If Water Supply Is Limited in Antarctica, How Do You Flush The Toilets There?

Water, water everywhere, but not one drop to drink. This is what many ancient sailors lamented while stranded on a ship in the middle of a salty ocean. On the South Pole, researchers have the same feeling. Despite being surrounded by water for hundreds of miles, it is next to impossible for them to access even one droplet. The water is frozen, and laying out extensive plumbing systems is not an easy task. But humans have always been intelligent enough to figure out ways to manage the savageries of nature. Sharing an #antarcticatok, a worker from the University of Rochester's Ice Core and Atmospheric Chemistry Lab (@uofr_icecores) demonstrated how they use an "incinerator toilet" in Antarctica.

“Here in Antarctica, we have limited plumbing and limited water, so we use an incinerator when we have to poop,” the employee said while opening a door in the video. He opened a door to reveal a narrow-spaced chamber with another cubicle enclosed by another door. The video then panned to show a vast ice-covered ground in Antarctica as the worker proceeded to explain the mechanics of this bizarre pooping process. “First,” he explained, “you pee in the bathroom we have inside the building we sleep in and then you go outside to use the incinerator toilet itself, which is just outside the front door.”

Then, he opened the door of the cubicle to reveal a potty seat. “First, you put in the paper toilet bowl liner,” he explained while placing a smooth paper inside the seat. Continuing, he displayed some pieces of chocolate to refer to the pieces of poo, and said, “Then after doing your business here, you then step on the foot lever, which opens the hatch, and the chocolate drops inside to get burned up.” He pushed the hatch at the bottom, and a flame erupted inside the seat, burning up the chocolate on the paper. “Sometimes it doesn’t go in all the way, so there’s a handy stick to help push it the rest of the way,” he explained.

After watching how the brilliant system transformed a piece of chocolate into pathogen-free ash, more than 13 million viewers were jolted into the mood of “toilet humor.” Some of the comments rolling below the video will make you fall out of your chair. @f3n5t4 had a doubt. “How in the heck do you stop one task and make it to another room to do the other and then back again if your bladder needs to drain more?” they asked, referring to the method of “peeing inside the bathroom” and then going out to another location to poop. “It takes practice,” the worker replied. @milk.boba.honey.tea quipped about how fragrant the results of this process would be.

Many were left in angst and frustration because the worker wasted so much chocolate in the video. “A moment of silence for the sacrificed Cadbury chocolate,” commented @danieljohn. @remainsofosame grunted, “Now I can never think of chocolate the same again.” But “at least the seat is always warm,” the researcher said in a seemingly nonchalant note in the caption. And, if you are lactose intolerant, it’s better to opt for another profession than being a researcher in Antarctica.

You can follow the University of Rochester's Ice Core and Atmospheric Chemistry Lab (@uofr_icecores) on TikTok for more videos from Antarctica. 

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