Can I get some advice on portable toilets / showers?

[Jerrell]

people need to realise that crapping in a plastic bag is about the worst thing you can do with it

How about a biodegradable bag?

 

[wanderlovejosh]

The 5 gallon bucket is what we started with, and it didn't work well for us, it filled up too quickly having to throw medium on it each time. Plus the mixture of urine and crap still wasn't smelling good. Knowing we were going to be living on the road, and learning about the simplicity and convince of the c-head, justified spending a lot of money, just for a place to take a shit. After having it in a van for a year, and now a travel trailer. Taking comfortable shits in the desert and really anywhere is quite a luxury. Don't have any issues with smell because thats what the compost medium is for. $600 beats the hell out of some of the other brands that are around $1000.

To each his own, everyone has their own way of doing things, some things work great for others that don't for some, thats what makes the world unique. So many options out there.

 

[Sameer]

@Sameer - I cannot believe that you repeatedly admit to putting human shit into a dumpster especially the 3 porta potties that you filled but couldn't get your head round to empty - I know you've only been living in a van for 6 years but man in my book that is disgraceful behavior - it is your responsibility to dispose of human waste in a manner which exposes no one but yourself to YOUR waste - personally in your situation out in the middle of nowhere I'd bury it nice and deep.... I used to live in Southern Spain where the ground is rock hard but always dug a proper hole even if I had to use a pick.... nowadays after 25 years on the road I've got incredible bowel control and never defecate in my own vehicle, it's either a hole or wait for a public toilet....

also whether or not one can DIY a toilet with only $20 is down to the ingenuity and cunning of the individual - the style of crapper that @wanderlovejosh refers to is pretty simple, you just channel the pee to one reservoir and the shit to another making both much more pleasant to empty (for those that can deal with their own waste products)

It's good that we are discussing these issues, people need to realise that crapping in a plastic bag is about the worst thing you can do with it

Where do you think baby diapers end up? Millions of baby diapers!!!!! Hahaha! In the trash!
I have no problem putting a shitbag in a dumpster! No problem whatsoever!
I travel as a nomad so I am in the same campsite, for example here in the southern desert of Arizona for months at a time. I arrived here in November and won't leave until March. Everything is buried in a cat hole. When I am traveling, what do you think? Of course I use a public toilet if available and if not I crap in a bag and throw it in a dumpster. I don't want or need a toilet in my van.... Some people want to live with their own crap and some people don't. I'm not allocating space in my van for any kind of toilet.

 

[roguetrader]

i was mainly referring to the 3 full porta potties - don't know how your waste streams work in the US but over here a refuse worker would have a good chance of coming into close contact with these items.... despite the fact that governments fund waste collection and recycling I still think we bear some of the responsibility when we offload our refuse / waste products to do it as 'cleanly' as possible - maybe its because I worked on bin lorries at festivals for a few years and i've seen a lot of unbelievably irresponsible disposals - i've known people take an extra tent with them so all their posse can shit and puke in it all week and then leave it behind for the clean up crew...

also regarding nappies / diapers, when my daughter was a baby we paid for a service that disposed of them in a greener / 'better' way rather than putting them in a waste bin....

 

[Sameer]

Well..I am quite 'Pooped-Out' on this subject...
Maybe for the sake of the original poster we should discuss portable shower bags.....

"There's a lot of cat-holes Beyond those trees"

 

[Wild Ty Laserbeam]

For our bus we've ended up getting one of those shower tents they sell at wall Mart. If we're gonna be somewhere for a little bit, we set it up and we use a 5 gallon bucket with one of those toilet seats they make, bathroom trash bags, and kitty litter. Make a deposit, drop a little kitty litter on it, the the bag off, drop it in the bucket and put the lid back on. With two people, it fills up in about a week, which is about the time we need to go to town to get ice anyway. I also just dump it out into a dumpster.

For a shower I use a 1/2 gallon pump-up bug sprayer. Warm some water on the stove to fill it with. Works just fine though I plan on upgrading to a 2 gallon sprayer. Never used those shower bags but I've heard mixed reviews

 

[Jerrell]

Piggybacking this post since it's relevant.

Has anyone ever used one of those Luggable Loo lids you can put on a 5 gallon bucket? I plan on using real toilets as much as possible, but if I'm camping on some BLM land or the boonies somewhere, I'd like to have something other than a hole in the ground.

 

[Wild Ty Laserbeam]

Piggybacking this post since it's relevant.

Has anyone ever used one of those Luggable Loo lids you can put on a 5 gallon bucket? I plan on using real toilets as much as possible, but if I'm camping on some BLM land or the boonies somewhere, I'd like to have something other than a hole in the ground.

That's exactly what I use and have used for about a year now. I referred to it in the post before yours actually. Works fine for me. Plus it's about $400 less than the chemical toilet setups

 

[Jerrell]

Oh damn, I'm a genius. haha Thnx for the info!