The New Scientist, or some other magazine had an article about the possibility of a phosphorus shortage and that peak production will hit in 30 years. The thing is that I never understood why Aldous Huxley was talking about phosphorus in Brave new world.
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
“Phosphorus recovery,” explained Henry telegraphically. “On their way up the chimney the gases go through four separate treatments. P2O5 used to go right out of circulation every time they cremated some one. Now they recover over ninety-eight per cent of it. More than a kilo and a half per adult corpse. Which makes the best part of four hundred tons of phosphorus every year from England alone.” Henry spoke with a happy pride, rejoicing whole-heartedly in the achievement, as though it had been his own. “Fine to think we can go on being socially useful even after we’re dead. Making plants grow.”
It amazes me that that a SciFi book from 1931 had mentioned such things. Some of the other ideas in the book have been discredited now (sleep learning, etc) but often the concepts that he conveyed still hold true. I’ll have to read some of his other works.
Sorry I cannot find the article. Search:phosphorus shortage
To my understanding, modern fertilizer has a component of phosphorus that is now mined, when that runs out, recycling is going to be the only way to get phosphorus. Pretty much all living things need phosphorus and use it, the more we flush down the toilet, the worse off we are.
Potash - Saskatchewan’s contribution to the global economy. SK is the world’s largest producer, supplying a quarter of the world’s potassium needs. They socialised the industry back in the thirties, btw.
There’s a lot of potassium, aka potash, in vegetable matter, but its densest in hardwood. Before mineral potash was discovered, potash was created by burning hardwood, adding water to the ashes to make lye, and then boiling off the water to concentrate the soluable chemicals, chiefly potassium. It became a cottage industry for pioneers in North America - a cash crop that could recover some return from the immense effort that it took to turn the forests of eastern NA into farmland.
Fertilizer usually has nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium in ratios like 10-20-10. Nitrogen can be made plant accessible* and is abundant (some plants even modify the nitrogen in the air) potassium, from what I have read, still seems to be able to be mined for another 100-200 years. Leaving phosphorus as the weak link. Good news for Morocco (pdf) I guess.
Wikipedia says there is a bit less than a kilo of phosphorus in a human body, so less than Huxley says. Maybe science did revise the figures? In any case 85% is in the bones, so it is good to recycle bones. Bonemeal is a good source for organic phosphorus. You don’t need NPK fertilizer and mine the stuff. Just go organic. Also humans pee up to 3 grams of phosphorus every day, that’s a kilo per year, as much as is inside the body. So separating your sh*t from your wee will help a lot. Use the urine in the compost, its a great activator, adds a lot of nitrogen, apart from the phosphorus, and acts as compost activator, feeding the aerobic bacts.
Eating less meat also helps. Phosphorus is mainly part of DNA and RNA, so there is a lot in seeds, nuts, beans, grain etc. Eat the seeds,rather than feeding ten times as much to livestock, in order to eat meat.
Still, I like to eat some meat, but not a lot. And there is grassland for feeding livestock, which would not suit grain production. But there is no need to burn up the amazon just to grow peanuts to feed the world’s livestock to get your beef.
Yep, the solution will be some kind of phosphorus reclaiming. as costs rise, it will look more appealing.
Sweden for example has mandated that 60% of phosphorus must be recovered at its wastewater treatment plants by 2015 and the UK is also promoting phosphorus recycling. Every municipal wastewater treatment plant is potentially a ‘phosphorus mine’. Agricultural and industrial waste streams are also potential ‘mines’. New ‘no-mix’ toilets are also being tested in Germany which separate waste ‘at the source’ for reclaiming phosphorus. Today, around one quarter of the phosphates in municipal sewage in Europe are already effectively recycled as fertilizer for agriculture.
Whether such systems could be implemented in places like India will be the real question.
Aldous Huxley, Point Counter Point
“That’s the trouble with you politicians. You don’t even think of the important things. Talking about progress and votes and Bolshevism and every year allowing a million tons of phosphorus pentoxide to run away into the sea. It’s idiotic, it’s criminal. it’s … it’s fiddling while Rome is burning.” He saw Webley opening his mouth to speak and made haste to anticipate what he imagined was going to be his objection. “No doubt,” he said, “you think you can make good the loss with phosphate rocks. But what’ll you do when the deposits are exhausted?” He poked Everard in the shirt front. “What then? Only two hundred years and they’ll be finished. You think we’re being progressive because we’re living on our capital. Phosphates, coal, petroleum, nitre - squander them all. That’s your policy. And meanwhile you go round trying to make our flesh creep with talk about revolutions.”
I guess I was just thinking that it was impressive that Huxley was mentioning this in his writings from at least 1928 and by 2015 people will be recycling their waste for phosphorus.
Okay, so let’s say I want to best contribute after I buy the farm. It occurs to me that while a simple burial - no embalming (of course), no box, no nothin’ - would be good, it is a tad too site-specific. Hard to share the wealth, so to speak, and it’s still a potentially incomplete solution on its own. It also occurs to me that while ashes have merit, much is lost in the process as well, if such atmospheric dispersal can really be called a “loss”. And bones are the kicker. I would want those to be part of the nutrient equation, absolutely. Now, the answer to me is obvious, but the question of details remains: should I be ground up pre-dried, or as-is? The first way involves preparatory time and highly controlled conditions (and probably a notable expenditure of energy in any locale but a desert) but is sorta tidy if you don’t think about the dust; but the second way, while most immediate and less energy- and time-consumptive, is just gross and probably smells bad. Not that I’d care about esthetics at that point, but someone has to deal with it. You know.
Well there is the honorable old American tradition of sky-burial:
we stick you up in a tree,
let the elements and the birds do their work,
and let them recycle the bits and pieces,
and we can grind your the bones later…
other than that we could compost you,
let the earth critters do their work,
and perhaps crush your bones later as well.
We will have ceremonies of bone crushings and
spreading out bone meal!
I like the direction this is taking. Options are good, and indicative of culture. And ceremony is always cool. The more industral-minded could pimp out a wood chipper (remember that scene in the movie Fargo?) and have a hoolie while we feed the veggies.
Well there is the green solvent dissolution method, practiced by some Scandinavian groups, although mostly on fish and they don’t take it as far as it should/could go. Maybe I should start a company? The Solvent Green Dissolution Recycling Corporation, just call it the Solvent Corporation for short. No lye I think it would work.
I can’t think of any legal way, we don’t have the infrastructure. The animal industries have ways of making bone meal (or activated charcoal*) and reusing what ever is left over, but really, it is the life time of waste production that causes the most damage. Still, efficient disposal would have to cost less than conventional methods (morticians would lobby hard) and the environmentalists would certainly go for it, give it a nice name like “Responsible Remains” and I am sure you could find a secure place in the market.