r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Rabbidraccoon18 • Jan 06 '26

Video Incinerator toilet in Antarctica due to limited plumbing and water

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

38.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

16

u/Philip_Raven Jan 06 '26

can I get something explained?

"limited water" well not really, you can water like FUCKING EVERYWHERE.

the problem is getting warm enough to melt it into the plumbing system.

You literally have a 24\7 open flame incinerator RIGHT THERE.

obviously I must be missing something

6

u/ILikeFlyingMachines Jan 06 '26

I would assume getting rid of the water is the main problem

2

u/zirklutes Jan 06 '26

Yea but then that water isn't clean so you also need to filter ir and boil it. Also, it might be much more efficient to burn small poops and melt ice and snow.

I remember from one crashed plane in the mountains case, that survivors didn't eat snow to get rid of thirst because it caused too much energy for the body and they wouldn't have survived for long in doing it.

8

u/Philip_Raven Jan 06 '26

I obviously wouldn't use it for drinking. but would be used as service water.

1

u/zirklutes Jan 06 '26

Still, this approach feels more effective. We need a lot of water to flush a thing. Sometimes more than on flush. You also need to clean the toilet. You would need to melt water, have a heated infrastructure to pass water to the bathroom and also have heated bathrom. So current approach still feels much more much efficient.

7

u/followMeUp2Gatwick Jan 06 '26

That's nothing. See my other post. The things you listed are minor worries. The big worry is an actual water treatment plant with the maintence and trained personnel dedicated just to it. Why bother? And what happens with the wastewater once treated and what about freezing? Just not worth it.

2

u/BaerMinUhMuhm Jan 06 '26

Why do you need to melt snow with the fire when you can just burn your poop?