Nature turns every shit into gold: it turns pee and poop into valuable fertilizer. Campers don't have to go without a sustainable option for the toilet either. The advantage: you don't have to go to a special disposal station like you do with conventional chemical toilets.
In the following blog "Aufs Klo bekommen" we present dry toilet models from Goldeimer and WERKHAUS, which are also made from sustainable materials and produced in Germany.
But first, let’s look at the basics:
The dry toilet without separating insert
With the dry toilet, pee and poop are not separated. Be careful: unpleasant smells arise especially when solid and liquid waste mix. So with the dry toilet, there has to be a lot of litter in the bucket so that the urine is absorbed and does not reach the pile. The feces, including toilet paper, are covered with a scoop full of litter after each visit to the toilet so that no bad air can form in the first place. A spray that mainly contains lactic acid bacteria also prevents bad smells, but only if the bucket is hermetically sealed. This is because these lactic acid bacteria work in the absence of oxygen. For this purpose, Goldeimer, for example, comes with a special lid.
If you are camping, tie the filled plastic bag of your dry toilet and dispose of it in the general waste. Since the feces can be a disease hazard, please work with gloves and do not use compostable bags. They could tear, which could infect those who dispose of the waste. The contents of the dry toilet are basically treated like diapers or dog waste bags.
The dry separation toilet
The more elegant solution for campers is the dry separation toilet, where urine and poop are collected in separate containers. This option requires significantly less litter. The separation also creates less odor. The solid waste goes into the bucket at the back, which is also lined with a tear-resistant plastic bag. A scoop of litter is also placed on each poop. The urine runs into a separate container at the front without further treatment. This urine canister can be emptied into any flush toilet, but never in nature.
Never, ever dispose of in nature
The sewer system is a great achievement of civilization, and it was created for a good reason. It protects groundwater and drinking water from germs, and protects us humans from cholera epidemics, for example. Conversely, this means: never simply dump the contents of the toilet into nature. If you have the opportunity, you can compost the contents of the dry toilet in your own garden, but you have to take a few things into account. Otherwise, the waste from dry toilets or dry separation toilets can be easily disposed of in the general waste and in the toilet as described.
Conventional chemical toilet needs disposal station
In contrast, campers with conventional chemical toilets are dependent on a special disposal station. Chemical toilets cannot simply be emptied into any old toilet. For good reason: if the added chemicals, which kill all life including bacteria, get into the sewage treatment plant through the sewage system, it can be affected. After all, it is mainly living bacteria that clean the wastewater there. There are special disposal stations for these chemical toilets so that they can carry out their important work unharmed.
