The Poop Cycle

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Poop

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Most of us don't give a second thought to where it ends up after flushing

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but what if I told you that that very poo

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could be making its way back into your house

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without you ever noticing?

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For those unfamiliar

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once your food has been chewed, swallowed, chemically and physically broken down

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and the useful nutrients have been absorbed into your body

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the rest is gracefully discarded as waste

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This waste then gets combined with a

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mixture of with a mixture of urine, rain, shower, sink

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and other household waters into your local

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sewer system which surprisingly

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contains mostly water and relatively

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little faeces like a big old

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bowl of soup with very few vegetables

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After passing through potentially miles

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of pipes, the soup reaches the sewage

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treatment plant and is initially screened

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and skimmed to separate out things like

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sand, grit and pebbles.

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More importantly, this is where that cellphone you accidentally dropped down the toilet

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gets caught along with condoms? and other stuff you thought would be a good idea to toss down the drain.

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Which by the way wasn't a good idea.

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For every piece of trash or item you throw down the toilet

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the more likely there will be a blockage in the system which has to be removed

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by hand..

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And no-one wants that.

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The pebbles and grit, on the other hand, are

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dried, cleaned, and reused for things like construction

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Perhaps contributing to the creation

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of your ivory throne.

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The remaining poopy mixture is then left still

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In a giant tank.

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And thanks to the fundamental properties of both

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oil and grease as non-polar substances,

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which don't mix with water,

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it's relatively easy to skim them off.

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Still, you really shouldn't be putting

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it down the drain, as it can clog pipes

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and overwhelm the intricate system.

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What's left now is some sludge and a

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smelly liquid that looks like chocolate milk.

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Mmm, chocolate milk!

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And that's what it tastes like to the millions of bacteria

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which are set loose to feast on this

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mixture. They literally eat the pathogens

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out of the liquid

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Most of these bacteria are aerobic,

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meaning they require oxygen to function,

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just like humans,

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so the tank is pumped full of oxygen.

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This water is then disinfected and

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reintroduced back into the environment.

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The remaining sludge on the other hand,

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Containing mostly solid waste matter,

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goes through a final treatment with another set

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of bacteria. These bacteria produce

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a variety of by-products including methane

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gas, which in turn is used to power

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the sewage treatment plant.

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So your poop powers the plant that

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processes your poop.

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After eating everything, the bacteria die

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and create something known as Biosolid.

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After all is said and done,

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The remaining, nutrient rich faeces and Biosolid

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can be used to make compost to

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enrich dry land, or used as fertilisers,

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which ultimately help grow vegetation.

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Vegetation which makes its way

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into your house and ultimately

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into your mouth.

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And so begins the cycle of poop,

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All over again

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This episode of ASAP Science is supported by squarespace.com

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thanks again to squarespace for supporting this episode of Asap science

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMIHFR_P7QY