Human waste is a waste type usually used to refer to byproducts of digestion

Digestion

Digestion is the mechanical and chemical breakdown of food into smaller components that are more easily absorbed into a blood stream, for instance. Digestion is a form of catabolism: a breakdown of large food molecules to smaller ones....

, such as feces

Feces

Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...

 and urine

Urine

Urine is a typically sterile liquid by-product of the body that is secreted by the kidneys through a process called urination and excreted through the urethra. Cellular metabolism generates numerous by-products, many rich in nitrogen, that require elimination from the bloodstream...

. Human waste is most often transported as sewage

Sewage

Sewage is water-carried waste, in solution or suspension, that is intended to be removed from a community. Also known as wastewater, it is more than 99% water and is characterized by volume or rate of flow, physical condition, chemical constituents and the bacteriological organisms that it contains...

 in waste water through sewerage

Sanitary sewer

A sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...

 systems. Alternatively it is disposed of in nappies (diaper

Diaper

A nappy or a diaper is a kind of pant that allows one to defecate or urinate on oneself discreetly. When diapers become soiled, they require changing; this process is often performed by a second person such as a parent or caregiver...

s) in municipal solid waste

Municipal solid waste

Municipal solid waste , commonly known as trash or garbage , refuse or rubbish is a waste type consisting of everyday items we consume and discard. It predominantly includes food wastes, yard wastes, containers and product packaging, and other miscellaneous inorganic wastes from residential,...

.

Human waste is a biowaste

Biowaste

Biowaste is material that is capable of self-replication and is harmful or potentially harmful to other living organisms....

 and can be a serious health hazard, as it is a good vector for both viral and bacterial

Pathogenic bacteria

Pathogenic bacteria are bacteria that cause bacterial infection. This article deals with human pathogenic bacteria.Although the vast majority of bacteria are harmless or beneficial, quite a few bacteria are pathogenic...

 diseases. A major accomplishment of human civilization has been the reduction of disease transmission via human waste through the practice of hygiene

Hygiene

Hygiene refers to the set of practices perceived by a community to be associated with the preservation of health and healthy living. While in modern medical sciences there is a set of standards of hygiene recommended for different situations, what is considered hygienic or not can vary between...

 and sanitation

Sanitation

Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...

, including the development of sewage systems and plumbing

Plumbing

Plumbing is the system of pipes and drains installed in a building for the distribution of potable drinking water and the removal of waterborne wastes, and the skilled trade of working with pipes, tubing and plumbing fixtures in such systems. A plumber is someone who installs or repairs piping...

.

Human waste can be reduced or reused through use of waterless urinals and composting toilet

Composting toilet

A composting toilet is a dry toilet that using a predominantly aerobic processing system that treats excreta, typically with no water or small volumes of flush water, via composting or managed aerobic decomposition...

s and greywater

Greywater

Greywater is wastewater generated from domestic activities such as laundry, dishwashing, and bathing, which can be recycled on-site for uses such as landscape irrigation and constructed wetlands...

. The most common method of waste treatment

Waste treatment

Waste treatment refers to the activities required to ensure that waste has the least practicable impact on the environment. In many countries various forms of waste treatment are required by law.-Solid waste treatment:...

 in rural areas where municipal sewage systems are unavailable is the use of septic tank

Septic tank

A septic tank is a key component of the septic system, a small-scale sewage treatment system common in areas with no connection to main sewage pipes provided by local governments or private corporations...

 systems. In remote rural places without sewage or septic systems, small populations allow for the continued use of honey bucket

Honey bucket

A honey bucket is a bucket that is used as a toilet in communities that lack a water-borne sewage system. The honey bucket sits under a wooden frame affixed with a toilet seat lid and may be lined with a plastic bag...

s and sewage lagoons (see anaerobic lagoon

Anaerobic lagoon

Anaerobic Lagoon or Manure Lagoon is a man made outdoor earthen basin filled with excrement. Lagoons are part of a system designed to manage and treat waste created by Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations . Anaerobic lagoons are created from a manure slurry which is washed out from underneath the...

) without the threat of disease presented by places with denser populations. Honey buckets are used by rural villages in Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 where, due to permafrost

Permafrost

In geology, permafrost, cryotic soil or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of...

, conventional waste treatment systems cannot be utilised.

See also

• Biological Wastewater Processor
• Blackwater (waste)
  Blackwater (waste)
  Blackwater is a term dating to at least the 1970s used to describe wastewater containing fecal matter and urine. It is also known as brown water, foul water, or sewage...
  
  
• Flush!: The Scoop on Poop throughout the Ages
  Flush!: The Scoop on Poop throughout the Ages
  Flush!: The Scoop on Poop throughout the Ages is a 2007 non-fiction children's book written and illustrated by Charise Mericle Harper.-Summary:...
  
  (book)
• Humanure