When nature calls in nature

You probably haven't ever wondered how we deal with going to the bathroom in Antarctica but this blog post will explain that it is way more complicated than you might imagine.  Skip this post if you are squeamish about the realities of dealing with bodily waste.

In an attempt to mitigate the environmental impact of thousands of scientists and support staff leaving pee and poo all over this icy continent, the Antarctic Conservation Act requires us to collect all of our bodily waste for disposal off-continent.  We do a great job of complying with this requirement in almost all locations we (the US Antarctic Program) inhabit.  If we are recreating off-station, we bring pee bottles and funnels (for women, only, of course).  At field camps, the carpenters rig up special outhouses.

Having lived in Alaska, I'm no stranger to outhouses.  Most outhouses in Alaska have quarter moons carved into the door.  This harkens back to the days when there were separate outhouses for men and women.  Men's outhouses had a sun depicted on the door - representing Helios, the masculine god of the sun.  Women's outhouses had a moon depicted on the door - representing the moon goddess, Luna or Selene.  At some time in history, they decided to economize and build just one outhouse and they (whoever "they" were) decided to keep the women's outhouses, thus the moon symbol you see on outhouses today.  In Antarctica, however, none of this is relevant.  Here's what we do....

Inside, men's urinals drain into 55 gallon barrels (called U-barrels (U for urine)).  Solid waste goes to another container and women's urine toilets are coffee cans that have to be poured into the men's urinal.  The light blue styrofoam insulation is what makes it possible to sit down on those seats in -40 degree temperatures.  Fun, huh?