Where Does Human Excrement Go in Megacities? The Complete Waste Transformation System

Every day, the billions of people living in vast urban centers like Shanghai—home to over 20 million residents—generate an enormous volume of waste. The question of what happens to this excrement isn’t merely a practical concern; it reveals how modern civilization manages resources at scale. The answer shatters a common misconception: these materials don’t vanish or get dumped into the sea. Instead, they enter a sophisticated, closed-loop system designed to extract maximum value from what many consider worthless.

The Underground Infrastructure That Processes Millions of Tons Daily

Beneath every modern megacity runs an extensive network of underground sewage systems—invisible arteries that continuously move waste toward treatment facilities. This infrastructure processes astonishing volumes daily through a precisely engineered multi-stage process. When wastewater enters treatment plants, it undergoes sedimentation, where heavier solids separate from liquids. This is followed by fermentation processes that break down organic matter, then dehydration to reduce volume. None of these steps wastes what enters; each transforms the material into something recoverable.

The engineering philosophy behind these systems isn’t about concealment or disposal—it’s about intelligent conversion. Modern cities abandoned the “flush and forget” mentality decades ago. What that transition required was systematic thinking: understanding that waste is only waste if the system extracting value from it is inefficient.

From Waste to Resources: Multi-Phase Recovery in Modern Sewage Treatment

The true sophistication of contemporary sewage treatment lies in its ability to generate multiple revenue streams from a single input. Biogas produced during fermentation becomes fuel for power generation, reducing operational costs while generating renewable energy. Dehydrated solids transform into organic fertilizer or soil amendment materials, creating products sold to agricultural sectors. Even treated wastewater—gray water—gets recirculated for irrigation, toilet flushing, or industrial cooling, reducing freshwater demand.

A megacity processing 20+ million people’s daily waste isn’t experiencing a crisis—it’s harvesting resources. The “problem” of excrement becomes an asset once the system architecture is precise enough. Shanghai’s sewage treatment isn’t a burden on the city; it’s an infrastructure that generates revenue, reduces resource consumption, and closes nutrient cycles.

System Efficiency as the True Value Determinant

The key insight here applies far beyond urban infrastructure: the determinant of value is not volume processed, but how efficiently the system is architected. When systems operate slowly with high friction costs, resources deplete through inefficiency. When confirmation cycles shorten and throughput increases, the previously wasted margin converts into usable capacity. The difference between a struggling city and a thriving one isn’t the amount of excrement produced—it’s the design of the processing framework.

This principle extends directly to blockchain and on-chain systems. What matters isn’t storytelling or hype; what matters is foundational efficiency. Shorter block times mean faster settlement. Lower latency reduces confirmation delays. Higher throughput accommodates more transactions per unit time. Projects like FOGO ($FOGO) operate on this exact premise: not by inventing new narratives, but by optimizing the architecture upon which transactions settle. The structure determines the outcome.

Applying Urban Infrastructure Logic to On-Chain Development

Mature cities don’t dump waste into the sea—they keep flows continuously cycling through intelligent systems. The on-chain world operates under identical principles. When a system is designed for efficiency, what appears as friction or wasted space becomes recoverable capacity. The resources aren’t larger; the system is simply better at organizing and reusing them.

This is the fundamental parallel between municipal sewage treatment and blockchain infrastructure development. Both demand structural precision. Both reward efficiency-first thinking. Both prove that the true innovation isn’t in the volume processed, but in how thoughtfully the processing system is constructed. The megacity processes millions of tons of excrement daily—not despite excellent design, but because of it.