What the Heck is Dillo Dirt?

A Cautionary Tale of Compost and the Dirty Truth They Don’t Want You to Know

Let’s not sugar-coat it. Dillo Dirt is not some cute lil' eco-soil. It’s not enchanted mulch made by forest fairies. It’s not even good old-fashioned backyard compost.

It’s poop. Human poop. Sanitized, processed, heat-treated human sewage.

Still feeling crunchy? Or are you now clutching your reusable mug and dry-heaving in the herb garden?

So, Seriously... What Is It?

Dillo Dirt is a product made in Austin, Texas. It’s been around for decades, and it’s basically city-level waste management’s answer to the age-old question: “What do we do with all this human waste?”

Answer: Mix it with yard trimmings, heat it up real hot, let it sit a while, call it compost... and then sell it to gardeners.

That’s not compost. That’s PR with a side of pathogens.

“But It’s Treated!” They Say...

Sure, the official pitch is that Dillo Dirt goes through high-heat composting and meets all the “safety standards.” But guess what? Just because something can pass a test doesn’t mean it belongs in your salad.

What else is in there? Pharmaceuticals? Microplastics? Heavy metals? Whatever people flushed last Thursday night?

Nobody really knows. Because they don’t test for all that - at least, not comprehensively or publicly that I am aware of. Too expensive, they say. Too inconvenient. And yet, so convenient to dump it all into something the public’s been trained to see as “organic” or “sustainable.”

Y’all. We are not that gullible - are we? 🤔 😂.

Call It What It Is: Garden Gimmickry

Let’s get real. This isn’t some miracle soil. This is a municipal clean-up plan dressed in garden boots and marketed as eco-conscious gold. Someone, somewhere, said:

“Let’s slap a cute name on it, throw in some leaf clippings, and sell literal human waste to home gardeners. Tell ‘em it’s good for tomatoes.”

And sadly, it worked. People are buying it. Spreading it. And planting their food in it.

Not in This Garden, Charlie

No way, no how. If it came out of a human or animal, it’s not going in my kale bed. Period.

We don’t need sewage sludge in our sacred soil. We don’t want the runoff, the smell, or the sketchy side effects. There are so many clean, safe, poop-free ways to nourish the earth - from food scrap composting to leaf mold to vermiculture.

But Dillo Dirt? That’s a hard crunchy NO.

Bottom Line 

Compost is beautiful. Regeneration is powerful. But that does not mean anything labeled “compost” belongs in your food garden.

Read the fine print. Ask the hard questions. And if the ingredients list includes biosolids, sewage sludge, or anything that once swirled down a toilet - back away from the shovel.

Tell Charlie to keep his poop gold. We’ve got better ways to grow magic.

Final Scoop (Hold the Poop 💩)

If something smells off in the garden - maybe it’s not your soil. Maybe it’s the idea that we’re supposed to believe human waste magically becomes “eco-friendly” just because it’s heated up and repackaged.

Let’s not lose our crunchy common sense in the compost bin. Just because something is labeled “green” doesn’t mean it grew from wisdom.

You don’t need Dillo Dirt to grow real, nourishing food. You need clean soil, sunlight, water, and actual organic matter - not what got flushed away and renamed "premium."

So let's compost smarter, garden cleaner, and leave the sludge marketing schemes where they belong - in the sewer. 

This is all of course in my opinion only!

🌿 No Poop in My Garden - Composting with Clarity and without any 💩.