South Pole Outhouses

At the south pole and at any other antarctic stations all waste is supposed to be removed from the continent. This is a stipulation of the antarctic treaty that gets a lot of attention here. This is because all that waste has to be separated into different recycling and waste containers. After this is done it gets loaded onto planes and boats to incinerated in Southern California or recycled.

Human waste is a  special consideration as it is heavy and potentially hazardous. Here at the south pole human waste is disposed of in two ways. The first is the rod-well system and the second are outhouses.

The elevated station and summer camp both use the rod-well system for both acquiring fresh water and disposing of sewage. A rod-well is a large bubble of melted snow and ice that is used for fresh water. Once a rod-well is exhausted (drained) a new rod-well is started and the old one starts getting filled with sewage. That is right, everything that goes down a sink, toilet or drain ends up form one big poopsicle in the ice. Given 10,000 years and it will reach the ocean.

Thankfully the polar plateau is a complete wasteland devoid of any life except for the handful of humans living here and any tiny creatures we bring with us. So it isn’t really a big deal. In fact it may someday be an archeological treasure.

The other way that human waste is dealt with here is using solar heated outhouses. This handy little wooden shacks keep a user relatively warm while they make their deposit into a barrel waiting below. The shacks use trombe walls that are painted black to harness the suns heat creating a heated building free of the expense of burning jet fuel. 

Many of the outhouses have a separate pee trough for the men. Made of sheet metal and a hose that leads outside to a barrel. Outside the material in the barrels freeze and are shipped off ice once they are full.