Re-Envisioning Sanitation As a Human-Derived Resource System

Abstract

Sanitation remains a global challenge, both in terms of access to toilet facilities and resource intensity (e.g., energy consumption) of waste treatment. Overcoming barriers to universal sanitation coverage and sustainable resource management requires approaches that manage bodily excreta within coupled human and natural systems. In recent years, numerous analytical methods have been developed to understand cross-disciplinary constraints, opportunities, and trade-offs around sanitation and resource recovery. However, without a shared language or conceptual framework, efforts from individual disciplines or geographic contexts may remain isolated, preventing the accumulation of generalized knowledge. Here, we develop a version of the social-ecological systems framework modified for the specific characteristics of bodily excreta. This framework offers a shared vision for sanitation as a human-derived resource system, where people are part of the resource cycle. Through sanitation technologies and management strategies, resources including water, organics, and nutrients accumulate, transform, and impact human experiences and natural environments. Within the framework, we establish a multitiered lexicon of variables, characterized by breadth and depth, to support harmonized understanding and development of models and analytical approaches. This framework’s refinement and use will guide interdisciplinary study around sanitation to identify guiding principles for sanitation that advance sustainable development at the nature-society interface.

Toward Zero Hunger Through Coupled Ecological Sanitation-Agriculture Systems

“…However, focusing on the roles of soil fertility and the farming decisions of smallholder farmers oversimplifies the drivers of these chronic problems and impedes our ability to meaningfully address the SDGs. In countries like Haiti, where colonial subjugation and later neoliberal economic subordination have shaped food systems, circular nutrient management may also offer an alternative natural resource that increases independence (Steckley and Shamsie, 2015;Trimmer et al, 2020). In addition to providing climate change solutions, EcoSan amplifies the positive effects of domestic food security and sanitation through increased domestic community selfsufficiency and reduced dependence on foreign food aid and agronomic intervention (Wanner, 2015).…”

Navigating Multidimensional Social–Ecological System Trade-Offs across Sanitation Alternatives in an Urban Informal Settlement

“…Re-envisioning sanitation as a human-derived resource system, where people are part of the resource cycle, can guide analysis within broader socioeconomic and environmental contexts . Fundamentally, this vision connects an individual’s diet with resource excretion, sanitation strategies, and potential reuse of recovered resources.…”

“…Through these processes, the characteristics of various actors, governance systems, reuse strategies, and ecological conditions interact, contributing to positive or negative social, economic, and environmental outcomes. The sanitation social–ecological system (S–SES) framework, developed in parallel with this study, offers a foundation for analyzing sanitation possibilities across multiple dimensions of sustainability, defining an overarching structure containing a multitiered lexicon of relevant variables . Here, we use this framework to guide our analysis of sanitation alternatives in an urban informal settlement, contributing to a greater understanding of system impacts and factors influencing success.…”

“…More broadly, this first example of using the S–SES framework shows how it can guide empirical studies, helping to provide consistent framing. Over time, such studies can also refine the framework and define generalizable guiding principles for sustainable human-derived resource systems …”

Invited Perspective: Sanitation Innovation Holds Promise but Must Consider Risks to Users

“…Such strategies create a potential “win–win” through valorization: If value-added products can be reclaimed from nutrient- and energetically rich “waste,” these materials become an economic resource, incentivizing their removal from the local environment ( Harder et al. 2020 ; Trimmer et al. 2020 ).…”