Effluvium
Every set of processes has a number of outcomes, which are necessary for the production of a desired outcome. These by-products are often considered waste or excess and rarely hold any quality or status when taken from their context and examined on their own. Often these by-products become obsolete once the desired goal is reached and can sometimes find another possible function, although originally unintended for this use, but sometimes the derivative is harmful or offensive and poses a new threat to people and their environment. This raises the question of disposability versus usage of waste. The integral house utilized human waste as fertilizer, maintaining a closed-circuit system within the microenvironment of the house.1 This sustainability strategy however is impossible for the Conshelf expeditions when waste had to be removed from the environment daily to avoid contamination. Human processes and the ways2 in which they are handled are highly dependent upon the environment and its suitability or resiliency, and needs. The integral house was able to find an active role for human waste, which would no longer be considered waste, but more like a resource.3 The Conshelf expeditions however failed to find a role for waste as fuel or fertilizer and therefore it remained a harmful byproduct with no value to the humans aboard.