Sewers Past and Present

Raymond Smith and Nicholas Young chart the history of human waste disposal.

A stream of human filth runs throughout history. Each adult adds to it between 150 and 450 grams of excrement and 1.3 to 1.5 kilos of urine every day. In Britain, this now generates an annual total of more than 25 million tonnes of sewage sludge, over a quarter of which is still dumped at sea.

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