Nightsoil - SG in early 1960's

Take a look at the photo of the nightsoil collection truck on this website. In the early 1960's, many homes did not have flushing toilets and these trucks would come early in the morning to collect the residents’ "output" from yesterday . . .

http://comhumgeog.blogspot.sg/2008/10/little-green-dot.html

Haven't heard the term "nightsoil" since my social studies in secondary school! Here's another interesting blog entry that details the process of collecting and processing nightsoil.

http://www.blogtoexpress.blogspot.sg/2012/02/memories-of-smell-sewerage.html

My utmost respect to the workers from this industry in the past!

As it turns out those who were initially in the nightsoil "business" were Chinese syndicates. They organised the collection of nightsoil in buckets and their transfer to market gardens and plantations on the outskirts of the town. Nightsoil collectors were paid by gardeners and planters who used the night-soil as fertilizers once every three days.

This nightsoil bucket system was first introduced back in the 1890s by the municipal authorities. Since then it became the most common method of sewage disposal in Singapore. Some nightsoil were used as fertilizers and others were disposed of either being washed away by rain or buried.