What If You Flushed Toilets with Saltwater? SCIENTIFIC explanation

 

Hey now, won’t you join me in the gutterfor another look at waste water. ha. Seriously, with fresh water being so hot anissue today, you would think people should save every drop of the precious liquid. But then you flush your toilet and realizeyou’ve just spent several gallons of clear water only to get rid of your waste. Why can’t we use saltwater instead, forexample?

How’s that saving the planet? Well, the short answer is it doesn’t, ofcourse. But the problem is there’s not much we cando about it, at least for now, and even saltwater isn’t a solution. I’ll explain. The modern sewage system works with the helpof water that carries waste to the disposal plants. 

Water is perfect for this kind of activityas it keeps the waste afloat and pushes it through the pipes. When it reaches the cleaning filters, thewater simply seeps through, while the hard stuff and particles stay on the kind of agrille, from where they are soon taken and dumped or recycled. 

What If You Flushed Toilets with Saltwater? SCIENTIFIC explanation 

Next the water goes for settling. It’s obviously not clean after mixing withall that waste, so it goes into a huge tank where it sits for some time. Heavier particles settle on the bottom ofthe tank and form a nice and slushy layer of grime. 

It’s called sludge, and it’s then takenfrom the tank to use on farms. The sludge gets some special treatment tomake it usable as a fertilizer. It’s not all organic in its, um, pure form,but it becomes nice for the soil after being treated correctly. The water above the sludge, in its turn, becomesrather clear to the eye, but don’t let that fool you: it has billions of microscopic dirtparticles in it that only wait to infect you if you have a drink. 

So when the sludge has settled and got removed,the water gets its own treatment. It either fills other tanks or goes througha special filtering system, but the basic principle of both these methods is the same:waste-feeding bacteria. If the almost clear sewage water rushes intotanks, you can be sure they have an atmosphere inside that’s beneficial for bacteria. 

What If You Flushed Toilets with Saltwater? SCIENTIFIC explanation 

The air is constantly pumped in to make themgrow and multiply, speeding up the water cleaning. If it’s a filtering system, then the waterruns over specially treated stone slabs that have overgrown waste-feeders living on them. In any case, the water gets biologically purifiedand is almost ready to go back where it came from, meaning seas and oceans. Almost, but not quite, since there’s onelast stage of cleaning. 

It differs depending on the country and rules. The most popular method of finishing cleanis treating the water with a disinfectant, such as chlorine. It makes the harmful bacteria left in thewater vanish, effectively making it clear and ready for use. Instead of chlorine, ultraviolet, peroxide,or ozone can be utilized. Another way to purify the water involves pushingit through a special treatment tank, or a humus tank, where even the tiniest particlesand bacteria get stuck in the filtering matter, while the water freely runs onwards. 

It’s then released back into nature, andthe cycle continues, or it can be used as technical water for various purposes: fromconstruction works and irrigation of non-edible crops to cooling nuclear plants. Such water isn’t generally allowed to beused for drinking, recreational or everyday purposes, so you don’t need to look suspiciouslyat the flow from your tap. It’s okay. But the question remains open: why not usesaltwater instead? 

What If You Flushed Toilets with Saltwater? SCIENTIFIC explanation 

We have literal oceans of the stuff, and wecan barely find any use for it. Well, there’s a huge trouble with saltywater in the sewage system. You see, salt is hard. If you’ve ever swum in the sea, you knowthat if you lick your skin, it’ll be salty to taste. And if you leave it to dry in the sun, you’llalso notice a thin smattering of white on your skin. It washes off pretty well, leaving no trace,but that’s only because you haven’t been in the water for long. Stay for a few days, and the white crust ofsalt will cover you much more visibly. The same applies to almost any surface saltwatermight touch. 

If you simply send tons of water from theoceans into the plumbing and sewers, several things will happen quite soon. First of all, salt from the water will beginstaying behind as a residue — just like that salt on your skin. Now you can wash it away, but still the saltis corrosive. Metal, clay, and concrete all eventually giveup to it, and pipes burst. And secondly, the resulting wastewater willnot be able to return to the oceans just like that, or be used for other purposes, for thatmatter. 

Like I said earlier, fresh sewage water goesthrough several filters, one of them biological. Bacteria spread in the water and munch oneverything harmful they can find around. With saltwater, such a system won’t cutit: the good bacteria can’t survive there because of all the salt. So there’s at least the problem of installinga new system of filtering and cleaning of saline water — and you can guess it’scrazy expensive. Not only that, it’s crazy difficult too. Just imagine having two separate pipe systemsunderneath your town: one for fresh water we use every day for cooking, washing, andother stuff, and the other for saltwater to flush our toilets. Yep, you’ll still have to have fresh waterfor your daily activities, because trust me, you don’t want to cook in sea water. 

But there’s still never going to be a wayto use the cleaned saltwater for farming and some other needs — it will have to be desalinatedfirst, and that’s another obstacle. That doesn’t mean we can’t use sea waterat all, though. We are, in fact, using it already, and havebeen for quite some time. There are several desalination plants sprinkledacross the globe that work hard to convert sea water into fresh one. 

They filter and vapor out the salt from thewater, leaving behind huge piles of dry stuff, while the liquid goes further and eventuallygets to homes and industries. Leftover salt is then used for various purposestoo, and you can even be consuming it with your food. The existing desalination method is not perfect,of course, but it’s proven its efficiency. You can even drink the water after it hasbeen devoid of salt! And certainly, it’s used for other everydayactivities, including flushing your toilet. 

Okay, saltwater might be one solution to reduceexcess use of water, but there’s another way to do it and you know it pretty well,I guess. I’m speaking about composting toilets. The basic principle is that everything youthrow in there goes into the soil and keeps there for some time, until it turns into humus. 

It isn’t as simple as dumping soil intothe ground, of course: there’s a composting unit with three chambers that evaporates theliquid, which makes up for 90% of the human waste, helps bacteria flourish, and eventuallymakes a safe and non-smelly compost. Sounds awesome, but the trouble with sucheco-friendly toilets is that they aren’t practical in big cities, since most peoplethere live in apartments, and you can’t simply install a composting unit in an apartmentbuilding. 

To do so, it will require a separate wastedisposal system of its own, and given how composting toilets work, it will most probablycost even more than all the pipes for saltwater. In rural areas and smaller towns, though,where people live in their own homes, composting toilets are the best possible solution. 

They don’t need any water at all, collectingall you have to throw inside them with quiet dignity and then dumping it into the soil,making it richer. And that’s my latest scoop on poop. Hey, if you learned something new today, thengive the video a like and share it with a friend! And here are some other videos I think you'llenjoy. Just click to the left or right, and stayon the Bright Side of life!