Excrement Happens For centuries, society has been faced with a
problem: what to do with the vast volumes of human waste
produced by its population. Treated properly, human excreta can
be a natural and beneficial fertiliser. But today, across the
industrialised world, we are paying the price for two centuries
of a 'get rid of it ' approach to human wastes - and our soil is
being poisoned as a result. By Peter Montague. Ho w I t Al l
Bega n Humans began to lead a settled life, growing crops to
supplement hunting and gathering, only about 10,000 years ago.
For all time before that, humans "deposited their excreta -
urine and faeces on the ground, here and there, in the manner of
all other land creatures."1 The soil and its communities
(including plants, small animals and micro-organisms) captured
almost all of the nutrients in animal excrement and recycled
them into new components for soil. In this way, the nutrients
were endlessly recycled within the soil ecosystem and largely
kept out of surface water. As a re