“Sludge is a toxic stew of not only human waste, but everything else that goes down every drain.” – United Sludge-Free Alliance
There are two kinds of toxic sludge.
One is the food processing waste from food processing plants. Waste removal companies sign contracts with food processing companies such as Tyson Chicken to collect the wastewater, or sludge, and dispose of it. Food processing residuals. It sounds rather harmless.
It’s not. It’s the wastewater from the washing of animal carcasses and the chemical cleaning of slaughter areas. It may contain blood; bone; fruit and vegetable peels; seeds; shells; pits; cheese whey; off-specification food products; hides; hair; and feathers.”
It’s chemicals that won’t break down in water treatment plants. Chemicals that don’t break down in the waste pits they build to hold the sludge. Chemicals that leach into the water supply. Chemicals that contaminate our land, our food, and our kids.
The other item that is considered toxic sludge is the sewage residue that won’t break down in water treatment plants. This is household, medical, chemical, and industrial waste. It has pharmaceuticals, hormones, bacteria, pathogens, and unknown materials that can result from this toxic combination.
The powers that be and the business owners that profit from spreading this sludge on our land like to say that all these pathogens and chemicals have been safely broken down. They call it “fertilizer.”
It’s not.
As the United Sludge-Free Alliance points out, “Sewage treatment plants were never designed to produce fertilizer – They were designed to treat and condense whatever goes down the drain from homes, businesses, industry, hospitals, laboratories and funeral homes, where it collects at municipal waste water treatment plants.”
So how does it go from waste product to fertilizer?
When the toxic sludge leaves the manufacturer, it is called “waste.” It’s then trucked to a farm and dumped into a specially constructed holding tank, like a manure pit. This is called an anaerobic lagoon. Here it becomes “fertilizer.” Chemicals are added to help the sludge break down faster. While this is happening, gases such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and methane are emitted from the pit. And somehow, all the chemicals, pathogens, fats, oils, heavy metals, and animal body parts will become “fertilizer” when this process is complete.
Whatever complete means. It’s at the discretion of the farmer.
There are supposedly regulations regarding where this toxic waste product (excuse me, fertilizer) can be spread. The field has to have good drainage. It can’t be near wetlands or ponds. The idea is that the contaminates (they know there are contaminates) will be filtered out before they reach any water supply. But there’s no testing that proves this.
The businesses who profit off this also say it’s only to be spread on fields that feed animals, not humans. As if you can separate chunks of the earth. The violated fields produce the feed that the animals eat and we go on to eat what the animal produces: eggs, milk, or meat. It is all interconnected.
Both food processing sludge and sewage sludge have heavy metals, antibiotics, disinfectants, drugs, steroids, hormones, bacteria, pathogens, and chemicals. You will find semi-volatile organics such as 4-Chloroaniline, which is used in the production of agricultural chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, medical products and drugs. It is toxic if swallowed, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin.
Toxic sludge is being absorbed into the largest living organ on our planet – the skin of the earth. It is affecting all of us.
It’s time to stop.
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