Dealing With Waste During A Disaster

This is the second part to our waste management series. It’s a dirty topic but it needs to be dealt with. The first part was all about toilet paper. I covered everything you could want to know about keeping a clean behind in a grid down situation. Everything from the short term to the long term and sustainable. So we covered the wiping aspect now what do we do with the waste? I have a few thoughts on it. Everything from the short term to long term. So let’s deal with this waste.

Waste

By waste of course I mean urine and fecal mater. In a disaster like a flood or even ruptured mane toilets won’t flush. Your body won’t stop making waste in a disaster. Without some planning you’ll be stuck with pathogen filled waste. Urine is not as much a problem as feces. It still builds up fast though. Not taking care of feces though could be lethal. They following pathogens could be found in feces.

Bacteroides species
Salmonella and Shigella
Yersinia tends to be incubated at 30 °C (86 °F), which is cooler than usual
Campylobacter incubated at 42 °C (108 °F), in a special environment
Aeromonas
Candida if the person is immunosuppressed (e.g., undergoing cancer treatment)
E. coli O157 if blood is visible in the stool sample
Cryptosporidium
Entamoeba histolytica
Intestinal parasites

Some pretty scary things. We don’t want those sitting around festering. Not to mention the smell. We have many options though to stay safe.

Urine

We will deal with urine waste first. It is not as big of a problem and is easily dealt with. For us guys we can pretty much go anywhere. As long as your not peeing near your water source it’s fine. Even then I’m not sure it’s much a problem. Urine is even useful. Urine contains a lot of nitrogen and can be used on plants. You will need to dilute in a 10:1 ratio. Straight on the plants would be too hot in nitrogen concentration. Urine is safe though and is not a problem. It come out the body sterile. The problem comes from it sitting. Pee is a bacterial breading ground. Leaving it sitting around though could also be useful. If you let your pee go stale in a large vessel you can get ammonia from it. It will need to sit for a few weeks. You can use this in clothes washing and household cleaning. So just get a 5 gallon bucket and a lid. You can get one of those bucket toilet lids for the ladies.

Sawdust composting toilet waste — Sawdust composting toilet

#2

Dealing with poop though is a tougher mater. It is important to safely deal with it. It too has some beneficial aspects too. For centuries it was used as night soil and necessary to grow crops before chemical fertilizers. It is so dangerous though and it needs some caution. There is a great book on it called the Humanure Handbook. If you plan on going that route I highly suggest getting it.

We have many options in dealing with it. An easy way is to get a 5 gallon bucket with toilet lid. Keep a bunch of trash bags in it an some RV blue toilet solution. When you fill it up tie off the bag and bury it. This is pretty easy and not much different to people. Instead of flushing just squirt some blue stuff in it. The issue is dealing with the bags. The chemicals make it safe and kill the pathogens. This method shines in a short term disaster.

Next is the saw dust/ pine method. This is the method I use. A quick and easy composting toilet uses saw dust. I have a cat and keep the feline pine litter for him. It is natural pine sawdust. It smells a million times better than normal kitty litter. Think christmas time smells. You just cover the waste with some saw dust and close the lid.When it’s full dump it out to finish composting. It you are using wood for heat or building you will have plenty of saw dust to last.

Lastly is the long term, the shit has hit the fan solution. We will have to go old school and dig an outhouse. This will need to be away from your house and a safe distance from crops and water. I would suggest digging twice as deep as you think you will need. Filling it up then cleaning it out to dig deeper stinks. You will want this to last if you have to build one. Paul wheaton builds his over trash cans and just seals them off and gets a new can. You could do this with a few cans. You will need to compost the waste 1~2 years before you can use the night soil. Then return the can to use.

Hopefully this did not scare too many off. It find it better to have a plan in place not rather than be stuck with a bunch of shit later. That is why we prep is it not? What plans do you have to deal with waste? Let me know in the comments.