It may be gross to think about, but someone has to do it. If the thought of where everything flushed down the toilet goes has ever crossed your mind, watch to see the whole process and understand how wastewater services are crucial to the general infrastructure and working of a town or city.

The process begins at your house’s water outlets with the contents being channeled to your area’s wastewater treatment plant where thousands or even millions of other households send their wastewater.

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For example, New York City has 14 wastewater treatment plants that handle 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater daily.

The first stop is a ‘bar screen’ which traps all large matter that has found its way into the wastewater and includes toys, flush-able wipes, and even guns. All of this is collected and sent off to a landfill or solid waste management facility where it is properly disposed of. The next stop is a grit chamber where smaller particles like sand and rock are removed and the wastewater sent to a clarifier in which even finer particles are removed.

The final step is removing biological content, so the wastewater is purified further before being filtered one last time, disinfected, and released to nearby water bodies like streams or lakes; in a state that is chemically identical to that flowing through your pipes. Wastewater services can be summarized as crucial, interesting, and informative, wouldn’t you say?.