Sea toilet bog blog

dylanwinter said:
it is the ethics at question
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What ethics Dylan. Nothing you can produce is going to do any more harm than the agricultural run off or the billions of fish. We have the sea toilet question here as often as the anchoring threads. I have been a diver for 40+ years and the only time I see any sign of damage to the seabed is when people flush their toilet paper. This is very much ethical and I have argued against it many times. Human waste in a non confined environment does no harm at all.

I am assuming that you are not talking about enclosed marinas.
 
Frankie-H said:
What ethics Dylan. Nothing you can produce is going to do any more harm than the agricultural run off or the billions of fish. We have the sea toilet question here as often as the anchoring threads. I have been a diver for 40+ years and the only time I see any sign of damage to the seabed is when people flush their toilet paper. This is very much ethical and I have argued against it many times. Human waste in a non confined environment does no harm at all.

I am assuming that you are not talking about enclosed marinas.
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never been in a marina - and my loo is always the crapper of last resort - I would rather walk a pontoon than use the onboard any day

so do you see loo paper

it does seem to shred pretty well going through the pump
 
dylanwinter said:
never been in a marina - and my loo is always the crapper of last resort - I would rather walk a pontoon than use the onboard any day

so do you see loo paper

it does seem to shred pretty well going through the pump
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Yes. In clear water you very much see toilet paper. It depends on the pump. I think the macerating effect of the lavac might be an improvement but it is difficult to identify what pump an individual piece of used toilet paper has passed through, at 30 or 40 ft.
 
Frankie-H said:
dylanwinter said:
never been in a marina - I would rather walk a pontoon than use the onboard any day

Er. 'Scuse me. Is that not a trifle contradictory. What do you do when you get to the end of the pontoon? The mind boggles.:D
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club pontoons at Brough - town pontoons at Wells - mud pontoons at Brightlingsea

although I just rememberd that I used the marina at Wisbech
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What's the problem with a sea toilet in the sea? It's all natural stuff & feeds the fishes. Even the (soft) bog paper is designed to decompose quite quickly. They are not encourage in rivers for longterm use, but IIRC you are allowed one for up to a couple of weeks aren't you? If the effluent produced wasn't insignificant, then that would be banned too, surely.
 
I misread the title at first - as Sea Toilet Block Bog.
On toilet paper - I have been told that Supermarket Cheapest performs in the same way as expensive special paper that disintegrates in water. That is, disintegrates when wet in a suitably environmental manner. Middle priced stuff is everlasting and to be avoided, it's also inclined to block the bog. Can anyone confirm all this?
I have also been told that chemical toilets aren't the best, environmentally speaking, as the output (however disposed of) is less biodegradable than the raw product. However, I assume that formaldehyde, which I understand to be the active ingredient, and which is an omnibiocide, will eventually biodegrade if dilute enough (it is after all an organic compound). Can anyone confirm that too?
 
An interesting subject, Dylan. There is nowhere in the USA, actually North America if I remember correctly, where discharging a sea toilet directly overboard is legal, and in many places no discharge of any kind is allowed. Like it or not that's where we are headed - it's inevitable.

Twenty or more years ago, when I sailed in the USA, I went through all the arguments, the angst, the 'whales do more in one day etc etc', and we all ended up with holding tanks. Early systems all had Y-valves to by-pass the holding tank, then legislation was tightened up to close that loop hole, and on it went.

Finally, everyone just got the message and it isn't an issue (excuse the expression) any longer. We're yet to go through it so comprehensively in the UK, but I understand many parts of Europe now have similar rules to the USA.
 
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