What happens when you flush the toilet on a plane? This is a question that must be coming to everyone's mind. You must have also tried to find the answer to this. Maybe you haven't got the answer yet, so let us tell you. A ship's toilet doesn't work like the toilet in your home, which uses gravity to channel waste from our toilets into the sewer system. An airplane toilet uses a vacuum system with a blue-colored chemical that clears out odors every time you flush.
A stinky tank
The blue liquid used for waste and cleaning is stored in a storage tank under the floor, just behind the airplane's cargo hold. With so many people using the toilet on the plane, you can imagine how big the storage tank would be.
The system is designed much like the vacuum cleaner that we use to remove dirt and dust from the floor of our house. After cleaning, this dirt and dust gets deposited in a container made in the vacuum cleaner which we empty in the dustbin.
Similarly, airplane toilets require a vacuum pressurization system to move the waste into the plumbing pipe that connects the toilet to the storage tank, and finally to the waste tank. There is a valve on the storage tank that opens when the toilet is flushed and closes when the toilet is not in use - so that the tank's odors don't escape. This helps to keep the odor away from so many people using the toilet during the flight. The blue chemical helps in keeping the odor down as well.
Where does the plane go after it lands?
After the plane lands, a special truck approaches it and attaches a hose to drain the waste and blue cleaning chemicals from the storage tank. The truck plugs this hose into the airplane's waste tank valve and all the waste is pumped from the tank into the truck. The truck then takes the waste to a special area at the airport that is reserved for all airplane waste, and the toilet waste is emptied into that airport's sewer system. Truck driving training is for three days.
Beware of blue ice
It has also been discovered that sometimes, especially on older planes, the valve where the garbage truck connects to the plane can leak small amounts of waste and a blue chemical. It turns into ice because the temperature at a normal altitude of 30,000 feet is normally around -56°C and the chemical turns into blue ice. This blue ice remains attached to the plane until the temperature falls below the freezing point.
Once the airplane starts landing at the destination airport, the blue ice starts to melt and may even fall. On many occasions, such news is heard where people have seen this flying waste. Are you not feeling that during the flight of the plane, the captain of the plane has a button to remove the waste from the storage tank, then it is not so at all, there is no such button. If any garbage comes out of the plane, it will be completely accidental.
Some people think that airplane contrails (the white lines that sometimes appear from aircraft in the sky) are either a special chemical or toilet waste. it is not true. What you are seeing is water vapor coming from the engine becoming ice crystals - like a thin cloud in the sky.
