AVERAGE FAMILY = HOW MUCH "STUFF"

Ever wonder how much human generated solid waste (“stuff”) going into a septic system you have to deal with on a daily basis for a family of four? The average sized family in America has 4.3 people living and occupying the home as their primary residence. One day I asked myself that question and decided to find out. I asked four people to give me their day’s production of “stuff” (I gave them the means to do so). They of course believed that I’d lost my mind and considering what I’ve been doing for 40 years, I may have quite some time ago. None the less, I persevered.

I completely de-hydrated the “stuff” because the water component doesn’t count when trying to determine what the daily volume of “stuff” four people create. I was quite frankly shocked. I couldn’t fill up a measuring cup with the de-hydrated “stuff”. When viewed from that perspective I had to ask more questions. Like, why is it so difficult to deal with that small amount of organic “stuff”? Why does the government and septic industry have so little creativity that they can’t figure out a simple and inexpensive way to remove that relatively small amount of organic “stuff” from our septic systems on a daily basis? What’s important is that property owners realize how little organic “stuff” they put into a septic system every day.

There are components of a conventional anaerobic (without atmospheric oxygen) septic system that accepts this very small amount of “stuff” and make it problematic for our septic systems. The ultimate problem is in the disposal field, whether it’s a leach field, leach bed, seepage pit / dry well or mound.

Next I will discuss the component that creates the septic system problem from this small volume of daily organic "stuff".

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