Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
From the brains behind Brains On, this is the Moment of Um. Answering those questions that make you go, um. Moment of Um comes to you from APM Studios. I'm Anna Goldfield. Um.
I've gotten the chance to fly to a lot of different places in my life so far. It's always a bit stressful actually getting through airport security and onto the airplane, but once I'm in my seat, I can put on my headphones and tune out. I've also been on a few really long flights. The longest one I ever took was to South Africa, and that was something like 20 hours of air travel. Whew!
When you're in a plane for that long, you gotta have a strategy. Take lots of breaks to get up and stretch. Have some fun activities to do. I always bring a book and a couple of crossword puzzles. And it's important to stay hydrated. On a long flight, at some point you're going to need to use the airplane toilet. Honestly, it's a little bit exciting. You go into the teeny tiny bathroom, do what you need to do, press the flush button, and...
The toilet makes a loud noise and whisks everything away at lightning speed. I've always wondered where all that stuff goes, though. It doesn't just fly out of the back of the plane, right? So where is it? My buddy Hugh had a question about this, too. Where does the waste go on airplanes? Let's find out more from an expert. ♪
The waste on airplanes is collected in the bottom of the airplane. My name is Shannon Baldioli. I am an educator at the National Air and Space Museum, and I run our field trip and camp and teacher programs. If you've ever been in an airplane bathroom, you know when you go into the bathroom and you flush the toilet, it makes a super loud suction noise, kind of like your vacuum cleaner at home.
So what happens is exactly the same. That waste gets sucked out of the toilet and down into a waste collection system. And that kind of sits in the bottom of the airplane until you arrive at your destination. And some folks that work at the airport bring a truck called the Honey Wagon up to the bottom of the plane.
They connect a hose to it and empty out with the same kind of vacuum that would have emptied out the toilet when you're on the plane. So really, really fast sucks out all of that stuff, which includes all the stuff that went into the toilet and all the cleaners and chemicals and things that make sure it doesn't smell real bad in the airplane.
they put it in that honey wagon and they take it off site to a waste disposal facility or some airports have one themselves. And then before they unclip the hose, they make sure that they spray some other chemicals and cleaners up in there. So the plane stays extra clean. Um, uh,
Well, that makes sense. Big airplanes that fly long distances have a special tank down in the belly of the plane that stores any waste that gets flushed down the toilet. The bowl of the toilet is coated with special stuff called Teflon to keep anything from sticking to it.
When you push the flush button, there's a really powerful vacuum that sucks everything out of the toilet through a pipe and down to the tank in the belly of the plane. When the plane lands, workers at the airport come and clear out the tank for the next trip. It's all designed so that the air in the plane cabin stays fresh and doesn't get stinky, even on super long flights. Neat! Um, hmm, now I feel, excuse me, all this toilet talk has made me need a bathroom break.
If you like this episode, take a second to subscribe to Moment of Um wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want to know where waste goes when you flush your toilet at home, check out the Brains On podcast where we have a whole episode all about it. Want to see our shows come to life? Head over to YouTube where we've got awesome animated Brains On episodes. Just search Brains On Universe on YouTube and subscribe.
If you have a question, we would love to help you answer it. Drop us a line by going to brainson.org slash contact. See you next time and the next day and every weekday. Until then.