I’ve been studying / beginning to practice permaculture for a little while now and one thing that is often discussed is the subject of human waste.<p>When you take food out of the ground and consume it, you’ve removed some fertility from the ground. Either you have animals put it back in as manure, or you use some kind of synthetic fertilizer.<p>When the food goes through your body, you’re also generating manure. But typically we ship it off to some central location where it becomes a massive collection of toxic waste.<p>The permaculture argument is that if we kept as much of that waste on site as possible, we’d be recycling nutrients rather than not only wasting them, but creating toxic hazards due to the size of the collections.<p>On a small scale, think of how fertile the ground over a septic field is — wildflowers and grass will grow like crazy.<p>The more, er, devoted will go as far as installing composting toilets.<p>The reason I think this is relevant is that when the waste stays local, you’re much more conscious about what’s in it. If you have a septic system, you really don’t want pills going into it — especially if you also have well water. When it’s being flushed to some unknown location it’s easy to not give it a second thought.