Anyone using bioplastic?

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Then tossing them into the municipal garbage? That would be for the best even though it is actually not an approved way to dispose of human feces.

The reality is unless the place where you bury them is set up for optimal composting they won't compost. If you were to dig a cat hole in the Arizona desert and deposit your poop in a corn plastic bag it would not turn into compost for a very long time because the weather and soil conditions are not optimal for creating compost from your waste or the compostable corn plastic bag. It would be much more likely to work in a damp climate. Of course you also have to pay attention to not putting your cat holes close to any bodies of water such as springs and streams and lakes.

If you knew of a local place that had a humanure compost setup that would work but there is a very remote chance of finding a convenient place like that on your travels.

Therefore sometimes you could do it and sometimes it won't work.

In terms of having the human waste properly handled and treated a portable flush toilet or a black tank system that puts your waste into a sewerage treatment plant or into a septic system is the most environmentally responsible method of disposing of your waste.

Note that I have no objection to composting toilets, it is simply that the feces should be going through treatment plants or into a human manure compost system and not into the dumpster. The treatment plants do produce compost that gets put back into the soil. Also there are some treatment plants that are now capturing the methane gas from the bio-waste and then using that energy to run the treatment plants. So if your concern is what is best for the environment then consider all the factors of how and where you are going to dispose of your waste. Putting it into corn plastic bags and then tossing it into the dumpster is not the responsible method of disposal.
 
unless the place where you bury them is set up for optimal composting they won't compost

No, I'm not talking about burying it.

People bag their poop in plastic and then send it to the landfill. As Bob has said in his videos, people bag their dog and baby poop and put those in the trash, so it's no different. I don't feel good about doing that in plastic. I feel better about it with corn plastic.

Unless there is a way to send it to a treatment plant without chemicals, I can't use this method because I can't use those chemicals.


If you knew of a local place that had a humanure compost setup

I wish!! I really wish that was set up in more locations. In an ideal world, I would be dropping off waste to community gardens and community humanure, but the only way to have those systems is on my own land, unless I find farms that want my goodies.
 
Yes people do bag their dog and baby pooh but guess what? They are not supposed to do that. The waste disposal companies and the city municipal sewer systems require that the feces be placed into a toilet to be flushed.

Bob is well meant with his advice but well meant does not mean that he actually has taken the time to know what the real regulations on such things are. Remember Bob has not been living in towns or cities, he boondocks and has for many years. The regulations say feces go into a toilet to be flushed into the sewer or septic system and are not supposed to be put into the dumpsters or trash cans. Obviously the diaper itself or the hopefully compostable dog poop pickup bags do go into the trash system. Feces are also not allowed to be put into the municipal compost pickup system.
 
So I guess that the dog poop bags at all the municipal and federal parks are all emptied into the toilets and then disposed of in the trash?

Let's cite them all!
Ted
 
This is one area that reality and rules are just too far apart to deal with in any logical way. Your dog poops on the ground next to where a hiker dug a cat hole, cow, coyote, and a flock of birds have pooped and we expect you to pick it up with a little green plastic doggie bag and haul it to a toilet, some how clean it out without dropping the bag down the toilet using a ton of toilet paper and water to get it mostly clean, and them do what with it ? Hopefully put it in the trash? Don't even mention diapers that are meant to absorb and called "Disposable". Rules only work when they are enforced. I have spent untold hours trying to get people just to not leave it out exposed in our national rec area. We have special cleanout areas just for this purpose and written instructions on how to use them and we still can not keep them clear of plastic bags and bottles. I know our maintenance staff deal with this every day and would much rather deal with a sealed closed container in the trash than clear a clogged sewer or pump. With horses we require bags if they are allowed at all as that isn't always effective either. It seems anyway you approach this problem it causes more problems and as our infrastructure gets older even flushing the stuff causes problems so I guess if you really want to make the world a better place and protect the resources don't bring any pets to a protected area, eat very little and hold it till you can get to a toilet or porta potty you know works! Again this is one area where rules and common sense realism need to be figured out. Just because you tell people they can not does mean they will be able to do what they need to correctly. Until that procedure is established and things like disposable diapers and plastic doggie bags are replaced by cloth diapers and washable doggie bags this situation will continue. Please use common sense and do the best you can with what you have and good luck to humanity, cause s---ts gonna happen.
 
When I have campers on my land I just tell them to move the poop where nobody will be walking.

Can throw it in the woods or whatever. It goes away very quickly.
 
solona said:
I'm thinking of bagging my poop in corn plastic.
I use compost able bags for kitchen scraps and they go into municipal composting bins.  

My concern is that when these bags get wet, they start to break down, so I think - but don't know - that these bags would not be good poop bags.  But does anyone have experience with that?
 
mike01 said:
But does anyone have experience with that?

No, but I just bought some to try out. In the past I've used a bucket with Walmart bags and just threw them in the trash but that was only in an emergency. I will be hitting the road soon and because I'm in the at risk group for COVID, I will avoid all use of public facilities.

I will be camping in remote dispersed areas in AZ,NM & CO. The bags I bought are from Green Elephant and they say the bags are for single use only. I've read here on the forum that you can use these types of bags at least twice. I have a 5 gall. bucket with a Gamma seal lid that I plan to use. I'm almost as regular as Sheldon Cooper so I hope they will hold together at least for a day.

If this doesn't work out I do have a porta potty that I will use. The one I have lasts me 2 weeks but in hot weather it gets a little smelly. Not a very pleasant thing to empty either.
 
All the vault toilets and Porta-Potties have signs saying not to throw anything down there bedsides poop and pee. It would seem this would be an appropriate place to throw a biodegradable poop bag down, right? But the maintenance people can't tell its not regular plastic and that would really tick them off. Just pondering this.....
 
solona said:
People bag their poop in plastic and then send it to the landfill. As Bob has said in his videos, people bag their dog and baby poop and put those in the trash, so it's no different. I don't feel good about doing that in plastic. I feel better about it with corn plastic.

Solona, don't worry about your human poop buried in the municipal land fill next to 5 million "loaded" diapers. I look at anything that is plastic, cans, glass, etc. in the landfill that does not decompose will be a goldmine of potential energy resources for our ancestors 5000 years from now. It will be dug up and repurposed. I use a plastic bag, put it in a diaper genie , day 3or4, tear it off, tie knot and drop in a dumpster.
 
The bio bags clog up equipment just like other bags do not put them in a vault toilet or any other pit toilet that has to be pumped out. If you think it is an appropriate place to put them come ride with our maintenance people for a day. Using them just means they will deteriorate a few years earlier in the land fill.
 
bullfrog said:
The bio bags clog up equipment just like other bags do not put them in a vault toilet or any other pit toilet that has to be pumped out. If you think it is an appropriate place to put them come ride with our maintenance people for a day. Using them just means they will deteriorate a few years earlier in the land fill.
Thanks, this was the info I was looking for. Don't put them in toilets, got it. (What I was thinking anyway.)
 
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