The book, originally published in 1978 way ahead of its time, now revised and reprinted, has a wider scope than The Humanure Handbook, and covers the ground more succinctly. The starting point is a history of sanitary systems and a travelogue of how they do it in other cultures, followed by details of manufactured and home made wet or dry systems which will reduce water consumption and/or enable recycling of nutrients. Greywater systems are covered in a later section, and there is an excellent chapter with details on how we could revamp our tired (or non-existent in the Third World) urban sewage systems. Excellent reading for the smallest room.