# What do septic service trucks do with their load of s\*#t? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 9, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-septic-service-trucks-do-with-their-load-of-s-t/480452 "2009-01-09T00:42:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-septic-service-trucks-do-with-their-load-of-s-t/480452/21 "2009-01-09T15:10:26Z")
\*_What do septic service trucks do with their load of s_#t? \*\* Don’t ask, and don’t read the label of your cup noodles too closely. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-septic-service-trucks-do-with-their-load-of-s-t/480452/22 "2009-01-10T00:30:19Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > My apologies then, **lobotomyboy**. I don’t believe we do that here, but looks like it’s done elsewhere. 🙂 > > ETA: In my original post, I was thinking along the lines of \*\* robby \*\*'s post. Maybe I was the one who was asleep during environmental engineering class! Are you flush with embarrassment?;)😃 No worries… I had a science class in high school where we toured the sewage treatment facility. I expected something more high tech than “let the sun evaporate off the moisture” too. BTW in that episode Mike cleaned out large grease traps, too, which he said was worse than the sewage. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-septic-service-trucks-do-with-their-load-of-s-t/480452/23 "2009-01-10T00:51:01Z")
The septic tanks themselves don’t just fill up with shit. They are built to do an ecological breakdown and they are small treatment plants themselves and they tend to do it well. However, various other things tend to flow into it like small plastic object and god knows what else that doesn’t break down easily. Pumping is done to ensure the overall health of the system but many people go years without doing it. We do it about every 18 months. Every time we have it pumped, I have to go out and find the concrete cover by hand digging down in the general area about 18 inches. If you lift the lid, the smell isn’t good but it isn’t terrible either. Our pumping costs about $150 dollars but Massachusetts is very strict and a bad inspection can result in an unexpected bill of $20,000 - $40,000 or so to replace it. It happened to our neighbors. Pumping is used to ensure the health of the system so that the whole system doesn’t break down. Most of what they pump is just nasty water and random waste. Look at large sewage systems like in New York City. People walk around in those without much problem as long as they have the proper gear on. It is nasty but it isn’t THAT bad. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-septic-service-trucks-do-with-their-load-of-s-t/480452/24 "2009-01-10T05:22:05Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > Are you flush with embarrassment?;)😃 No worries… Well, I can’t be right all of the time! 🙂 I do feel better when I 'fess up to my mistakes. > [@](#): > > BTW in that episode Mike cleaned out large grease traps, too, which he said was worse than the sewage. Old grease stinks, it’s sour. BTW an environmental engineer friend of mine says that he’s seen huge greaseballs down at the sewage treatment plant. Yuck. > [@Shagnasty](#): > > The septic tanks themselves don’t just fill up with shit. They are built to do an ecological breakdown and they are small treatment plants themselves and they tend to do it well. However, various other things tend to flow into it like small plastic object and god knows what else that doesn’t break down easily. Exactly. The gray water is intended to flow out into the leachfield. [hijack] I read a sad story one time about a missing child. Years after his dissappearance, a tiny cowboy boot was found in the family’s septic tank. ☹ [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-septic-service-trucks-do-with-their-load-of-s-t/480452/25 "2009-01-10T05:37:43Z")
[organic farmer]We feeds da chickens da pig shit, an’ we feeds da pigs da chicken shit.[/organic farmer] ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-septic-service-trucks-do-with-their-load-of-s-t/480452/26 "2009-01-10T14:56:30Z")
> [@robby](#): > > OK…civil/environmental engineer here. > > Here in New England, septage is generally required to be transported to a wastewater treatment plant for treatment. Yes, they are charged a fee for disposal. > > You need special permits to convert septage/sewage to fertilizer. The regulations for this are generally pretty strict (and have been getting stricter), because a lot goes down the drain other than human waste (e.g. household cleaners, excreted prescription drugs, etc.). For the treatment plants, which pick up commercial and industrial flows, many other contaminants can end up in there as well. Hazardous waste disposal is strictly prohibited from being disposed of in sewers, but this is sometimes difficult to enforce, and contaminants can cause problems even at low concentrations. (One focus in recent years has been mercury waste from dentist offices.) For this reason, the residual solids (referred to as sludge) are generally either disposed of in lined landfills or incinerated. If the waste is incinerated, the stacks must have scrubbers, and resultant ash is disposed of in lined landfills. Isn’t the sludge high in salts? I worked at a sewage treatment plant as my first summer job in high school and they would dump the flocculated [spelling?] sludge into the field adjacent to the plant. Gardeners would stop by to load up on the stuff and swore by it. I mentioned it to my dad, and one Saturday, we went down and picked up a couple of cubic yards and spread it on our lawn. It didn’t do much until we’d watered the hell out of it. Wasn’t really worth it for the results and annoyed the two other families on the same well (we had only a single water meter at the time). ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-septic-service-trucks-do-with-their-load-of-s-t/480452/27 "2009-01-10T15:13:24Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > Well, I can’t be right all of the time! 🙂 I do feel better when I 'fess up to my mistakes. I just wanted to say “flush.”😉 > [@NinetyWt](#): > > Old grease stinks, it’s sour. BTW an environmental engineer friend of mine says that he’s seen huge greaseballs down at the sewage treatment plant. Yuck. IIRC in that episode that called the big globs of it “spaghetti.” I thought it was a commodity you could sell, though. I’m going back to my mom saying they saved grease for the glycerine for the making of nitroglycerine during WWII. [http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/illinois\_at\_war/doc35.html](http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/illinois_at_war/doc35.html) Don’t restaurants (e.g. McDonald’s) sell their used grease to be used for something or other, maybe biodiesel? Or maybe that’s fine for oil but not grease? A yahoo search for restaurant grease collection brought 2.45M hits. [http://search.yahoo.com/search;\_ylt=A0geu6kBumhJDUYA.5xXNyoA?fr2=sg-gac&sado=1&p=restaurant%20grease%20collection&fr=slv8-wave&ei=UTF-8](http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geu6kBumhJDUYA.5xXNyoA?fr2=sg-gac&sado=1&p=restaurant%20grease%20collection&fr=slv8-wave&ei=UTF-8) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-septic-service-trucks-do-with-their-load-of-s-t/480452/28 "2009-01-10T15:15:13Z")
My residential tank (small, but I’m not sure the exact size) costs about $100 to pump. But a septic tank doesn’t need to be pumped when it’s full, since the natural process will handle most effluent, unlike a holding tank, which does no processing. Locally, the trucks used to dump in the closest municipal system until the system discovered too many panty hose clogging their pumps and discontinued accepting waste from that source. Now they go to a larger city’s plant. You can see how a simple system works [in this video.](http://doorbell.net/video/07-30-07.wmv) It’s a two-cell (cell=pond) mostly gravity system that stores effluent in an open area for months, then discharges to a second, smaller pond, then after more months, discharges what’s left into a creek. No chemicals are added; it’s all natural processes. After many years, the ponds have to be drained and dredged – I don’t know where that stuff goes, but it must be pretty concentrated. The two ponds are havens for wildlife and whenever I was there, had no smell unless you were standing right over the inflow pipe. The operators claim that the system is so good that the outflow from the second cell tests cleaner than the creek it discharges into, a creek which drains many surrounding farms and forests. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-septic-service-trucks-do-with-their-load-of-s-t/480452/29 "2009-01-10T16:38:37Z")
> [@TheLoadedDog](#): > > A shitload. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-septic-service-trucks-do-with-their-load-of-s-t/480452/30 "2009-01-10T17:45:54Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > I just wanted to say “flush.” I figured! > [@](#): > > I thought it was a commodity you could sell, though. I’m going back to my mom saying they saved grease for the glycerine for the making of nitroglycerine during WWII. Isn’t it still used to make lipstick and such? > [@](#): > > How is Waste Oil and Grease Recycled? > Waste oil and grease is tested for pesticides and other contaminants. Material is placed in a settling tank to remove solids, heated in a vacuum to volatize impurities and is then sold to companies for use as animal feed additives, in soap production, oils, cosmetic and skin care products, and in composting. From [here](http://www.p2pays.org/ref/03/02791.pdf). (pdf) ---
**Author:** ![HumanMonkeyGod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c67d28/32.png) [@HumanMonkeyGod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HumanMonkeyGod)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-septic-service-trucks-do-with-their-load-of-s-t/480452/31 "2009-01-13T16:46:27Z")
> [@Yossarian](#): > > It has also been shipped to the middle of nowhere to fertilize nothing For some reason I take delight that this fact was brought to me by **Yossarian**. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-septic-service-trucks-do-with-their-load-of-s-t/480452/32 "2009-01-13T17:47:24Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I saw that episode as well, but don’t remember the fertilizer part. I wonder if it was Milorginite based out of Milwaukee (they make fertilizer out of poo) which is about 90 minutes away from Madison where that episode was filmed IIRC. Milorganite isn’t actually made out of dried poo though as some of the posts here suggest could be done with the septic waste. I read an article about it in a trade journal years back. What they do is put the poo-water into a big pit and introduce poo-eating bacteria. As the bacteria reproduce, they introduce oxygen to the mix which cases the bacteria to reproduce faster, consuming more poo. Eventually, it reaches a critical mass where you have lots of bacteria and very little poo left and they cut off the oxygen causing a massive die-off of the bacteria. Let the whole thing dry out and you have a fertilizer made _using_ human waste but actually composed of a bajillion bacteria corpses. It’s a whole big specialized process and I doubt it’d be available to most septic waste companies. ---
**Author:** ![Gbro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Gbro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gbro)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-septic-service-trucks-do-with-their-load-of-s-t/480452/33 "2009-01-13T18:43:12Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > My residential tank (small, but I’m not sure the exact size) costs about $100 to pump. But a septic tank doesn’t need to be pumped when it’s full, since the natural process will handle most effluent, unlike a holding tank, which does no processing. > > Locally, the trucks used to dump in the closest municipal system until the system discovered too many panty hose clogging their pumps and discontinued accepting waste from that source. Now they go to a larger city’s plant. > > You can see how a simple system works [in this video.](http://doorbell.net/video/07-30-07.wmv) It’s a two-cell (cell=pond) mostly gravity system that stores effluent in an open area for months, then discharges to a second, smaller pond, then after more months, discharges what’s left into a creek. No chemicals are added; it’s all natural processes. After many years, the ponds have to be drained and dredged – I don’t know where that stuff goes, but it must be pretty concentrated. The two ponds are havens for wildlife and whenever I was there, had no smell unless you were standing right over the inflow pipe. > > The operators claim that the system is so good that the outflow from the second cell tests cleaner than the creek it discharges into, a creek which drains many surrounding farms and forests. That is a very accurate description of the municipal system here. A friend of mine was trying to give me some ducks(bluebills-scaup, even referred to before this as shit-ducks!) his boys shot and he didn’t have the time to process them. The ducks stunk like shit, come to find out they shot them on the shit ponds outside of town. The ducks must like the warm water in the 1st pond as that was the only pond they would use. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-septic-service-trucks-do-with-their-load-of-s-t/480452.md?page=1)