Where does human waste go when going to the toilet in the Star Trek universe?

Even if the society in Star Trek has evolved into a cashless state, that still leaves the matter of stools and other bodily excretions (not sweat or blood) to deal with.

Where does that all faecal matter and urine go?

Having not seen any depiction of toilets or water closets in any of the films or TV series, there has to be a way to deal with this basic bodily function. They're not the Brady Bunch after all.

They eat fine and drink plenty of tea from the replicators. And that Neelix fellow on Voyagar sure cooks up exotic meals. All that has to be handled in some hygienic manner. It's not like they stand around the transport room and have their bowels expunged into space. Do they?

Answer

The best (and I think only) "in-show" reference to this is in an Enterprise episode called Breaking the Ice. The crew records a series of answers for school children in Ireland and one of the questions is "When you flush the toilet [on the Enterprise], where does it go?" Captain Archer tells Engineer Trip Tucker to answer the question, which he reluctantly does, saying (not verbatim) that waste is broken down into its constituant molecules and recycled as anything required, namely boots, uniforms, etc. (Presumably at that point they don't get to make it into anything edible. Food is indeed mentioned later as being stocked and "natural.")

By TNG era, as Zypher points out, the breaking down of matter is most likely atomic (literally pulverizing the icky argument) and food can be replicated as well, or a reasonably close facsimile thereof. Table waste was also likewise disposed of (there's a mention in DS9).

Comments

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