Poo keeping for 1 / 2 weeks?

If you are parked in the van for 2 weeks, how / where / do you keep the poo so it doesn't smell? Special container? Bags?  :s

Is there some reason why you can't dump after... dumping.....?

If I'm down a dirt road with several other vandwellers, only want to go to town once a week. Or it is dark outside. I will not bury a plastic bag in the forest.

If you're using any style of separating toilet, there is NO smell to poo anyways.

If you're not, then the best you can hope for is to get a storage container with a very tight sealing lid.

Great options discussed here

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f115/my-2-dollar-diy-composting-head-172196.html

LadyJo said:

If you are parked in the van for 2 weeks, how / where / do you keep the poo so it doesn't smell? Special container? Bags?  :s

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I have kept poo for up to 17 days.  This is my method:

I poop into a plastic bag into which I have dumped a cup of sawdust and placed inside a 5 gallon bucket.  The bucket has pine needles for cover scent.  When finished the plastic bag is tied shut and left in the bucket with a gamma seal cover.  This bucket is kept under my bed; I can detect no smell when closed.

All poop smells (except mine ).  The smell is MUCH worse if mixed with urine.  I try to separate the urine from the poo, but because of my 'old man' syndrome, I get some leakage.  The sawdust is to absorb the drips and dribbles and add some cover scent.  There is a slight unpleasant odor when the bucket is open, but dissipates fast after closure.  The bucket will be quite full after 14 days.

I have thought about a second bucket for waste but I don't have room.

I've used other cover scents that work such as cedar chips, moss and a rag soaked with fabric softener, but I like the smell of pine, its free, and easy to get.

Thanks for the info everyone.

My method is peat moss cheap and very effective with yes the Gamma lid. Really important is to separate the pee and poop. You need to work on being able to separate these different components. I usually last 2-3 weeks and can barely fill a 3.5 gallon bucket. Peat moss has a pleasant earthy odor. I do not eat a lot of meat but gotta have my weekly steak. It makes a difference.

I know a lot of people don’t like them but I have a porta loo with the blue liquid stuff and I keep poo in there for at least three weeks with no issue of smell, I separate the pee and dispose of that around trees or over vegetation daily. I dispose of the porta loo down toilets or at dump stations with no issue.

LadyJo said:

If I'm down a dirt road with several other vandwellers, only want to go to town once a week. Or it is dark outside. I will not bury a plastic bag in the forest.

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You don't need to bury the plastic bag--all you need to bury is the poo. Backpackers have been pooing in catholes for a hundred years.

I use a plastic bucket with an air tight lid that screws on.  The best I have found are formerly pool chlorine tablet buckets.  I use the same bucket to also store garbage.  I also use the same bucket as a chair.

Trebor English said:

I use a plastic bucket with an air tight lid that screws on.  The best I have found are formerly pool chlorine tablet buckets.  I use the same bucket to also store garbage.  I also use the same bucket as a chair.

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Wow chlorine is both incredibly powerful and deadly.  I'm surprised you can be around it for any length of time at all.  That bucket must indeed be air tight.  I hope it is, because a crack or other bit of bad luck could be disastrous.

One or two of these will definitely take care of any smell! Just put your bags in here until you can get to a place to dump it:
https://m.harborfreight.com/50-cal-metal-ammo-can-63181.html?utm_referrer=direct/not provided

I use a small plastic bag for poo, when done I tie it off and put it into a doggie poo bag which is also tied off, this goes in my trash bag for regular disposal.


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You can always dig a good hole (at least 6-8 inches deep) and bury it. Bury only the poo though. Take your paper out with you.

Nothing wrong with this method as long as it is deep enough and poo-only. Obviously, don't do this near water sources or where others might be tempted to dig up your hole.

A week has never been a problem for me and comment from personal experience. In the van, I carry a PortaPottie with a 12 litre holding capacity. Only poo and enough flush water for treatment goes in the holding tank. Bowl gets lined with T-paper and I finish with a generous dose of Sodium Percarbonate flushed with about 200 ml of water. Urine in a 2 litre wide mouth screw top. If I cannot empty the urine every day, I use a 20 litre Solar Shower bladder to store, again with a good dose of Sodium Percarbonate.

Never had any issues with odour. Sodium Percarbonate does a good job and I maintain the seal on the PortaPottie in good order.

Hmm never heard of sodium percarbonate, I'll look it up. Thanks.

Vague memory of Hikers/climbers in Denali National Park are now issued with Poo Tubes as they sign in at ranger HQ.   A programme of what you take in also comes out is now in place.   Plastic like biodegradable sheet pre-loaded with gelling powder for the nasty business.   Rolled/Wrapped then into biodegradable doggie poo style bag then into the screw top Poo Tube.   Very specific instructions on where and how to wizz also come from the rangers.   Tubes are handed in as hikers leave the parks and sign out and rangers don haz mat gear once a week to dispose of contents and clean tubes.    Compliance with the intent of the programme has been excellent and bacteria loads in the watercourses have dropped dramatically.

Friend who climbs takes similar when he does overnights hanging off vertical cliff faces.   In the old days, droppings from the heavens was a constant worry for those at the bottom of popular climbing opportunities.   If you wish to follow up on the poo tube idea then a specialist outlet for climbing or hiking might be a source of commercial supplies if you don't want to make your own.

several whitewater areas have also gone to this type or similar waste disposal methods. highdesertranger

Anything is better than burying plastic bags full of the shit (pun intended) or placing it under a rock which I see a lot of in my favorite camping spots. I've voiced it here before and will again, crapping in plastic bags and then tossing it in the trash should not be done. Burying it (sans bag) in a properly dug scat hole or dumping it (sans bag) in a toilet or dump station is preferable.

I don't know why people are so against using a portable toilet with the little tank and flush mechanism (they are cheap) or even just a bucket with water and some septic safe chemicals. It is easy to add capacity by dumping these items in a sealed bucket for later disposal if need be. Putting it in bags in the garbage can cause someone else down the line to get sick, and doesn't smell that good. We have homeless people doing that in the dumpsters at my office and it really, really, REALLY stinks and is just plain gross. The poor maintenance guy had to clean some up that they were too lazy to actually put in the dumpster AFTER the bags got ripped by the garbage truck after tipping the dumpster. Even a composting toilet is much preferable, but not always practical in small space or every budget.

Perhaps this group should come up with a mutually accepted and non polluting practice and all agree to follow it so as not to contaminate the dumpsters of the world and not have to deal with the bags of shit either.

The whole crap in bags thing is giving fulltimers and vandwellers a stigma that cannot be undone once in place. Think about that. Be good stewards of the lifestyle.