Tag: Leave no trace

Car Camping: Human Waste 

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Guest Article by Peter Valentine

Introduction

Managing human waste while camping on the road can be a dirty subject, but I’m going to talk about the way I handle it (or more specifically DON’T “handle” it). After a dozen years of car camping and a lifetime of camping, backpacking and “heavy” tent camping, I have tried a LOT of ways of managing and disposing of human waste from cat-holes to waste bags, buckets to portable flushing toilets, and I’ll cover some of the basics plus what has worked for me. 

The Basics 

We all excrete waste, it’s a necessary part of being alive, but sometimes you don’t realize how convenient we all have it, until you go camping! Now suddenly you have the urge… and no there is no toilet nearby! The answer is: plan ahead! Thinking about how to dispose of your waste is really hard to do when your bladder is about to burst! 

When traveling in a car, first consider the country you are traveling in. In the USA there are free toilets literally everywhere, at Gas Stations, Fast Food places, Stores, Campgrounds, etc. This is not the case in places like Europe where nearly all the toilets are pay-toilets, and in many other countries the concept of public toilets is almost unheard of. If you are lucky enough to be car-camping in the US, be sure to take advantage of this prevalence of free-toilets, and truth be told, I have traveled for weeks simply using the free toilets available throughout the US and never having to deal with waste management directly. 

However if you are planning to get off the pavement and hit the remote back-country then you will need waste management solutions. 

#1 Liquid Waste 

Good ‘ol Number 1 varies quite a bit between Men and Women, and guys we definitely have the advantage here as any nearby tree will do in a pinch! I happen to live in Arizona and we have a definite shortage of trees, and so we typically manage by pulling over in the car, opening the passenger side door and using it as a privacy blockage while doing our business. 

That being said there are many times when these simple solutions will not work (being stuck in traffic for hours for example). For this reason, I ALWAYS travel with a wide-mouthed (important!) Nalgene bottle (with a good seal) tucked under the seat where I can reach it! When car camping at night in inclement weather this can also be critical, especially as we get older and are used to nightly runs to the bathroom! 

Women, unfortunately the bottle solution can be… problematic. I have heard/seen references to bottles designed specifically for women but cannot vouch for them as I lack to biology to evaluate them (and my “Honey” refuses to try them!) 

Management of liquid waste in the field is perhaps the trickiest, you can use a portable chemical toilet of course, but I have found that in short order your liquid waste will fill the reservoir (they typically only have enough storage for a few days at most, less if you frequently urinate). The best solution I have come up with for Car Camping is to solidify the liquid waste if you have to transport it. 

You can buy commercial “Poo Powder” for this, or bags containing said powder, which will gelatinize the liquid to prevent spillage/leakage. However, at their heart these powders are simply a “superabsorbent polymer” powder such as Sodium Polyacrylate also known as a “Hydrogel”. This chemical in crystalline form is commonly used for soil moisture retention and can be purchased in bulk MUCH CHEAPER than commercial “Poo Powders”. I found that if I mix a small quantity of commercial portable toilet chemical powder into large amount of Sodium Polyacrylate (1/4 tsp to 1/2 cup) I can make a superior “poo powder” of my own for far less. I put this powder into a vial I keep with my portable toilet (along with toilet paper) for occasional use when I have to “bag it” in sensitive wilderness areas. 

Use of “poo powder” is simple enough, do your business in a bag, sprinkle over the top with about a teaspoon of powder… wait a few minutes to make sure absorption is complete (add more if not!) and then tie up the bag. I like to use an “odor proof” garbage bag with roll top (like a dry bag) to store the “goods” in up in my rooftop carrier until I can find a place to throw them out. 

A quick comment about throwing out human waste… don’t toss this into a pit toilet!!! Plastic bags are an extreme hassle for Forest Service personnel to get out! Also be kind and don’t shove them into a small trash can near where people eat/camp! I generally look for dumpsters along my travels where I can throw out the trash or I will pack it all the way back home before tossing into my trash bin. 

#2 Solid Waste 

The simplest of solutions is of course to simply dig a cat-hole, which means you go 200 ft or more away from water, trails, camps, etc. and simply dig a hole 4-6in deep to do your business in. After squatting over hundreds of holes in my time, I found that as I got older, balancing over that hole can be problematic… and trust me when I say you do not want to fall over in the middle of doing your business in the dark! 

My preferred solution is the folding toilet seat… I still go out and dig a cat-hole but I bring a folding toilet seat with me! I skip using the plastic bag and simply set the seat over the hole once dug and enjoy my time in nature! (I can now focus on the view!) 

On the subject of digging the hole, a simple trowel will do the trick, but I have found that hard desert dirt and matted pine needles can both be very resistant to a trowel. Instead, I pack a folding military shovel to which I can apply pressure by stepping on the blade or set the blade at a 90-degree angle and hammering away at tough soil! 

Occasionally I will be camping in a sensitive environmental area where cat-holes are not permitted. Then I break out the plastic bag liners, it helps to have a portable toilet seat with a metal ring to hold down the plastic bag… some models require you to drape the plastic bag over the seat, which I do not like as the plastic “glues” itself to your butt and when you stand up… bad things can happen! 

The purpose of my “poo powder” is twofold here… the chemical toilet powder contains intense smell masking ingredients that help with masking the smells and retarding decomposition, and the Sodium Polyacrylate will help to keep everything solid thus reducing the possibility of leakage when you are storing the bags for later disposal. 

Oh, and finally… don’t forget the toilet paper! Environmentally friendly paper better suited to faster breakdown is a plus of course. You can also consider a portable bidet which is environmentally more friendly (but also MUCH colder on a frigid morning!). You can get a simple silicone attachment that screws onto a SmartWater bottle for example that backpackers use. 

Separating your “Output” 

It is a good idea, when possible, to handle your liquid waste separate from your solid, which is simple for men, and not so easy for women. Most of us produce a lot more liquid than solid waste, and the liquid waste is much harder to store and transport when that is required. Solidifying the liquid waste makes storage/disposal easier especially when liquid and solid waste is combined. There is another option which is more expensive and takes up more space which is: 

Portable Toilets 

Another option for car camping, if you have the room, is a portable toilet, and I have used them in the past, but they come with a number of problems which have led to me no longer using them. 

The portable toilet is of course the most familiar option for most of us, these are usually “chemical” toilets, and so they have a small tank containing a chemical/water mixture which you must prepare ahead of time. Once you have done your business however, this device is now a biohazard, while the chemicals act as a retardant, the solids and liquids are now technically “sewage” and while it is contained in a tank that doesn’t mean that accident can’t happen! 

Things to think about:

  • As you “fill” your toilets storage with a combination of chemicals and your “donations” be aware that the weight of the toilet is increasing, with more capacity comes more final weight. Remember that you have to move it in order to empty it… make sure you can ahead of time! 
  • Overfilling the toilet can occur, especially with children… and once its overfilled moving it becomes very problematic. 
  • Where will this be when driving?… if you brake hard or worse still, get into an accident… what happens? 
  • The use of chemicals precludes emptying this thing in the wild, and DO NOT empty this into a pit toilet as the chemicals will destroy the biological balance of the pit toilet. 
  • The cartridge toilet can technically be emptied into a regular toilet at a rest stop, but from practical experience if the staff see you carrying in the cartridge, they may forbid it because of what comes next… the cartridge has been “brewing” now for a couple of days, when you empty it, the entire bathroom will smell like the septic system has exploded! Oh, and the tight confines of the stall and paper holder means you have to be a gymnast to keep from spilling it on you or the floor! 
  • You can also empty at a RV dump station, this is a lot easier, but sometimes there are spring loaded lids that assume you will be using a 4” pipe, and if they are charging money for the use of the dump station you generally end up paying what a full RV would. 

Given the availability of public toilets and the problems with hauling around your own sewage system (portable toilet) you can probably see why this is no longer an option for me. 

Privacy Tents 

One of the nicer things to have along just in case is a privacy tent. If you cannot sneak off into the woods, having a small tent for showering and toilet is a good thing. There are convenient pop-up, spring-loaded versions, as well as those with solid frames for hanging heavy solar show bags from the ceiling. These all work great as privacy screens for the toilet and keep the smell out of your vehicle/tent. I recently received a gift from my Honey in the form of a roof-rack mounted shower/privacy that folds out and drops down to form a curtained area right off the side of my vehicle. Still trying to decide if it’s worth the weight but have not had an extended outing in the backcountry yet to really try it out. 

Final Thoughts 

Managing human waste can be a nasty business, so having a plan before driving off on your next adventure can be important. In fact I would suggest that unless you know that all the places you will be camping have public toilets available, then planning your waste management can be as important as your meal plan… in fact it is the final phase of your meal plan! 

Links 

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