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[Trekkin]

I think the point is that there's a somewhat bigger problem with waste on hive cities, which import a lot of food. After couple thousand years you probably have quite a lot of shit around.

The average hive world with 12.5 hives of 55 billion people each would accrue 31.367 km3 of solid waste per millennium. It sounds like a lot, but it's only about half the volume of the Caspian Sea. A couple Universe-class mass conveyors a month could probably cover it, but again, it's a long-term problem.

[Kot]

It sounds like a lot, but it's only about half the volume of the Caspian Sea.

This is not something I thought I would ever read regarding human waste. Also, I guess, Agri-worlds have to get their fertilizer from somewhere.

[Akura]

But what does happen with waste anywho?  Isn't it recycled into low-quality rations?

I was actually curious enough to do the math on this. If we assume a Gothic-class cruiser with a complement of 100,000 (canonically ~95,000), we can expect 26 kiloliters of solid waste per day.  Given a main hull 5 km long and 0.5 km wide/tall (0.8 km at the fins, and I'm estimating), it'd take 1300 years to fill even 1% of the ship's volume, and if I recall Rogue Trader correctly they doctrinally operate for months to years between resupply. Explorator fleets take longer, of course, but particular mention is made of their exceptional endurance.

Thus, what happens with waste is probably nothing until it's offloaded as part of resupply; there may be systems on the ship intended to deal with it, but given the general state of disrepair on Imperial void craft and the lack of any urgent need to do more than cart it around I wouldn't be surprised if they were scrapped to simplify maintenance.

I think the point is that there's a somewhat bigger problem with waste on hive cities, which import a lot of food. After couple thousand years you probably have quite a lot of shit around.

Pretty sure hive worlds export their waste back to the agriworlds that supply them. After all, the agriworlds will need that shit the fertilize their fields.

[pisskop]

I'm fairly sure agri worlds could just hydroponic farms up?  Really surprised they don't just grow their food on sewage.  Wasn't that an up-and-coming thing now?

[Trekkin]

I'm fairly sure agri worlds could just hydroponic farms up?  Really surprised they don't just grow their food on sewage.  Wasn't that an up-and-coming thing now?

You're referring to anthroponics, a subset of hydroponics that has until now mostly concentrated on using urea from human urine as a nitrogen source, partly because solid waste is lower in NPK, partly because it's more abundant and partly for bacteriological reasons; the pH shift from the conversion to ammonia also sterilizes the urine. The process for solid waste is more elaborate; although it's more amenable to cutting transport costs via dehydration as it's 75% water by mass, the result is still probably less lucrative.

I could see integrating a batch processing system into something like a Vagabond class ship, although the number needed would depend on the ratio of agri-worlds to hive worlds since it's demand driving them rather than supply. Do we know how many agri-worlds are in the Imperium?

[Egan_BW]

Didn't someone do an "economics of the imperium" megapost at some point?

Here we go.

[LordBaal]

If there are exactly 1.000.000 imperial planets then there would be around 320.000 and 330.000 agriworlds according to MetalSlimeHunt and its brilliant article.

PD I always though one million to be a simply allegory, I would bet the imperium has many more than one million, seeing how according to the latest calculations there might be around 40 billion eartg like planets on the habitable zone of their stars alone (not counting all the other planets that don't).

[NullForceOmega]

The Imperium isn't exactly cohesive in real-space tho', there are great big gaps all over the place due to how warp travel works, I think that there used to be an estimate that humanity only actually controlled like 10% of the galaxy but that's probably very old and no longer completely accurate if I am even remembering correctly.

[Tack]

I assumed all of their waste went into the sump where it eventually either biodegrade, is compressed into matter or gradually fills the bottom of the hive as it expands upward.

[Kot]

As much as MSH thing is big and impressive, I wouldn't treat it as any actual proof or credible source or anything. Though the actual real canonical number of how many planets Imperium has is "as many as the story needs it to".

[nenjin]

Citations required

[Loud Whispers]

There are more planets in Ultramar than there are in the Imperium of Man

t. Matt Ward

[Kot]

It's the same problem as with Eldar, the lone remnants of dying race that somehow has had casualties in millions, if not billions through the all works of fiction of at least questionable canon.

There are more planets in Ultramar than there are in the Imperium of Man

t. Matt Ward

Those Administratum calculations about strength needed to hold off Tyranid invasion must be way off then, since if all human population from only just <999 worlds (Ultramar being 500 at most, since that's what's Papa Smurf ideal dream) could stop them, they would have to have some insane kill/death ratio.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

who even reads MetalSlimeHunt, he's not canon

daddy give me multilasers

[Loud Whispers]

Those Administratum calculations about strength needed to hold off Tyranid invasion must be way off then, since if all human population from only just <999 worlds (Ultramar being 500 at most, since that's what's Papa Smurf ideal dream) could stop them, they would have to have some insane kill/death ratio.

The Primaries Marines' gene seed is folded a gorillion times over, concentrating the raw numbers of humanity into a potent singularity with which to eliminate Tyranids with hitherto unseen efficiency