went out of fashion when the industrial processing ended the need for pee collection ?
- not to have a pot to piss in, indicating extreme poverty in early 1900s.
