Looking beyond current sanitation models in the United States to develop new ways of managing human waste as a resource.
What happens when you flush the toilet? Where does the waste go?
In this engagingly written ethnographic study, Nick Kawa traces the path of human bodily waste as it travels across multiple sites in the American Midwest.In addition to documenting the treatment and diversion of sewage waste, this book chronicles the growing movement to promote sewage sludge, or “biosolids,” to fertilize industrial agricultural fields, urban gardens, public parks, and ecological restoration sites—a complex endeavor that has sparked debates about potential harms to human health and the environment."After the Flush" presents the modern sanitation system through the eyes of insider experts, sharing insights from wastewater treatment plant operators and environmental scientists, as well as activists advocating for alternative models of the industrial system.These methods include low-cost forms of environmental sanitation, illustrated by the author's personal experiences with a compost toilet. By redefining human bodily waste as merely part of the human ecosystem, this book offers radical possibilities for managing man's relationship with himself, his body, his community, and his environment.
