Do a search on this site for Milorganite, a popular brand of biosolids that you can get at places like Home Depot. It's been discussed many times and you'll find both positive and negative things written about it.

There are many sewage treatment facilities that produce a fertilizer from the waste they process, but just how good, or bad, it might be depends on what goes in and how it is treated. Milorganite is one brand and is made from the sewage generated in the Milwaukee Sewerage Commissions territory, but there are others in other areas of the country. These biosolids that are sold as a fertilizer, commercially, must meet fairly strict standards so your purchasing them is pretty safe, what is a problem is the sludge not well treated and trucked out to some farms.

Yeah, but is it acceptable under organic standards? I mean am I being hoodwinked by this company? It becomes a matter of trust? Finally, does the product work well? There just seems something very WRONG with applying human waste to my lawn no matter how well it's been treated.

Yup, ok it works good and perhaps its a good means to deal with the issue of what to do with sewage. But on my lawn? Yeah....throw up in my mouth. I can't believe this company has no problem using and promoting it. I'm also surprised that more people have not complained. It just seems plain wrong.

Oops pasted the wrong link... here's the link to the USDA minutes

http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRD3109121

At least it was grass related :)

Yup, ok it works good and perhaps its a good means to deal with the issue of what to do with sewage. But on my lawn? Yeah....throw up in my mouth. I can't believe this company has no problem using and promoting it. I'm also surprised that more people have not complained. It just seems plain wrong.

There are good arguments on both sides of this topic. When it finally comes down to buying products, YOU have to decide. If you don't like it, then don't buy it. Just because I like it doesn't mean you aren't going to be creeped out by it.

The biosolids available in San Antonio are called Alamo-Gro. The company take the semi treated sewage, composts it with telephone books and tree trimmings, and then sells it. This is the same process they use to compost horse manure. It looks, smells, and feels identical to the horse based compost they sell side by side. The composting process meets the federal regs for time and temperature or else it gets recycled into the next batch. Pathogen count is 0.00 after a couple days, just like with horse manure. The state health inspectors test it every 4 days for the first 20 or so. It has to have 0.00 pathogens with every test after the first 4 days (if I'm not mistaken). I believe the city gets a cut of the action.

In Milwaukee they start with the same sewage sludge and cook it to 180 degrees for several hours until it is dry. When it cools off they call it Milorganite.

The Organic Materials Review Institute and the USDA's National Organic Standards panel are relatively new to the organic field and Milorganite was recognized by many organic gardeners as acceptable long before these bodies came along. Many of these biosolid fertilizers, such as Milorganite, are collected by the areas sewer system, digested anaerobically and the methane gas generated is collected and used to heat the resulting sludge so it can then be further processed. some people that have not kept up to date think some of these sludges still have heavy metals in the even though they do not and have not for many years.
It may well be that these sewage wastes are not listed by OMRI because no one has asked for a review, if the products were unnacceptable they would be listed as unnacceptable.

"It may well be that these sewage wastes are not listed by OMRI because no one has asked for a review, if the products were unnacceptable they would be listed as unnacceptable.

That's not the case. OMRI has discussed biosolids and sludge for quite some time and their issues isn't just on heavy metals. From this 1997 document that biosolids and sludge. OMRI considers that sludge is synthetic for several reasons. Sludge composition varies widely, but inevitably
contains a number of constituents. In addition to organic matter from human waste, sludge also contains a broad
range of synthetic substances that have been intentionally or accidentally introduced into wastewater. These
include synthetic polymers, surfactants, metal salts, and industrial by-products. Commonly used household
products form another source of synthetic constituents found in sewage sludge. These include soaps, detergents,
cleansers, solvents, and drain cleaners. Many of these products are surfactants based on alkylphenol ethoxylates
(Talmage, 1994).

That document also indicates that the USDA NOP has it classified as synthetic. There is a lot of information on both sites regarding biosolids. Might need to search for "sewage sludge" as it is more commonly referred to on the USDA site.

Both of those bodies are pretty picky with things. For example, lime is fine but heat lime to make burned lime and it's not fine, add water to burned lime to make hydrated lime and that's not fine either.

I know that people throw all sorts of things down their drains and that people complain about how water and aquatic life are being contaminated as a result. Aside from they icky factor of spreading around other people's waste my biggest concern is contaminants.

Add to that all the prescription and non prescription drugs people take and it sounds less appealing. I also have to pay quarterly sewage fees to get rid of it I'm not going to pay to buy it back :)

I think people consider it sustainable and like it for that reason but sustainable and organic are not synonyms and do not always overlap.

I'm a bit surprised kimmsr. I've seen you criticize the use of genetically modified corn as organic fertilizer.

I get some from the city of Bryan tx. All I can say is it sure helps my grass. The composted biosolids and wood chips is 14.00/yd, screened @.375", very fine. Hard to beat at that price and I don't eat my grass.

ruh-roh