Our excrement is a natural, renewable and sustainable resource – if only we can overcome our visceral disgust of it

In the natural world, nothing goes to waste. Matter constantly decomposes and reconstitutes in new shapes, serving new purposes. We have much to learn from this continuum of transmutation in human societies, where we throw “away” our waste to some invisible hereafter, rather than accept the truth: it remains.

In an era of tight budgets, why don’t we just drag deer off to the side of the road—far enough away so that scavengers don’t become roadkill themselves—and then let the scavengers and decomposers provide their clean-up services for free?[7] Why do we dedicate so much time, money, and sheer physical exertion to transforming carrion into trash? The m... See more