Outdoor Toileting Best Practice

[Scots_Charles_River]

Actually digging hole 6-8 inches deep and covering it over may actually be less polluting than doing one on your house toilet as on a rainy day your local sewage outfall may be more polluting !

Good training for newbies is telling them to go and dig a hole and they tend to dig the right depth but not the right area, normally too small. And aiming, clench a mars bars (still in the packet) and drop it ! They tend to miss their hole, proving the area is too small for aiming at !

 

[demented dale]

I knew a guy that used a metal chair frame with a toilet seat attached. He would dig a hole and place the chair over it. Then he would sit down and think of England. Genius

 

[demented dale]

No kidding, Parks Canada post these instructionals in public latrines now.

It means that the toilet is for crapping in and not meditating on. That said it looks like the more hygienic option.

 

[C_Claycomb]

…..That said it looks like the more hygienic option.

The Asian tourists who are used to squat toilets certainly think not touching the toilet is more hygienic than sitting on it.

….Then he would sit down and think of England. Genius

Hmmmm…using the thought of England as a laxative?!?

 

[dwardo]

The Asian tourists who are used to squat toilets certainly think not touching the toilet is more hygienic than sitting on it.


Hmmmm…using the thought of England as a laxative?!?

I wonder if those that Squat as opposed to seat have less knee troubles? Not a conversation I would have predicted when i woke this morning

 

[oldtimer]

Whenever I have a choice, which I do in a lot of Europe, I invariably choose the squat option. Much more efficient and hygienic. However, it is essential to have secure trouser pockets as retrieving lost keys is problematic.

 

[Toddy]

As little girls my generation were taught 'never' to sit on a public toilet, but to kind of hover above. When very little our Mothers, Aunts, big sisters or Grandmothers held us above the loo to relieve ourselves.

I am becoming ancient, and I don't think I have 'ever' sat on a public loo.

Camping we squatted, to piddle with our back agin a tree or a dyke, and otherwise, if the camp was set, we used a slit trench, and just back filled as we used it.
If you use a cat scrape, shove a broken twig upright in it. It lets folks know not to disturb that bit. By the time the twig rots/falls over, there'll be nothing left beneath.

M

 

[Billy-o]

Had a phone conversation with a friend abruptly ended once. Found out later he'd dropped his phone in the lavvy. What is the etiquette here; taking a call while taking a dump, I mean. Close friends and rellies maybe OK. Business acquaintance and friends of friends maybe not so. Is there a camping/bushcraft analog? Should a semi-shouted conversation from a patch of brambles be paused while evacuating/relieving?

 

[oldtimer]

We used to frequent a camping sauvage site in the Alps where singing from a thicket was the equivalent of the "engaged" sign. Sometimes doing two things at once can be surprisingly difficult!

 

[Danceswithhelicopters]

My little tip is to walk a minimum of 100 paces away from the campsite. Everyone underestimates metres or yards and everybody always starts closer in the rain or the dark so 100 paces at least makes people get away from where they're living.

 

[Thoth]

Interesting to see this thread become active again many months after I originally started it. Thanks for the additional suggestions and discussion.
In reply to DocG: I recall digging a new trench at the toilet site used by Woodlore for their Campcraft Course. It was in exactly the same place as the one used a year previously and there was no discernable evidence of the 'deposits' left the year before. A shallow trench 8" to 10" deep in bacteria rich loam seems optimal, with toilet tissue being burned and the ashes knocked into the trench before covering over with spoil.

 

[abo4ster]

Assuming we are talking a wooded area where decomposition is occurring and NOT some arid desert, etc. where a turd will petrify and be there a thousand years later, here are some suggestions from an older video: