Safe to Empty a "Pee Bottle" After 13 Days?

[kyphysics]

So, another poster triggered this question in my mind when saying old urine can smell like ammonia.

If this is TMI (talking about urine), please feel free to tune out of this thread.

For those sticking around, I use a pee bottle at times on the road (this was even pre-COVID, before restrooms were shut or just sketchy to go into with the virus) for a variety of convenience reasons. USUALLY, I empty it promptly. The last time, mine got left aside, as I had a medical issue I had to deal with and life got busy.

The gross part: It's been about two weeks and I was planning to just throw the bottle away (like at a random shopping center trash can). However, someone said urine doesn't have bacteria. Would it actually be safe to open that bottle up and empty it (into a toilet! ...not sink, of course)? Would some weird chemical reaction have taken place already inside or happen once the fluid is exposed to air after so much time, such that I could get sick from inhaling the pee bottle's content's air? If some accidentally slashed on my skin when emptying it, would it corrode my skin and give me some disease or what not? Is is really true that urine has no bacteria?

Thanks for satisfying my purely scientific curiosity.

 

[Tom.G]

Is is really true that urine has no bacteria?

No but; According to this article the 'usual' bacteria load is small and/or does not grow well in the usual lab culture tests.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3957746/

(above found with:
https://www.google.com/search?&q=is+urine+sterile+cdc
also try searching without 'cdc')

 

[Borek]

It is safe to empty it into the toilet, although I would not bathe in the bottle content.

That might be your chance to learn what ammonia smells like.

 

[BWV]

Thought I would do you a favor and respond so these two threads were no longer consecutive...

 

[JT Smith]

I think it's actually safe to consume human urine, provided the person donating it isn't ill. But after a while I'm sure some bacterial growth occurs. And it sure stinks.

There are worse hazards. I took a bunch of old paint and solvents to the hazardous waste dump recently. One of them must have been leaking slightly because I got a huge solvent high on the drive over, even with the windows all down. It was just a ten minute drive. But if you used pee as a metric I probably sniffed the hazardous equivalent of pee that was 100 years old for two weeks non-stop.

Just flush it and clean out the bottle. If it's really that gross to you throw the whole thing away.

 

[kyphysics]

It is safe to empty it into the toilet, although I would not bathe in the bottle content.

That might be your chance to learn what ammonia smells like.

I'll pass on the ammonia smell after reading about it in that other thread.

The "bottle" is actually a decent one from Target (a fancier one). It's fine. I'll chuck it!

 

[kyphysics]

I think it's actually safe to consume human urine, provided the person donating it isn't ill. But after a while I'm sure some bacterial growth occurs. And it sure stinks.

My thought is that even if urine itself were bacteria free, wouldn't the ...ehhhh...skin on the body part from which it's going to flow from very likely have bacteria on it (esp. given it's proximity to another area of the body) and that the occasional contact with the skin upon flowing out would likely carry along some bacteria with it?

 

[JT Smith]

My thought is that even if urine itself were bacteria free, wouldn't the ...ehhhh...skin on the body part from which it's going to flow from very likely have bacteria on it (esp. given it's proximity to another area of the body) and that the occasional contact with the skin upon flowing out would likely carry along some bacteria with it?

I think that's true, that urine is sterile or nearly so in a healthy person up until the point that it passes through that last little bit of the plumbing. But -- and I apologize for being indelicate -- oral contact with that that last bit of plumbing wouldn't necessarily be harmful to another person either.

 

[hmmm27]

Pretty bizarre conversation. Urine - barring UTI - is generally sterile.

Dilute @ 10:1 and dump it onto a patch of grass. Observe grass growth over the next few weeks.

Or, use it to wash windows, tan leather, etc.

 

[JT Smith]

Or, use it to wash windows...

Not in my house! :-)

 

[hmmm27]

Not in my house! :-)

Downstairs neighbours complaining, again ?

 

[Borek]

Preemptive thread closure before jokes get to the level we will be all ashamed of.