Toilet Arrangements

[Brian]

Does anyone have details on the best back-woods type sanitary set-up?
I've heard of straddle trenches, composting toilets, do-in-a-bag, dig and bury etc. but what would be best for a small adult group in a bug-out situation?
Brian

[Skean Dhude]

Mmmm. Horses for courses. Depends on your situation are you based there or moving through? What is the land like, woodlands or open fields? Is there a well or a stream?

I'm looking at composting toilets myself once I am at a base. Useful in all environments.

[Brian]

How do you build a composting toilet and use it? I imagine you put straw or something in when it's been used but is there a pit and what do you do for a seat?
Brian

[Skean Dhude]

Watch this space. I've been asked to have a look at a friends house and evaluate it for an event. He has no sewage pipes and uses a cess pit. One thing I was considering for him is a composting toilet and I'll be writing about it.

[Kenneth Eames]

Brian, Dig a trench about two foot wide (600 mm) and three feet long (900mm), and three feet deep (900mm). Build a wooden box a little longer and wider, with a hole the size of a toilet seat. It could be made of ply and the corners could be fixed on 2"x2" (50mm x50mm). The earth you dug out should be stacked by the side with a trowel. When the toilet has been used scatter a trowelful of earth over it. When it has filled with soil by six inches (150mm) sprinkle all over with lime. Do this until a foot from the top. Fill in the rest of the trench with the remaining soil and build another privy. Tarpaulins for a roof and walls. Kenneth Eames.

[Brian]

Thanks Kenneth, a helpful and practical piece of advice. I'll have to include ply and framing in my BOL now. The way my list is growing I'm going to need a lorry instead of the 4x4.
Brian

[Reynard]

The humanure handbook is a free download (chapter by chapter) http://humanurehandbook.com/contents.html. Lots of great info and the best reference book I have come across so far about human "resource" management (It isn't waste!). Some of it contradicts other texts on the subject eg keeping the 1s & 2s together, but the reasoning seems sound.

[NorthernRaider]

I use a Portapotti 165 for my back up toilet, plus lots of the pink and blue chemicals that come with it to sterilise the contents and to help it break down. Then to dispose of its contents I can lever up the sewer manhole cover in the garden to pour its contents into, or I can pour it into a home made soak away I dug some time ago in the bottom of the garden. Thats enough for my imediate family.

[bigpaul]

human waste is a natural product and is bio degradable, if you then contaminate that waste product with chemicals you then interfere with that natural decomposition, you can add human waste to your compost heap and once it has gone through the composting cycle it can then be used to grow food much better than just pouring it down the nearest drain, which may or may not be working after TSHTF. if out in the field, moving from place to place, best thing is to bury it, in its natural state-without chemicals.

[Kenneth Eames]

Absolutely right no chemicals just lime and a sprinkling of earth. It will decompose in time. Do not use immediately as there may be toxins within it. After three years any toxins should be eliminated, then you can grow vegetables on it. Urine can be used immediately by mixing with water, one part urine to ten parts water. Kenneth Eames.