# Is the Enterprise crew consuming human waste molecules? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 8, 2013, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318 "2013-09-08T08:58:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/1 "2013-09-08T08:58:13Z")
Or where does their poop and pee go? I assume just turned into molecules for the replicators? What about the skin oils and dead skin cells and hair the sonic showers er blast off them? :eek: The second horrifying ST realization, behind that transporter existentialist horror. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/2 "2013-09-08T09:05:41Z")
Presumably yes, just the same as the rest of us… ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/3 "2013-09-08T09:10:21Z")
DS9 had several oblique references to “waste reclamation” which probably means poop processing. It is assumed that a replicator can use any matter as feedstock and hey, free matter! For what it is worth, the transporter’s biofilter is probably a very crucial part of this process. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/4 "2013-09-08T09:16:25Z")
Donovan Leitch explained it all, way back in 1973: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hjtqfsm9Vk4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hjtqfsm9Vk4) > [@](#): > > Wherever man has conquered > On the quest for frontiers new > I’m glad he’s always had to do > The number one and two > > It makes it all so ordinary > Just like you and me > To know the greatest heroes > They had to shit and pee ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/5 "2013-09-08T09:16:31Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Presumably yes, just the same as the rest of us… Well… Water systems and use of feces as fertilizer aside, it is a hell of a lot more INDIRECT than using a replicator to turn urine into earl grey hot. So what was Nog? doing in all those episodes where he got a job on waste disposal on DS9? It didn’t have the advanced de-molecularizing function? ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/6 "2013-09-08T09:42:16Z")
In one episode Trip Tucker explains to school kids that yes, everything on board is re-used over and over. ---
**Author:** ![Bakhesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Bakhesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bakhesh)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/7 "2013-09-08T10:19:21Z")
I watched an ep of TNG the other day, (best of both worlds i think) and Picard was standing in front of his office replicator, ordering his usual ‘tea, earl grey, hot’ when the door bell went, and Picard said ‘Come!’. Note to self, be very careful with your use of language when standing in front of a replicator ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/8 "2013-09-08T13:59:39Z")
Many of the so called technical manuals I’d read (I admit they may not be canon) do mention that everything is recycled. For some reason, it seems food scraps and solid waste a used as replicator feed. Also, the ship carries tanks of some sort of “nutrient matter” – it has a perfect mix of carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, vitamins, and other organic sources. That is fed into the replicator circuits, so it only has to rearrange “some” molecules, to get usable, tasty, food. Which just adds further questions – are the Earl Grey tea, the chocolate mouse, and the replicated _gagh_ instead providing complete nutrition, just with the taste, consistency and appearance of the required food? When they make a roasted chicken, they also replicate the bones, in position, just to throe them away, to be re-replicated. Or sometimes made into milk? Or do some species hang around after human dinner and go, “You gonna finish that?” “The bones, no Lt., be my guest” “Thanks _CRUNCH_” Various times on the show, the crew complains, they want food that’s _not_ good for them. And we hear the computer say – that’s not what I do. On one of the DS9 episodes Molly would rather play than sit through another tense O’Brien-Keiko dinner conversions, and asks to be excused (and wouldn’t we all). Keiko tells her to “place her plate in the replicator.” – the task must be equivalent to washing dishes, for their technology level. Presumably, they will dematerialize the contents – scraps, bones, spare sauce and Molly’s saliva into the food vat, plasticware and cutlery into some other matter stream for other use. Or is it all the same? So are the dishes edible and nutritious, just not palatable. What about Naomi Wildman, her father seemed to be of the spectacularly “box-necked armor plated species” – could she crunch up a plate? Would it be worthwhile to have made plates nutritious for those people who like to chew up one when no one’s around who minds the noise? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/9 "2013-09-08T14:06:50Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > the chocolate mouse They also recycle the ship’s vermin. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/10 "2013-09-08T14:21:38Z")
Atoms is atoms. At least some of the ones in your body were likely in some part of an animal, their feces, their vomit, etc at some point in the lifespan of the Earth. Get over it. You cannot “contaminate” a carbon atom. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/11 "2013-09-08T15:12:15Z")
You all do understand that your waste products are also recycled into simple compounds which are broken down by bacteria and fungi and used by plants to build their structure and nutients (carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids), ultimately to be consumed either directly or as part of a food chain as some food animal such as chicken, cow, or fish. The _Star Trek_ way is probably more sanitary (microbes are no doubt broken up to component molecules along with inert waste) albeit less interesting. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/12 "2013-09-08T16:13:28Z")
Seems to me that with replicator and transporter-type technology, waste reclamation would be a lot easier and more sanitary than in the present day. Nowadays you have to filter/distill the water out of the sewage, and then find something to do with what’s left over- usually digest it with microbes and eventually use it as fertilizer for plants. They’d be able to just directly rearrange the atoms and molecules into whatever they want; although I imagine, with certain limitations. There’s no reason they couldn’t take a tank of sewage and rearrange it into whatever they wanted, provided the proper mix of elements was present, or with minor additions. ---
**Author:** ![Tanbarkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@Tanbarkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanbarkie)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/13 "2013-09-08T16:28:25Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Atoms is atoms. At least some of the ones in your body were likely in some part of an animal, their feces, their vomit, etc at some point in the lifespan of the Earth. Get over it. You cannot “contaminate” a carbon atom. “Some”? More like “all.” As in “all of the above.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/14 "2013-09-08T16:46:10Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > You cannot “contaminate” a carbon atom. IIRC from the TNG tech manual (which is official but not fully canon, so between that and the fact I have no idea where my copy is to confirm my recollection, take the following with a huge grain of salt), it’s broken down even further than that - it’s reduced to fundamental particles, then reconstituted as an undifferentiated mass of matter…then when the replicator is used the process is reversed and the undifferentiated mass of matter becomes whatever atoms are needed. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/15 "2013-09-08T17:02:48Z")
As Joni said: \* We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion year old carbon, And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.\* ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/16 "2013-09-08T17:44:38Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > IIRC from the TNG tech manual (which is official but not fully canon, so between that and the fact I have no idea where my copy is to confirm my recollection, take the following with a huge grain of salt), it’s broken down even further than that - it’s reduced to fundamental particles, then reconstituted as an undifferentiated mass of matter…then when the replicator is used the process is reversed and the undifferentiated mass of matter becomes whatever atoms are needed. In short, we’re all full of shit. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/17 "2013-09-08T18:11:55Z")
I’ve always assumed everything gets perfectly recycled, and rather like the idea. I suppose kosher keeping Jews might have lots of debates over what molecules end up in their replicated food. > [@Bakhesh](#): > > I watched an ep of TNG the other day, (best of both worlds i think) and Picard was standing in front of his office replicator, ordering his usual ‘tea, earl grey, hot’ when the door bell went, and Picard said ‘Come!’. > > Note to self, be very careful with your use of language when standing in front of a replicator That’s funny! ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/18 "2013-09-08T19:09:06Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > I suppose kosher keeping Jews might have lots of debates over what molecules end up in their replicated food. IANAJ, but unless the feedstock started out as pork or eels or whatever, wouldn’t anything out of a replicator by definition be kosher, since it’s not _actually_ ham or eels or whatever other unkosher thing it’s been cobbled up by the replicator to be? Or do the kosher laws use the “if it looks like bacon, smells like bacon and tastes like bacon, it must be bacon” rationale? ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/19 "2013-09-08T19:14:37Z")
Maybe the captain only eats virgin molecules, but it gets worse as you go down the chain of command. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318/20 "2013-09-08T20:28:25Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > IIRC from the TNG tech manual (which is official but not fully canon, so between that and the fact I have no idea where my copy is to confirm my recollection, take the following with a huge grain of salt), it’s broken down even further than that - it’s reduced to fundamental particles, then reconstituted as an undifferentiated mass of matter…then when the replicator is used the process is reversed and the undifferentiated mass of matter becomes whatever atoms are needed. So, they can turn poop into Schroedinger’s cat food? I remember Keiko O’Brian getting freaked out that her husband’s mother used to cook with actual meat, rather than replicated meat. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-enterprise-crew-consuming-human-waste-molecules/668318.md?page=2)