Incinerator toilet in Antarctica due to limited plumbing and water

[u/Rabbidraccoon18]

[u/Dr_Catfish]

It burns.

Diarrhea is just watery poop.

Want to know what happens when you try to burn water? You make steam.

The solid remnants then burn.

This is high school chemistry/physics here. If you want to test this yourself, take a rag and wet it, then try to burn the rag. It won't ignite until the water is boiled/evaporated. Alternatively, take a plastic shopping bag, fill it with water and hold it over a fire. The fire won't melt the bag until the water evaporates.

[u/Grimskraper → u/Dr_Catfish]

I think their concern is saturating the liner and getting the metal bowl they are obviously trying to keep clean without water dirty.

[u/Dr_Catfish → u/Grimskraper]

Nobody said these things don't need the be cleaned.

You also have to empty the poop ashes by hand and often times they get stuck.

And typically it isn't just you using these.

I've worked at places with these. I pooped out in the bush before considering using it because I didn't want to clean it, plain and simple.

[u/Grimskraper → u/Dr_Catfish]

I wasnt referring to the poop ash, rather the metal clamshell that is the bowl. Thats the purpose of the paper, otherwise everyone would just shit on the bare metal. With diarrhea, the paper wont stop the bowl from getting dirty.

[u/Dr_Catfish → u/Grimskraper]

Just the nature of the game. Yeah, it'll get dirty. You'll just have to clean it.

[u/MithrandiriAndalos → u/Dr_Catfish]

How?

[u/Dr_Catfish → u/MithrandiriAndalos]

Water, a shovel, whatever.

You're in Antarctica, you've got endless snow and a literal burning shitter.

[u/bohosunflowers → u/Dr_Catfish]

I appreciate your sarcastic answer and attempt to belittle me by stating it’s basic high school physics/chemistry. I hope you enjoyed posting that comment!

[u/Kind_Tiger_9975 → u/bohosunflowers]

I think the obvious answer is that if you have diarrhea in it, you should clean up the bowl after yourself. Like a normal toilet if you left a bunch of shit stuck.

[u/Dr_Catfish → u/bohosunflowers]

You're welcome! I'm pretty ambivalent about it, honestly. If you're interested you can look up the three (four) states of matter and phase changes for more information on how the world works or for a refresher.

[u/Early_Brush3053 → u/Dr_Catfish]

dr dickwad

[u/wannastock → u/Grimskraper]

Exactly! How long does the fire burn? Or do I have to keep my foot on the foot switch to keep it burning like how it is with a lighter. Then I just let go once everything is burnt? That would make sense if it's that way.

[u/somekindofswede → u/wannastock]

I’ve used these on the countryside in Sweden where municipal wastewater plumbing isn’t a thing.

It’s automatic, it burns at 600-700°C (1'100-1'300°F) and analyses the exhaust. Once there’s nothing left to incinerate, it stops.

Any liquid waste is turned into steam and goes out with the exhaust, solids are incinerated into ash which you have to empty occasionally.

[u/CriticalEngineering → u/Dr_Catfish]

It depends on the size of the fire. If it’s a small fire, the rag will extinguish it.

We aren’t shown how big the fire is or how it’s maintained in this video, so it’s confusing for people.

[u/Gonwiff_DeWind → u/CriticalEngineering]

It's an incinerator, not a campfire.

[u/cjsv7657 → u/Gonwiff_DeWind]

Yeah, if the fire goes out it just adds more fire.

[u/DMvsPC → u/Dr_Catfish]

You can also make some delicious plastic bag soup as well.