Discharge of portable toilet waste

Portable toilet waste is waste from domestic and international aircraft, trains, marine craft, ferries, building site toilets and passenger road coaches.

Portable toilet waste has an organic content many times that of normal domestic wastewater, and may contain various treatment chemicals. So, it's discharge to the wastewater system in commercial quantities must be controlled through our industrial waste permitting system.

For discharge of waste from mobile homes, caravan parks, roadside stops, showgrounds and other locations refer to Trade Waste PUB 40 Caravan and Recreation Vehicle (RV) Portable Toilet Cartridge Dump Point Facility.

Requirements

• All portable toilet waste that is being discharged to the wastewater system must be disposed of at designated bulk discharge points.
• An application to discharge industrial waste must be submitted and assessed prior to the installation of any proposed discharge point.
• All designated discharge points must have a permit held by the party that owns, operates and provides the facility.
• The designated portable toilet dump point is for disposal of portable toilet waste only. No other types of waste, including those generated from septic tanks, grease arrestors or other miscellaneous tankered waste is to be accepted or discharged through the discharge point for portable toilet waste.
• This installation is deemed to be a high hazard for backflow prevention within the property, therefore a boundary containment device must comply with our backflow prevention policy.

Typical drawings

We've developed drawings for marine facilities and all other installations of standard industrial waste apparatus, such as pre-treatment fixtures, plumbing configurations and sampling points.

Accepting waste from third parties

Marinas and any other facility wishing to accept this waste from their clients must apply for a trade waste permit. Accepting waste from tankered effluent contractors is not permitted.

Supporting information

Information on the quality and quantity of waste must accompany all applications, particularly added chemical formulations and their relevant Safety Data Sheets (SDSs).

Due to the variability in the chemical composition of the waste, the flow characteristics of the receiving wastewater system and the size of the wastewater treatment plant, each application will be assessed on a site-specific basis, particularly in country areas.

Considerations for applications include:

• Potential for gas production in wastewater systems having high detention times
• Biodegradability of the waste components
• Potential for treatment plant process inhibition
• Effect on the downstream pump station, in relation to its hydraulic capacity and the potential for odour

Pre-treatment and monitoring requirements

In most cases, provided adequate dilution with normal domestic wastewater is achieved through installation of a holding tank, no further pre-treatment is necessary before discharging to the wastewater system.

An industrial waste sampling point is usually required for all dischargers. Larger volume dischargers may also need to install an industrial waste flow meter and monitoring point.