Dear Bogdan,

You had written:

however in Ukraine EM technologies became a religion and almost a sacred cow.

what did you mean by this?

Kris mentioned the Wikipedia article on pit additives: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_additive
We initially had the content as part of the article on EM (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_microorganism) but I am so glad we decided to move it out of there into its own article. Watching the EM Wikipedia article has been very painful and I took if off my watchlist in the end. There was countless attempts by various editors to include in there pseudo-science and unproven stuff... So I gave up on that one and hope that others are keeping up the battle to have only reliabe, proven information included.

Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear Christophe,

Yes, please share the information (reports, scientific papers, presentations and alike) here on the discussion forum. Please also include information on costs. (I must say that I am very sceptical about these kinds of additives so please let us know what you have there.)

I had a look at your earlier posts on the forum, see here on 19 Nov 2013: forum.susana.org/280-faecal-sludge-treat...des-em?start=24#6450
and here one day later: forum.susana.org/280-faecal-sludge-treat...des-em?start=24#6505

However, in both posts, you did not provide any detailed information nor an explanation on the mechanisms which would result in the lower sludge accumulation rates.

In your last post you had written:

I'm sorry I can not give you more scientific details. The only things I can give you are the results (observances) from the pilot project and the data from the producer who protects his know-how…

Is more information available by now? Do you work for the company marketing the product or for an NGO using the product?
Looking forward to reading more from you about this important topic.

Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear all,

I have tested during 4 years with different international organizations, a bio additive and an application methodology in different countries.
Results are spectacular and the fecal sludge accumulation has been stopped for a very long time (4 years for one of our pilote project in Ivory Coast), including the reduction of flies and smell ...
The issue is not the reduction of the feacal sludge already in place in the pit but to stop the accumulation of sludge at the beginning of using the pit.

I can share with you further information if needed.

Cheers!

Christophe

Thank you very much! I missed that this topic is already avavailable and even Wikipedia artickle already exist.


I prbably will agree with your opinion -- however in Ukraine EM technologies became a religion and almost a sacred cow. But at least I have some references now

We had the discussion a few times before, see: forum.susana.org/198-wikipedia/12042-wik...roorganisms-em#12042

The consensus seems to be that the effect is difficult to measure when applying scientific standards and most likely hugely overstated or not existing at all.

I personally think that smell reduction is at least imaginable, but significantly better solids reduction is highly unlikely.

Hello everyone!
I would be interested to discuss the additives issue (including EM bacteria) which are currently advertised and offered often as the best solution for septic sludge, toilet pit odor reduction and composting process enhancement . However some trusty sources point that at least in a septic tank these additives would actually may do harm rather than good and cause leach field clogging. Same for the composing toilets while the other sources highly recommend and praise them.
Could we try to separate the real facts from "marketing and selling" and get the balanced view on these products?