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Flush: The Remarkable Science of an Unlikely Treasure

byBryn Nelson

Science writer Bryn Nelson investigates human waste as a valuable source of nutrients, energy, medical insight, and environmental innovation. Sewers, treatment plants, farms, laboratories, and sanitation projects reveal technologies that recover phosphorus, generate biogas, conserve water, track disease, and even support microbiome therapies. The book confronts cultural disgust while recognizing the enormous public-health achievement of safe disposal. Nelson argues that linear systems treating waste as useless create pollution and squander resources. A more circular approach could make sanitation cleaner, more equitable, and better suited to a crowded, climate-stressed world.

Publisher

Grand Central Publishing

Publication date

Sep 06, 2022

Format

Print edition

Pages

352

ISBN

9781538720028