A History of Human Waste as Fertilizer

In summer of 1724 two groups of Japanese villages were arguing over a sewage issue in Osaka. The dispute was about waste removal, but not quite in the way one would imagine. The villages weren’t arguing about whose job it was to dispose of the filth, but rather about who had the rights to collect it, keep it, and use it. Notably, the village residents didn’t consider the substance filth. They used a special term, night soil, to describe the product they were after. And they were in dire need of it.  Read the Full Story Here

 

Comments are closed.