What happens to all of the human f***s after it begins it journey down the toilet ?

Question

Does most of it go out to sea?

Fertilizer?

?

Answer 1

Well, it depends on where you live.  Many folks live in the city, and their waste water goes to a treatment plant ( which usually stinks to high heaven ).  I, however, live out in the middle of nowhere, and since I paid to have my own little waste water disposal installed, I can tell you EXACTLY where it goes if you live in the middle of nowhere!

There are 3 types of waste water disposal units with which I am aware, for those of us who live in the boonies.  The first, and most common, is a septic system with lateral lines.

Your sewer line goes into a huge holding tank, called a septic tank.  The solid waste sinks to the bottom of the tank, and you should put some type of septic treatment solution down your toilet once a month in order to expidite the degeneration of the solid waste, in order to avoid a clogged up sewerline, or an overflowing septic tank... that makes a pretty bad stink too!!  The water at the TOP of the septic tank runs off into long pipes with little holes in them.  The pipes are called lateral lines.  The water seeps out through the holes, and is soaked up by the dirt.

The next type of Septic system is called a Cesspool, it's outdated, and I don't know if it's allowed anymore, but it is an alternative that still is in use.  The Cesspool is a tank of sorts, but it doesn't have lateral lines, it is made so that the liquid seeps though the tank, directly into the soil around the tank.  It's not the best method, since if you have a LOT of solid waste (such as toilet paper, food from a garbage disposal, etc..) the outer walls of the tank will become plugged with solid waste, and you have an awful mess.

The last type in use, that I'm familiar with, is the Lagoon system.  This is what I have on my ranch.  I have a septic tank, but the ground around my ranch doesn't absorb water well enough to use lateral lines, so instead, the TOP water from the septic is routed through a pipe, several hundred feet to a lagoon, which is nothing but a big pond that I paid a guy $4000 to dig.  In THIS state, the lagoon must be fenced, to keep kids or farm animals from getting into it, but my dogs found a way... and boy did they stink!  My gelding also knocked the fence down once, and went for a swim.  I haven't had to pull a grandkid out yet though.... probably ONLY because I got them a swimming pool!  

The lagoon has to remain open so the water will evaporate.  There is another system in which the water is pumped out from a lagoon into the pasture area, but I don't use that.  It's called an aeriation system, I think.  I was told recently that it may no longer be in use, because if the pumps break down, thee's a huge mess.

Answer 2

Unfortunately most ends up in the ocean from one path or another. The problem is that we do not use it correctly and the nutrients pathways are hidden from contact until they reach the waterways heading out to sea. Being at the top of the food chain means that all the heavy metals in the environment, mostly due to our manufacturing and poor waste reclamation will end up in our bodies or in those animals that share the upper echelons of the pyramid of life on this poor planet. We have huge concerns for pathogens that might spread disease so instead of dealing with them we choose to hide our dookie in septic systems or attempt a sewage processing that is expensive and inefficent. Some countries use human waste but they use it inappropriately with some hazard, still better than the flush and forget western methods. Like Pete Townshend said in one of his tunes (and I take it out of it's original context), "the sea refuses no river". Irregardless of whether we hide it, we burn it, compost it, treat it, it all ends up in the ocean. We all need to adapt proper handling of our human waste and get the most out of it before nature places it past our reach. It is a source of biofuel and fertilizer but we need to curb our chemical use and manufacturing to keep toxins out of the environment, and so out of our bodies and waste. Treatment for pathogens is easy and using it for fertilizer will put the bulk of nutrients into the plants via the "cycles of Nature" (nitrogen cycle as an example). By using as much as we can before it gets into the water the need and cost of food from chemical fertilizers is reduced, as will be the cost of food. The oceans will not become dead zones from the BOD's and COD's thrown out of their norm. So much of our lives and food is the oceans and we are killing them and driving up the cost of food further. All that we manufacture no matter how trivial stays and pollutes our bodies and waste and it is there that we need to begin to make that waste better, to use it, and keep it from the ocean.

Answer 3

Here in Detroit it goes to a sewage treatment facility, then is dumped in the Detroit River. At the same time a few miles up the river, water is pumped in to the water treatment plant to come to my sink.

ewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater, both runoff (effluents) and domestic. It includes physical, chemical and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants. Its objective is to produce a waste stream (or treated effluent) and a solid waste or sludge suitable for discharge or reuse back into the environment. This material is often inadvertently contaminated with many toxic organic and inorganic compounds.

Sewage is created by residences, institutions, hospitals and commercial and industrial establishments. It can be treated close to where it is created (in septic tanks, biofilters or aerobic treatment systems), or collected and transported via a network of pipes and pump stations to a municipal treatment plant (see sewerage and pipes and infrastructure). Sewage collection and treatment is typically subject to local, state and federal regulations and standards (regulation and controls). Industrial sources of wastewater often require specialized treatment processes (see Industrial wastewater treatment).

The sewage treatment involves three stages, called primary, secondary and tertiary treatment. First, the solids are separated from the wastewater stream. Then dissolved biological matter is progressively converted into a solid mass by using indigenous, water-borne microorganisms. Finally, the biological solids are neutralized then disposed of or re-used, and the treated water may be disinfected chemically or physically (for example by lagoons and micro-filtration). The final effluent can be discharged into a stream, river, bay, lagoon or wetland, or it can be used for the irrigation of a golf course, green way or park. If it is sufficiently clean, it can also be used for groundwater recharge.