What Happens to All The Poop on a Cruise Ship?

What happens when you flush on a cruise ship? A viewer called Steve asked us after our film on cruise buffet leftovers, so this time we follow one flush on the biggest cruise ships at sea: through the vacuum toilet and the pipes behind your cabin, into the advanced wastewater treatment plant passengers never see, past the MARPOL rules on what goes over the side, to the honest answer about whether cruise ship sewage ends up in the ocean. Along the way: why are cruise ship toilets so loud, what one guest's wet wipes can do to a whole corridor, what happened on Carnival Triumph in 2013 when the pumps stopped (the "poop cruise"), blackwater and greywater, bioreactors, membranes and UV, what happens to the sludge, the 3 and 12 nautical mile lines, the Baltic Sea and Alaska rules, and the biggest cruise pollution cases, which were about oil and plastic, not sewage. CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 00:50 1. The loudest flush at sea 02:29 2. When the flushing stops 04:02 3. Two kinds of water 05:13 4. The room that cleans it 06:54 5. What's left behind 07:21 6. Does it go in the sea? 08:43 7. The strictest waters 10:37 8. Not always clean 11:59 9. The honest answer This film started with a comment. If there's something on a cruise ship you've always wondered about, tell us in the comments, and subscribe to Cruise Ship Uncovered: each episode follows one everyday thing through a cruise ship. PEOPLE IN THIS FILM Larry Berg (cabin video, Carnival Firenze); Professor Melissa; Jen Baxter, former Carnival Triumph cruise director (ITV This Morning); Carnival Triumph passengers (ABC News); Gerry Cahill, then Carnival Cruise Lines CEO (ABC News); Peter Roy, environmental officer, and Nick Rose, environmental programs director, Royal Caribbean; Stig Eriksen, chief engineer, Symphony of the Seas (Business Insider); Richard Pruitt, Carnival (CruiseNews); Nemanja Nikolin and Jeff Corwin (Princess Cruises); Port of Helsinki environment staff (City of Helsinki); Alaska State Senator Dennis Egan (Juneau Empire); Wifredo Ferrer, then US Attorney, Southern District of Florida (CBS Mornings); Richard Udell, US Justice Department (TIME / The Outlaw Ocean Project). Thanks to @steveh4114 for the question. SOURCES & FOOTAGE Facts are attributed in the film, including the US Environmental Protection Agency (Alaska cruise ship discharge assessment and sampling), the IMO's MARPOL Annex IV and HELCOM Baltic Sea special area rules, US federal and Alaska cruise ship wastewater law, US Justice Department case records (Princess Cruise Lines, 2016 and 2019), and Royal Caribbean Group and Carnival Corporation statements. Creator clips (credited on screen): Larry Berg; The Cruise Vibe; MAD ENGINEER; Plumber Cruise ship tv; William Powell; Professor Melissa; Floridaman Drone; Shrimp to Shark; Chris Frame the Maritime Historian; ALASAN; Scalf Photography; videotrips; Travelling with Bruce; CruiseNews; Proximity Adventure Rentals. Broadcasters and publishers: The Wall Street Journal; Billion Pound Cruise (Fulwell 73 / Banijay); Associated Press; KHOU 11; Business Insider; Inside Edition; ABC News; ITV This Morning; The Telegraph; Yahoo Finance; GREEN4SEA; First Coast News; TIME (The Outlaw Ocean Project); Juneau Empire; CBS Mornings; Miami Herald. Companies: Royal Caribbean; AIDA Cruises; RWO Marine Water Technologies; Princess Cruises; Royal Caribbean Group; Nefco (Nordic Green Bank). Government: City of Helsinki; Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Music: original score created for this channel. Independent documentary; not affiliated with Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess, Holland America, Costa, AIDA, Celebrity or any cruise line. Ships and years are identified in the film. Real ships and real footage throughout; narration uses an AI voice. The thumbnail is an AI-generated illustration, not a photograph or ship plan; the people in any thumbnail are not real people, and real ships do not discharge through toilets on the hull. #CruiseShip #IconOfTheSeas #CruiseShipUncovered

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