In many humanoid cities, especially Oshmondian human ones, the primary waste processing method involved otyughs.

Concept

Cities were, among other things, amalgamations of waste producers. Hundreds of households, sometimes devoid of sewers, dumped all their material and physical waste into streets. Additionally, the prevalence of pack animals, especially horses, caused extreme amounts of dung. Otyughs were the ideal waste consumer: these lumbering beasts could devour seemingly infinite amounts of trash, hugely reducing costs of collecting and storing garbage.

Though in nature, otyughs were omnivorous aberrations preying in the Caverealm, it was possible to tame them and use them as work beasts. The method was simple: well fed otyughs are happy otyughs. Thus, as long as the herd size was more or less equal to the city's waste production, the otyughs were very docile animals who lazed in their kennels and walked along streets, eating only the waste offered to them rather than going for live humanoids.

Otyugh Kennels

Otyughs being animals used to darkness, they were kept over day in robust kennels with mud floors, heavy-walls with tiny high windows for illumination, and an opaque roof - sometimes cloth, sometimes timber. These buildings typically had very few amenities: the beasts didn't even need a clean water source, as they got all their nutrients from the waste. They also didn't need hygiene, walloping in thick mud and dung without difficulty. As a consequence, they stank strongly, and were often nicknamed "stench cows" or "dung cows", and nighttime "stench hour".

Thus, the main focus of the kennels was keeping the otyughs in, and keeping as much of the stench and noise out - though this was rarely successful.

Street Cleaning Methodology

In the late evening - sometime around midnight, when most people had gone to sleep - cleaning commenced. Cleaning teams would consist of one otyugh and 3-6 assistants. In predetermined patterns, they would cover most streets of the city, the otyugh grabbing all it could with its tentacles and the workers bringing less accessible waste closer to it. In general, otyughs could easily be steered, and progressed at a slow but steady rate. Most cities kept herds of a size so that cleaning was completed after 2-3 hours, after which time otyughs slowed down their eating rate anyway.

Eggs and Stinkling-Swarms

Besides occasional accidents and devoured helpers, the major problem otyugh-keepers faced was that well-fed otyughs were also promiscuous otyughs. The animals being hermaphrodites, they could lay up to six eggs a day, and even more during summertime. Left unchecked, this would lead to uncontrolled exponential growth of the herd. However, it was relatively easy to destroy eggs: they were quite fragile, the beasts' protective instinct only extended to the point of making an effort not to eat them, and the lumbering animals in the kennel often did the work themselves. However, workers had to double-check the kennel on a regular basis - eggs could hatch in as little as five days - and workers on cleaning tours had to make sure their otyugh didn't leave an egg behind in a hidden corner.

When kennels had incompetent staff or insufficient funding, however, the young could quickly get out of control. Hundreds of young otyughs - nicknamed stinklings - would invade the city, often forming swarms and taking to safe refuges like sewers, middens, or outhouses. These swarms quarreled for dominance over certain areas, could cause serious damage to properties, and sometimes even attacked children or sewer workers. Cities had to release bounties on sensory stalks to try and limit the pest; things could get very dirty if the stinklings were allowed to grow and turn into large, feral beasts able to easily devour adult humanoids.