Don't trust biodegradable poop bags!

[CosmickGold]

I have every desire to protect the environment, being a "nature lover" (especially forests, mountains, rivers and seas). So I purchased biodegradable bags to poop into so I could bury them, doing no harm to the earth. But sometime during the year, the rolls became like thin paper that easily tears! It tears all the way across, or from top to bottom, with no effort at all. Obviously, this could be disastrous if it happens while using it to carry poop and pee across the van's floor toward the exit door.

So into the dumpster, my rolls of "environmentally safe" bags go. I'm not happy about having to switch to regular plastic trash bags. But......
If anyone has a better solution, please let me know.

 

[bullfrog]

Using a pee bottle in conjunction with a porta potty or toilet with a black tank would allow you to make deposits into a sewage system that get treated which to me is the best solution. A separating toilet works well but you still end up with poop being mixed with cedar chips and if you are concerned some decomposition power in a plastic bag or being burned and/or buried in places where that is allowed. We try to stay in or near places with approved toilets, like National Parks, LTVA micro flush stations or dump and fill stations which keeps storage and transport of sewage less of a problem.

 

[jacqueg]

Yeah, what could go wrong with a biodegradeable bag...

I use Doody Bags. Not all that ecofriendly, but... In my van I only have room for a bucket toilet, or I'd try one of the composting types. But keep in mind that you still have to have a compost pile somewhere to dump the contents.

 

[John in Montreal]

Put some newspaper on the floor and squat.

 

[user 423]

Put some newspaper on the floor and squat.

^Yeah, that's nice and sanitary. Do you have many visitors to your rig?

 

[John in Montreal]

^Yeah,that's nice and sanitary. Do you have many visitors to your rig?

Very sanitary. Fold up the newspaper, tie it up in a shopping bag and you're done. Much cleaner than Bob's bucket method.

 

[CosmickGold]

Yeah, what could go wrong with a biodegradeable bag...

I use Doody Bags. Not all that ecofriendly, but... In my van I only have room for a bucket toilet, . . .

Thanks for the tip. I had not heard of Doody Bags, and it's an interesting answer. I do have the Luggable Loo seat on a 5gal bucket. But if I were to use one of these bags each day, that would cost me
$16(box) / 6(bags) X 30.5(days) = $81.33(monthly).
$81 each month for it is just too expensive for me. (But that's just me.)

 

[user 423]

Are you boondocking for 30 days at a time? Or are you able to use public toilets some days?

Since the Doodie bags aren't biodegradable why not just use 2 or 3 Walmart bags. Free.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Very sanitary. Fold up the newspaper, tie it up in a shopping bag and you're done. Much cleaner than Bob's bucket method.

Why use newspaper (healthy adult stool is 75% water)?
Eliminate the extra steps; deposit directly into plastic bag (in a bucket).

 

[CosmickGold]

Are you boondocking for 30 days at a time? . . .

I'm preparing to boondock full-time again, starting in April.
The "30-day" calculation is because that's how often I get my Social Security check.

 

[John in Montreal]

Why use newspaper (healthy adult stool is 75% water)?
Eliminate the extra steps; deposit directly into plastic bag (in a bucket).

Because the poop could stick to the side of the bag. And squatting is a better and much healthier way to empty your bowels. Having a toilet in a van is completely ridiculous imo. People all over the world manage fine without them.

 

[D'L]

Because the poop could stick to the side of the bag. And squatting is a better and much healthier way to empty your bowels. Having a toilet in a van is completely ridiculous imo. People all over the world manage fine without them.

Some people cannot squat in that fashion due to aging bones or bad knees or some other reason. People in countries where squatting is the thing have been doing it all their lives and are used to it. For a person, especially older, to start doing that now is much more difficult.
So having a toilet in the van is not ridiculous at all, but necessary for some people. If the bag is inside of a 5 gallon (or three gallon, whatever) the poop won't stick to the side or even if it does it's not a big deal.
I like Bob's method, as it is clean and easy and you only have to buy a bucket and then pop the bags into the dumpster. Sure, not the most environmentally friendly and that is a shame, but people have to pick up their dog's poop as well and almost everyone uses plastic bags for that and put them into the dumpster.

 

[jacqueg]

Thanks for the tip. I had not heard of Doody Bags, and it's an interesting answer. I do have the Luggable Loo seat on a 5gal bucket. But if I were to use one of these bags each day, that would cost me
$16(box) / 6(bags) X 30.5(days) = $81.33(monthly).
$81 each month for it is just too expensive for me. (But that's just me.)

I can usually get about 3 days use out of one bag. But - that's just me.

I like the Doody bags rather than just ordinary shopping bags, because

1) they are heavy-duty
2) they are designed to seal the contents well

But if I had to, I would sure use shopping bags.

 

[Retired 96]

I have every desire to protect the environment, being a "nature lover" (especially forests, mountains, rivers and seas). So I purchased biodegradable bags to poop into so I could bury them, doing no harm to the earth. But sometime during the year, the rolls became like thin paper that easily tears! It tears all the way across, or from top to bottom, with no effort at all. Obviously, this could be disastrous if it happens while using it to carry poop and pee across the van's floor toward the exit door.

So into the dumpster, my rolls of "environmentally safe" bags go. I'm not happy about having to switch to regular plastic trash bags. But......
If anyone has a better solution, please let me know.

I wonder about 2 paper bags doubled instead of plastic?.. Amazon has a lot of different kinds in bulk...100 for $39 etc etc

 

[Retired 96]

Good old brown paper bags... To the rescue heavy duty of course!

 

[RoamerRV428]

yes anything meant to biodegrade will do just that even in storage while it is waiting for use one has to realize that disposal of any said bags is key of course but I would use reliable steps for this action. I would always use a method that means I am not gonna have any tears or misfunction of this issue, lol. Yea biodegrable ain't what it is all cracked up to be....good review on it

 

[AeroNautiCal]

The prospect of a poop bag splitting and dispersing its contents is something that ensures that I always double bag, and I have spread out paper hand towels as a bag base to reinforce it.

My BranQ Portable 21 litre Toilet uses Tesco 21 litre pedal bin bags, but I recently bought a couple of rolls of biodegradable toilet waste bags of the same size.

I'll try using one bio bag inside the two pedal bin bags, and if burying it, carefully remove the bio bag from the two pedal bin bags at the burial site.

I only use the toilet for solid waste, liquid is via a separate container.

Separating the liquid from solid waste made the entire process of disposal and cleaning so much better.

I hated emptying the waste tank on my Thetford Porta Potti, it was a horrific experience, separation and bagging is so much more hygienic

 

[CosmickGold]

The prospect of a poop bag splitting and dispersing its contents is something that ensures that I always double bag, and I have spread out paper hand towels as a bag base to reinforce it. . . .

I almost had a poop disaster in the van, but white vinegar saved the day. My Gama Seal Lid bucket tipped over, and for reasons I cannot see nor understand, it leaked, fast-dribbling the brown contents across the floor. Fortunately I had put about 1/2 inch of white vinegar in the bucket first. The poop had been there a number of days; and fortunately for me, the vinegar had dissolved the poop into an odorless (except for the smell of vinegar), germ-free brown liquid; a harmless mud that ran all the way across the floor.

I'm SO GLAD I used the vinegar beforehand. It was clearly now a harmless mud, about like the mud at the bottom of rain puddles outside. So I simply swept the mud out the side door, and then cleaned the floor with some paper towels. That was the end of it.

 

[Dingfelder]

That's interesting. I never even considered vinegar as a deodorizer; if anything, I would have thought it would be likely to weaken or even eat through plastic bags because of its high acid content.

I'm still quite skeptical, no reflection on you. It just doesn't make sense to me. I would have to experiment for a good while before I would trust vinegar not to weaken a plastic bag.

 

[CosmickGold]

. . . . I would have to experiment for a good while before I would trust vinegar not to weaken a plastic bag.

At that time, I was using biodegradable bags, and it did eat through those bags, so completely there was no trace of a bag left. That's why there was all the "mud" in the bottom of the bucket. Also, I had the bags sitting on two round cooking grills, their wires crisscrossed. One grill was about 75% dissolved into nothing, and the other grill held up just fine. They looked about the same, and I thought they were, but I now guess one was aluminum and the other stainless steel? Or possibly chrome plated? And probably the aluminum is what vanished. If you have the answer to that, let me know.

I have not tried regular plastic bags in that situation to know if they would be ruined by vinegar. If you have more information on any of the above (about plastic, or about vinegar affecting which metals), let me know. I'm still learning.

FYI: I likewise use vinegar in my pee bottle. So it never "stinks" and never grows "gunk"; it can be left sitting for weeks.