How did the Apollo missions manage astronaut waste on the lunar surface, and what engineering solutions were used?

During the Apollo missions, astronauts handled their bodily waste with a surprisingly low-tech approach: collect everything in special bags, store the bags temporarily, and then throw them out the door of the lunar module before blasting off from the Moon. The waste-management system was an official part of the crew provisions, and it gave NASA’s engineers plenty of headaches during development [15][16]. By the end of Apollo, the twelve moonwalkers had left behind 96 bags of urine, faeces and vomit—along with boots, life-support backpacks and other junk—scattered across the lunar surface [1].

Capturing solid waste: the fecal containment device

With no ordinary toilet on the Moon, astronauts used a carefully designed plastic bag that worked like a personal, disposable commode [3]. The bag had several ingenious features to make the messy job a little less awful:

• A finger tube ran halfway down the inside, letting the user insert a finger to dislodge and push material deeper into the bag—without actually touching the waste [3].
• The opening was lined with Stomaseal tape, so astronauts could stick it directly to their buttocks to get a decent seal [4].
• A small germicidal liquid pouch was placed inside; after use, the astronaut would break it open to kill bacteria and stop dangerous gases from building up (since solid waste was never vented into space) [5].

Once used, the fecal bag was stored in a sealed Waste Stowage Compartment inside the spacecraft [6]. Later, before leaving the Moon, it would be collected—along with everything else—for final disposal outside [14].

Handling liquid waste: urine bags

For liquid waste (urine), astronauts used simple urine bags. The evidence does not describe their design in detail, but they were a standard part of the waste kit [8]. Like the used fecal devices, filled urine bags ended up in the same jettison containers during lunar cleanup [8][14].

The jettison bag: the Moon’s multi-purpose garbage sack

The real workhorse for lunar waste disposal was the jettison bag. It was not an ordinary bin liner—NASA custom-built these lightweight fabric sacks for each mission [13].

• Size and weight: An empty jettison bag measured about 101 cm long by 70 cm wide (roughly the size of a small blanket) and weighed just 380 grams [13].
• Usage: One jettison bag was needed for each moonwalk (EVA), plus one final bag to collect any last bits of trash before liftoff. Apollo 11, for example, needed an extra bag because they had to jettison the Portable Life Support Systems (PLSS) first [7][11].
• Contents: Astronauts crammed anything they no longer needed into these bags—used fecal containment devices, urine bags, food wrappers, arm rests, and worn‑out equipment [8][14]. The goal was to lighten the Lunar Module’s ascent stage as much as possible [2].
• Disposal method: The Lunar Module Pilot pushed the filled bag toward the Commander, who was already standing on the ladder porch. The Commander would drop the bag over the side railing and later give it a kick to shove it under the descent stage. That spot kept the trash out of the path of the ascent engine’s exhaust, preventing it from being blown around during liftoff [9][10].
• Bonus dust control: On later J-missions, jettison bags pulled double duty. Astronauts stepped into them at the end of each EVA to trap moon dust clinging to their suit legs, and they stood on clean bags while donning or doffing their suits inside the dusty cabin [12].

The result: a lunar dumpsite

All this jettisoning added up. When the lunar module’s ascent stage ignited to carry the astronauts home, each landing site was left with a messy collection of bags. In total, NASA’s official count says the Apollo moonwalkers abandoned about 96 bags of human waste—along with boots and life-support backpacks—strewn across the Moon [1][2].