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Ecological sanitation can be viewed as a three-step process dealing with human excreta: (1) Containment, (2) Sanitization, (3) Recycling. The objective is to protect human health and the environment while limiting the use of water in sanitation systems for hand (and anal) washing only and recycling nutrients to help reduce the need for artificial fertilizers in agriculture. An essential step in the process of sanitation is the containment of pathogens that can cause disease. Without containment and sanitization, a vicious circle develops where the pathogens in excreta are released back into the environment, re-infect people through consumption of contaminated water or food, and are then excreted again, only to begin the cycle over. Ecological sanitation systems are designed around true containment and provide two ways to render human excreta innocuous: dehydration and decomposition. The Ecosan concept is based on following principles: