From fertilizer to refuse: the history of human waste disposal in Shanghai, 1949–2010

Abstract As the most populous city in China, Shanghai’s human waste disposal underwent a dramatic transition between 1949 and 2010. While human waste continued to be sold to farmers as fertilizer, the authorities attempted to modernize the methods of manual removal, promoting nightsoil dump stations and vacuum trucks from the early 1970s. These new methods soon became widespread. However, urban human waste gradually lost its value as fertilizer from the late 1970s, chiefly because of the popularization of chemical fertilizers, at which point Shanghai was faced with serious human waste issues. Encountering this unforeseen shift, the municipality had to accept the reality that there were no longer rural markets for urban human waste, and that it would have to start treating human waste as refuse. In contrast to the Western model, Shanghai’s approach to modernizing human waste disposal was distinctive, having been influenced by factors beyond the city.