Joseph Jenkins, center, is shown in Erdenet, Mongolia, with a woman who built her own compost bin and Gonchig Khisigdavaa, a retired agronomist volunteering to help institute a human composting initiative. Jenkins visited the country earlier this month to implement a humanure pilot project for those living in nomadic communities.

GROVE CITY — Joseph Jenkins has traveled halfway around the world spreading humanure news.

Jenkins, who lives just outside Grove City, recently returned from his second trip in six months to Mongolia, where he has begun a pilot program to introduce human composting toilets to a formerly nomadic population.

The settling of the nomadic people is creating an ecological disaster.

According to Jenkins, a large portion of the Mongolian population was formerly nomadic, traveling the countryside in movable homes known as gers. Because of recent bad winters and other factors, the nomads are settling in their gers on the outskirts of cities.

Because the new settlements have no running water, human waste is beginning to contaminate water sources.

"Human sanitation is a big problem in the world because the accepted solution is water-based toilets ... and a lot of people don't have a lot of water,"said Jenkins, who makes his living working with slate roofs.

The Planning Development Collaborative International, a sustainable development consulting firm based in Washington, D.C., is looking to address the problem in Mongolia. One solution the group looked into was human composting toilets, which require no water.

Internet research led the group to Jenkins, whose book, "The Humanure Handbook," has sold more than 30,000 copies. In it, Jenkins discusses, among other things, how human composting toilets can be used to turn human waste into safe, usable fertilizer.

"My job is to introduce (the Mongolians)to the concept and see if it might work over there,"Jenkins said.

On his first visit to the country in late February, Jenkins made presentations in many of the ger communities to gauge interest and feasibility.

"They were unexpectedly enthusiastic,"Jenkins said. "They wanted to start using these toilets immediately. I realized I had to put the brakes on the thing so they could undergo training."

Jenkins returned home to put together a training program so those participating would have a clear understanding of the multi-step process. He also created a video showing how his own composting toilet is used. The video was narrated by a Mongolian woman who had accompanied Jenkins to the United States.

On his return to Mongolia last month, Jenkins selected and trained 12 volunteer families for a pilot program that will last two years, which is how long the composting process takes. The results will then be tested for safety.

If the pilot is successful, Jenkins hopes the program would be introduced on a wider basis, although no commitment to that has been made.

Jenkins said if successful, the composting toilets would be a practical solution to the problem because they can be constructed in the country for about $6 each.

Their use is limited only by the availability of a carbon-based additive, such as sawdust or peat moss, used to control odor. Jenkins believes many of the agricultural activities in the ger communities would create a large amount of byproduct that could be used for that purpose.

Though Jenkins has done slate roof consulting in Spain, this is the first time he has done instruction on human composting outside of North America. His humanure handbook has been translated into two other languages, Hebrew and Korean.