Monica Giacomelli,
Ribeirão Preto, SP;
Fabiano Amaral,
Monte Mor, SP
The feces go into a reservoir at the bottom of the aircraft. At the end of the trip, the tank is emptied and its contents are sent to the sewer system – the same happens with the bus bathroom. The toilets in the vehicles work in a similar way to chemical toilets, those mobile toilets at outdoor concerts, for example. Without water connections, they are discharged into the sanitary network. More complicated is the operation of the space shuttles. There, solid waste is compressed and disposed of upon landing, while liquids can be recycled and reused as drinking water. Poor astronauts!
Download airlines
The first class trip pee and poo take on planes
1. Once the flush is activated, a vacuum cleaner sucks up the contents of the toilet. In the most modern models there is no drop of water – without it, it is more economical and avoids pressurization problems. To perfume the environment, very few milliliters of a disinfectant sanitize the vase
2. From there, the dirt passes through pipes under the floor and reaches the reservoir. Intercontinental travel planes, such as the Boeing 747, have two 250-liter tanks, one next to the other, in the rear. As the reservoir is pressurized and is located far away, the (bad) smell does not reach passengers.
3. By law, there must be one toilet for every 50 passengers. Considering that each person is capable of eliminating 1.4 liters of poop and pee in 24 hours, on a trip from São Paulo to Paris, for example, all passengers together would fill an entire reservoir and about 20% of the other. On a Boeing 747, which carries 416 passengers, there would be 8 or 9 toilets
4. When the plane lands, a small truck empties the tanks. With a hose driven by a pump, it sucks up the sewage and stores it in a box. From there, the vehicle goes to a collection area at the airport, where it dumps the contents into a hole connected to the sewage system.
At the bottom of the busFeces receive bactericide in the bathroom of the buses
A 50 liter box under the toilet holds the fruit of the flush. There, there are 60 milliliters of a bactericide that disintegrates organic material and dilutes feces and urine, facilitating sewage treatment. That water that comes out of the back of buses is not pee, but water from the air conditioning. Ufa!
Read too:
– How was the aircraft carrier developed?
– If the poop hits the water and the water hits the butt, can we get a disease?
– Why do planes disappear in the Bermuda Triangle?