Dumping Waste, Bags or Composting Waste

Van Living Forum

Help Support Van Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
What is the difference between disposing of baby/adult diapers and a poopbag?
Not much in my opinion.
So, if it's okay to dispose of baby/adult diapers in regular trash going to a landfill, why can't a poopbag go in that same wastestream???
Makes no sense, IMO.

Then, in the right settings, there are always the old "catholes"...
 
Getting back to the original post, I have experience with 3 types of toilets typically used in vehicles. I have an RV with a traditional black tank, a porta potty in an outbuilding, and a bucket toilet in my van. They each have their pros and cons. Which one is best depends on the use case. My van is my daily driver, I've also done dozens of road trips, including coast to coast 2x. I almost never use public bathrooms.

My blank tank, at 50 gallons, is never the limiting factor. Still, its inconvenient because it has to be driven to a designated place to dump. But since I have to refill the fresh water tank anyway, its unavoidable. The dumping process is more complicated than the other toilet types, but there's no smell when dumping or from the toilet, unless something is wrong. The toilet needs to be cleaned just like the toilet in a house. The black tank needs occasional attention also. Males can remain standing to pee.

The porta potty looks and sits like a regular toilet but it is lightweight and can be moved anywhere at will. It needs to be cleaned the most frequently compared to the other toilet types. The tank is tiny, how frequently it needs to dumped is dependent on how many people are using it and how often. Doesn't matter if its solid or liquid deposits. It is guaranteed to smell very bad when it is dumped. The tank needs to be cleaned after every dump. I do this process outside, using a garden hose and soap. Cleaning takes significantly longer than the other toilets. Males must sit to pee (the bowl is not deep enough) to avoid splash back. Lastly, these toilets are shorter than regular toilet height, so taller people will be in a squatting position when sitting.

My bucket toilet is the kind of composting toilet you see homesteaders on YouTube build. It is an ottoman made of wood. Under the lid is a regular toilet seat. In the compartment below it, a 5 gal bucket lined with a plastic bag containing pine pellets. These expand as pee is added it, no cover material needed. Males can remain standing to pee. In around town use, I've gone 3 weeks without emptying it. On road trips its my only toilet, I empty it every 4-5 days. Unless I poop in it, in which case its time in my vehicle is measured in hours. The only odor is the smell of pine pellets. The toilet also doubles as a trash can for coffee grinds, food remnants, stuff I don't want to put in the vehicle trash bag. There is no cleanup other than occasionally wiping the toilet seat with a Lysol tissue. The bucket does not typically need to be cleaned, but even in the worst case (ie. bag leak) it takes less than 30 seconds to pour in a some Clorox and wipe it out. I would not want any other type of toilet in my van. I don't want to have to search for dump sites like I do with the RV. I don't want to search for toilets to dump a porta potty. With bucket toilet, I tie-up the bag and dump it at the most convenient gas station, big box store, or rest area.
 
And the problem keeps rotating back to the original issue... What should we do?

One question that keeps coming to mind: has anyone 'out there' ever asked any of the people who empty the toilets if THEY know of a solution? Would the place they take the contents of the vault toilets accept waste from individuals?

I'm not out there yet. But I would like to know what to do when I am.
 
A quick note... All of my comments are referring to van life in general, not just LTVA as was referenced by one commenter. There are some events I have chosen NOT to attend, based on their rules.

That said, I am still waiting for someone to provide better justification for this particular rule beyond "the sign says so" or "they might be angry and cancel the event."

There is nothing but silence on pet poo, adult and infant diapers, sanitary napkins, and other such items that seem to be acceptable in the trash stream.
 
You know, I was just thinking that maybe someone with experience in sewage treatment plants or some such thing might have the answer to what is/is not acceptable and why, or someone with knowledge of the reasoning behind these rules.

There is undoubtedly a rationale, tho I know not what it is.
 
You know, I was just thinking that maybe someone with experience in sewage treatment plants or some such thing might have the answer to what is/is not acceptable and why, or someone with knowledge of the reasoning behind these rules.

There is undoubtedly a rationale, tho I know not what it is.
Here is an informative comment from another thread. https://vanlivingforum.com/threads/no-two-bags-will-not-hide-your-poop.40184/post-493791

A Nursing Home licensed and regulated by the state puts adult diapers (poop and all) inside a flat pad. Then it goes in the trash bag in the bathroom. That goes to the big trash bag when the little ones get emptied. Finally, the big bag goes in the dumpster along with food waste and all other trash.

Comments?
 
I'm not on the road either, yet. All I can think of is basically the plastic bag thing with maybe sawdust, etc. Then disposal is a problem. I can't really think dumping that Inm a dumpster is acceptable..,, do people actually do that? Without getting shot at?

All I've come up with is eventually dumping the contents in a pit toilet, or dumping it in a cat hole in the middle of nowhere, then dumping the empty but foul plastic then in a dumpster.... at least it's not ten pounds of human waste wrapped in plastic....

The compost thing sounds a little intense, too say the least.

Otherwise, though, the best solution seems to be a cat hole. But there just seems to be too many people in quartzite for this to be realistic. Also it's a desert..... id wonder about the organic material being present to busy or down....

Hey, typing this on a tablet reeks, btw.
What do you think nursing homes do? And there are a whole lot more of them than Nomads out there. It all ends up in landfills.
 
Some people seem to be missing the point.

There are quite a few "rules" saying what we can't do. Okay. Many are asking the question, and more are telling us what we CAN'T do, but there are absolutely no really sensible answers as to what we SHOULD do.

There are thousands of people camping on BLM land, NFS land, and other places, but no one can come up with a fairly sensible solution as to what we CAN do?
 
The toilet waste is regularly disposed of in two types of places:

(1) A vault toilet that is passed by in one's travels (plenty of them in parks, campgrounds)
(2) A "cathole" dug for the purpose, in a random spot in nature such as in the woods, off a forest road, by the side of a two-lane rural road (eg, not a freeway -- not in a city but in an area with plenty of nature on either side)

These are both places where people will regularly "go and do their business". Make sure to separate the #1 from #2, eg urine from feces, in your setup, because the combination of the two becomes messier and smellier rather fast. A container of urine is easier to dispose of. Very easy to do in a cathole. The feces in some type of mulch (pine shavings, forest mulch) is easier to dispose of if this is done very regularly so that the amount to dispose of is small.
 
What do you think nursing homes do? And there are a whole lot more of them than Nomads out there. It all ends up in landfills.
at nursing homes, nobody going to interrupt you, when you're dumping a "LOAD" of ...well... shit. if i'm in quartzsite or wherever, dumping my "LOAD" in some random dumpster, and someone came at me angrily asking "wtf..............................."
what am i sposed to say? i don't want to be in that position. would you?
 
Here is an informative comment from another thread. https://vanlivingforum.com/threads/no-two-bags-will-not-hide-your-poop.40184/post-493791

A Nursing Home licensed and regulated by the state puts adult diapers (poop and all) inside a flat pad. Then it goes in the trash bag in the bathroom. That goes to the big trash bag when the little ones get emptied. Finally, the big bag goes in the dumpster along with food waste and all other trash.

Comments?
let's face it: no one cares what goes on in a nursing home. with poop. with diapers. with uh....... residents........ nobody cares. it's where we warehouse our old farts.
 
So I actually went and got on google for this. Found some interesting reads, but this one seems fairly well researched and reasonable even though I did not verify the sources.

https://www.livesmallridefree.com/blog/where-to-responsibly-empty-your-composting-toilet This one talks about solid waste from composting toilets about halfway down.

The take-away is that it looks okay to dump composting toilet bags into dumpsters, provided you are permitted to be using that particular waste receptacle. Out of kindness just make sure your bags are sturdy and unbroken (and if the bin is full find somewhere else rather than just dumping it on top/on the ground nearby).

I think that the proscriptions about dumping this in pit toilets has more to do with the absorbent material and plastic bags which seems like it would potentially clog/jam the pumps used to empty these pit toilets. This is just conjecture on my part though.
 
So I actually went and got on google for this. Found some interesting reads, but this one seems fairly well researched and reasonable even though I did not verify the sources.

https://www.livesmallridefree.com/blog/where-to-responsibly-empty-your-composting-toilet This one talks about solid waste from composting toilets about halfway down.

The take-away is that it looks okay to dump composting toilet bags into dumpsters, provided you are permitted to be using that particular waste receptacle. Out of kindness just make sure your bags are sturdy and unbroken (and if the bin is full find somewhere else rather than just dumping it on top/on the ground nearby).

I think that the proscriptions about dumping this in pit toilets has more to do with the absorbent material and plastic bags which seems like it would potentially clog/jam the pumps used to empty these pit toilets. This is just conjecture on my part though.
Finally, a real reply to the question of allowable composting toilet dumpling with the facts to back it up! This post should be made sticky.
 
THANK YOU, FROOD, for finding and providing this! It proves that many people pass along "fake facts" that are based on nothing more than personal opinions.
 
at nursing homes, nobody going to interrupt you, when you're dumping a "LOAD" of ...well... shit. if i'm in quartzsite or wherever, dumping my "LOAD" in some random dumpster, and someone came at me angrily asking "wtf..............................."
what am i sposed to say? i don't want to be in that position. would you?
SMH. How would they know what you are dumping? That's what plastic shopping bags are for - I close up my doody bag, and enclose it in a plastic shopping bag. Or you could use a regular 13-gallon kitchen bag liner, of which many bajillions are dumped into the LTVA dumpsters weekly.

If you routinely dump into "random" dumpsters, you absoulutely do run the risk of someone asking you "wtf?" It doesn't matter what you're dumping. If it's someone's private dumpster, you shouldn't be dumping even a used Kleenex in it. That's what "private" means.
 
I think folks are overthinking this.Human shit is biodegradable.People have been shitting in nature for thousands of years and 90% of the worlds population still does.A funny story.Several years ago we were camped at a campground nexr to the Dolores river in southern Co.A posted sign said for everyone camping or floating the river to bag all their shit and pack it out.There were several cows standing in the river and piles of cowshit on both banks.
 
So I actually went and got on google for this. Found some interesting reads, but this one seems fairly well researched and reasonable even though I did not verify the sources.

https://www.livesmallridefree.com/blog/where-to-responsibly-empty-your-composting-toilet This one talks about solid waste from composting toilets about halfway down.

The take-away is that it looks okay to dump composting toilet bags into dumpsters, provided you are permitted to be using that particular waste receptacle. Out of kindness just make sure your bags are sturdy and unbroken (and if the bin is full find somewhere else rather than just dumping it on top/on the ground nearby).

I think that the proscriptions about dumping this in pit toilets has more to do with the absorbent material and plastic bags which seems like it would potentially clog/jam the pumps used to empty these pit toilets. This is just conjecture on my part though.
Kudos to Frood and others that actually research and use logic on this topic. Well done!
 
I think folks are overthinking this.Human shit is biodegradable.People have been shitting in nature for thousands of years and 90% of the worlds population still does.A funny story.Several years ago we were camped at a campground nexr to the Dolores river in southern Co.A posted sign said for everyone camping or floating the river to bag all their shit and pack it out.There were several cows standing in the river and piles of cowshit on both banks.
Mostly agree, BUT, this is not a good idea in those areas of very low rainfall. I am from Oregon, and up here I just dig a cathole then bury it. Mother nature will take care of it in a few weeks. When I travel to the desert southwest areas, I bag it and then use a dumpster to dispose of it. Why? Because in many desert areas that poop will take years to degrade. In the mean time, animals can find it, dig it up, and make a mess. I use this method for the solid waste, for liquid waste, I generally use it to water and fertilize the local flora.
 
Don't dump straight urine onto , or at the base of growing plants -- it's too strong. Just because dogs lift their legs on trees (etc) doesn't mean it's a good idea. It's not water, it's urine.
 
And don't do it in the desert. Lots of desert plants are triggered to bloom when they detect moisture and it will cause them to try to bloom at the wrong time.
 

Latest posts

Top