In the USA this is illegal too but it is mostly a health thing, eg you can’t live somewhere with no place to shit because you’ll end up shitting in the river. Not that “health and safety” isn’t constantly abused to brutalize the indigent, but it does also kind of make sense to not let people live long term where they can’t shit, knowing what we know now about outhouses and groundwater.
That said, local governments in rural areas can barely keep fire departments and schools open. Nobody is checking on your vacant land unless someone complains, and they’d have to drive past fifty other shanties to get to yours.
Isn’t contaminating groundwater only an issue of you are pooping near a river, stream or well though? At a reasonable distance it takes so long for anything to move through that it’s not an issue and will just rot down instead.
The Humanure Handbook by Joe Jenkins is a useful guide for a low-tech, sanitary, low-odor composting toilet option that is safe if correctly maintained.
In the USA this is illegal too but it is mostly a health thing, eg you can’t live somewhere with no place to shit because you’ll end up shitting in the river. Not that “health and safety” isn’t constantly abused to brutalize the indigent, but it does also kind of make sense to not let people live long term where they can’t shit, knowing what we know now about outhouses and groundwater.
That said, local governments in rural areas can barely keep fire departments and schools open. Nobody is checking on your vacant land unless someone complains, and they’d have to drive past fifty other shanties to get to yours.
Isn’t contaminating groundwater only an issue of you are pooping near a river, stream or well though? At a reasonable distance it takes so long for anything to move through that it’s not an issue and will just rot down instead.
The Humanure Handbook by Joe Jenkins is a useful guide for a low-tech, sanitary, low-odor composting toilet option that is safe if correctly maintained.