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What is the ruling on selling earth and trash, and is it permissible to sell them to other countries for recycling?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Every pure thing that has a lawful, permissible benefit is considered property and may be bought and sold. Accordingly, it is permissible to sell soil if someone takes possession of it for its benefit. This is the view of the majority of jurists from the Maliki and Hanbali schools, and it is the more apparent view among the Shafi'is. However, the Hanafis stipulate that it must be for transport or mixed with something else. It is permissible to sell pure waste products that have a permissible benefit, because there are industries based on recycling them. Jurists have explicitly stated the permissibility of selling the dung of animals whose meat is permissible to eat, for fertilizing crops. However, they differed regarding the dung of animals whose meat is not permissible to eat, due to its impurity. The Hanafis permit selling fertilizer absolutely, but they disliked selling human excrement unless it is mixed with something else. The Malikis and Hanbalis detailed the permissibility of selling pure dung and fertilizers, and the prohibition of impure ones. The Shafi'is, however, do not permit selling fertilizers at all, considering them impure.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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