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Airports Had to Deal With Over 2B Litres of Airplane Toilet Waste in 2019

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Re: Airports Had to Deal With Over 2B Litres of Airplane Toilet Waste in 2019

#12

Solution: Pay toilets in the coach cabin.

Problem: cleaning up water bottles full of pee after deboarding.

Worse problem: cleaning up un-capped, tipped-over bottles that are no longer full of pee after deboarding.

Re: Airports Had to Deal With Over 2B Litres of Airplane Toilet Waste in 2019

#13
post #5

Interesting, but what about the excrement and toilet paper that (I assume) ends up in the same tank?

I imagine they use the same chemicals as marine toilets / portapotties. It breaks down poop and toilet paper into a liquid so that it can be pumped / emptied easily. Not sure why the article focuses solely on urine...

Re: Airports Had to Deal With Over 2B Litres of Airplane Toilet Waste in 2019

#14

Solution: Pay toilets in the coach cabin.

That has the downside that a penny-pinching passenger might attempt to "hold it in" and then, shocked by a turbulence, involuntarily ejecting what was "held back"... leading to the plane needing an extra cleaning or being taken out of service.

There's a reason why even Ryanair, otherwise the leader in borderline unethical airline behavior, quietly buried their 2010 attempt to introduce a loo charge [1].

[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/mar/05/ryanair-toi...

Re: Airports Had to Deal With Over 2B Litres of Airplane Toilet Waste in 2019

#17

Solution: Pay toilets in the coach cabin.

That has the downside that a penny-pinching passenger might attempt to "hold it in" and then, shocked by a turbulence, involuntarily ejecting what was "held back"... leading to the plane needing an extra cleaning or being taken out of service. There's a reason why even Ryanair, otherwise the leader in borderline unethical airline behavior, quietly buried their 2010 attempt to introduce a loo charge [1]. [1]: https://…

Can't beat a reductio ad Ryanair argument!

Re: Airports Had to Deal With Over 2B Litres of Airplane Toilet Waste in 2019

#18
post #13
post #5

Interesting, but what about the excrement and toilet paper that (I assume) ends up in the same tank?

I imagine they use the same chemicals as marine toilets / portapotties. It breaks down poop and toilet paper into a liquid so that it can be pumped / emptied easily. Not sure why the article focuses solely on urine...

Those chemicals don’t liquefy solid waste instantly. They won’t be very effective in the timespan of a flight.

Most likely they use a macerator pump that accomplishes it physically and instantaneously.

Re: Airports Had to Deal With Over 2B Litres of Airplane Toilet Waste in 2019

#20

That is just 2B. A simple STP plant can handle this. Not every billion is a big number. Edit : Writer of the article also thinks that.

That’s true, my small city processes the waste from over a million people (they provide sewer to the suburbs) every day which is about the same as the number of Americans who fly. Plus they process all the other water that goes down the sewer from showering, laundry, etc. So just one small city is probably processing much more than all the planes in the country combined.
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