Toilets etc

[chockswahay]

I know these questions may appear silly but please bear with me.


Can ordinary loo paper go thru a sea loo?

Do people really put used paper in a separate bin?

Does a holding tank connect to toilet only or sink etc as well?

Can used water (not toilet) be pumped outside in a marina?


When I have stayed with friends on their boat we have always used the marina loos so this 'delicate' subject has never really come up.

I know these questions invite daft answers but sensible ones would be much appreciated.

Thank you

Chocks



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[Robih]

Chocks,

1) Yes, ordinary paper is okay
2) Yes, people do avoid putting used down the loo, unblocking a sea loo is a ghastly job
3) Holding tank connected to heads only, not sinks/shower
4) sink/shower water, yes, get's pumped directly out

But, you will see that some boats distinguish between "grey water" (sink/shower) and "black water" (loo effluent) and some boats I have known to capture both types and pump out. This is clearly much more of an issue on canals/rivers than when 40 miles offshore so much depends on where you intend using the boat.



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[chockswahay]

Thanks Robih,

Re answer (2) are you suggesting that although loo paper is okay is would be safer to bin it separately in that case?

As a matter of interest, I have wondered what happens to the paper if it is pumped put to sea (messy?,visible?). I know that poo is organic and will break down, but what about the paper?

cheers

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[Robih]

A SMALL amount will be okay through the heads, but the trouble is those not experienced in sea loo's tend to stuff the same amount of paper down them as they do the mains sewage loo at home. The result is an instant block (and a weekend nightmare job). It is safer to bin it.

As for the external result, our loo has a macerator so the whole lot is chopped up (a bit like a liquidiser) and dissipates in seconds. But the rule is just don't use the loo (for number two's anyway) when in a marina/harbour/river/canal. Only okay when at sea.

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[MainlySteam]

As I understand it he paper does not break down quickly in that the individual cellulose fibres take a long time to decompose. So, in places like locked marinas or other areas of small water replacement/current, while the human waste quickly breaks down or is eaten by sea monsters the cellulose fibres cake the bottom (the sea's bottom that is /forums/images/icons/smile.gif).

Maceration makes no difference at all to this - it is only cosmetic.

John

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[Tomsk]

Hi Chocks

I discourage the use of the heads when anywhere near a marina or harbour. We save it for ofshore and emergencies. I keep a large supply of cheap nappy sacks in the heads for used paper. These can then be sealed up and binned without any nasty smells etc..

<hr width=100% size=1>Tomsk -

Can I leave the planet please.. this one is broken!

 

[Talbot]

The previous answers on loo paper are not entirely the whole story. To try to prevent a blockage, it is wise to check that the paper you are using will fall apart when wet, cause some dont! It is the papers that do not breakdown quickly that cause problems. A blocked loo is not something you really want to deal with, furthermore, overpumping a blocked loo can cause a backlash, and that can really ruin your weekend! /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

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[Trevethan]

We have an electric loo. swallows about anuthing -- iincluding the paper by aunt uses when she visits -- she likes to make a mitten of the stuff and is notorious for blocking loos when she visits peoples houses.

As for what comes out -- from our loo, the paper is so finely shredded, the water around the outlet takes on a greyish tone for a moment or two before it disperses. you can't see the paper itself.



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[charles_reed]

TOILET PAPER
Goes down a marine loo OK - providing it's one of those which adequately disintegrate in water. Not so long ago a US company launched a new paper which caused an immediate rise in businee for Dynarod and other drain-unblocking service companies. This paper had a remarkable effect in sea-toilets and probably would have been used as an underwater filler if the company hadn't, red-faced, killed the product.
However, the pipes leading from sea toilets get gradually blocked by lime-scale and after about 1500 cycles will refuse to pass any further solid matter, the only effective remedy to this is to replace the outlet piping. From this handicap has come the famous small-boat slogan "Only things passed through you should be passed through this toilet".
One of my abiding impressions of scuba diving in areas such as the Virgin Islands is the soft white carpet of toilet tissue you find on the seabed in all the more popular anchorages.

SEPARATE BINS
Not only on boats but very strongly advisable in ALL Hispanic toilets - Anglo-Saxons have a nasty reputation for bringing the sewerage systems to a shuddering halt in nearly all Spanish speaking countries.
For those of you with a digester or septic tank, you can double the intervals between pump-outs by re-routing toilet paper.

HOLDING TANKS (& Buffer Tanks)
A nice distinction here, but one brought home to me by painful re-iteration when the wrong one was sent across Europe to me by a super-efficient Dutch organisation. Holding tanks (properly) can only be pumped out into specialist shore installations. The tanks come in two types (or colours) "black" tanks for raw sewage waste and "grey" ones for shower, washing up and other effluents.
Boaters in the Everglades and using the Intracoastal (I believe) in the US have to have both and are rigourously inspected by the local environmental Gestapo. In UK inland waterways black tanks are also de rigor.
Whilst all the European mediterranean countries signed a protocol in 1979 vowing to eradicate ALL untreated waste water I have yet to find an operational pump-out myself. There was a very American and impressive pump-out on the end of the 3rd quay in Bonifacio, but I was assured by the locals that it was purely there for the show and to impress the visiting Italians of the superiority of French culture, European law-abidingness and taste. Unfortunately all the visiting Italians ignored it, the visiting Americans were outraged at its afunctional state and the Brits were plain puzzled. I note that as of June 2004 it has been removed.
The Greeks (well some of them) insist that you pump nothing nasty out in their nice clean harbours and retribution in the form of a hefty fine on visting non-Greeks is swift and of unlevantine efficiency. A friend of mine, an internationally recognised medic and JP at home was once locked up for 1 night on one of the Greek islands, resulting in a near international incident.
All this has resulted in the HOLDING tank, into which you pump the nasties, and then wait until you're outside the 3 mile limit to pump it all out furiously. On one occasion the suction downpipe on my tank fell-off and I had to manually empty it overboard - I will spare the gentle reader the horrors of this incident which resulted in my being boarded by the Polizia di Finanza.

I hope this brief essay elucidates your questions - but seriously, in terms of damage to the marine environment, human wastes come near the bottom of the list. Far more damaging are anionic surfectants (ladies STOP that continual washing up), petroleum products (2-stroke outboards) and all the heavy metal kations.

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[MainlySteam]

<<in terms of damage to the marine environment, human wastes come near the bottom of the list>>>

Other mammals in the sea are perhaps the real villians - a big whale can eat around 3,000 kg in a day. The consequent other end output is about the same as 3,000 yachtsmen.

John

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[Talbot]

<<a big whale can eat around 3,000 kg in a day. The consequent other end output is about the same as 3,000 yachtsmen>>

Gosh, they must use a lot of toilet paper /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

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[charles_reed]

And just think of all the greenhouse gases

produced by the ungulates regurgitating, farting and burping all over the globe - they produce about x8 that all the human race manages

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[charles_reed]

Only the effete

use toilet paper.

Or so I was once informed by an Afrikaaner.

Hey those yotties must be on a very high-fibre diet.

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[cliffb]

So ...what is the name of this electric loo ...sounds like the business!!
(In more ways than one!)

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