Where does the flushed waste from airplane toilets go while in flight?
When you’re traveling a mile high in the sky, an airline toilet has to function a little differently than the one found in your home. That’s because you’re faced with a finite amount of space for septic tanks, pipes, water, and other plumbing components in a pressurized cabin environment. HowStuffWorks.com offers this excellent overview on commercial aircraft plumbing. We learned that ingenious engineers devised vacuum toilets, which don’t have to rely on gravity and a water-filled toilet bowl to flush out waste. When you flush a vacuum toilet, waste and a small amount of blue sanitizing liquid are sucked into a septic holding tank. Because the vacuums are so powerful, the pipes can be fairly narrow and very little water is necessary to “get the job done.” And since gravity is not involved, the sewer pipes can be run straight up to conserve space. Some creative web surfing led us to an
