My Tent Toilet

WARNING! This post contains graphic descriptions of human solid waste disposal. If you find this topic offensive or repulsive, then please do not read this post!

Well, the time has come to talk about one of the more delicate topics of tent living: What to do about human solid waste.

How to dispose of human feces is an age-old problem. It's as old as the problem of gathering food, or staying warm and dry. It's one of the basic problems of human existence. Throughout the ages there have been a number of solutions. The most common solution in the US today is the flush toilet, also known as the water closet. Another familiar solution, especially in rural areas, is the pit toilet or "outhouse". The composting toilet is also gaining popularity.

But when it comes to outfitting a tent with a toilet, there are some unique challenges. How do you comply with local health regulations while at the same time maintaining a light footprint on the land? Turns out that's not an easy task.

My search for an effective waste disposal system started by considering a number of options:

• Flush toilet (aka water closet). The ubiquitous ceramic toilet found in nearly every American home (and all the plumbing that goes with it!)
• Pit toilet (aka "outhouse"). That cute little wooden house with the moon on the door
• Composting toilet. Dry toilet designed to encourage aerobic composting
• Chamber pot. Container that collects feces. Requires a separate means of disposal
• Earth closet. Dry toilet that collects feces. Requires a separate means of disposal

Some of these systems, like the pit toilet or composting toilet, are "all-in-one" solutions whereby the waste enters the system and stays in the system. Others, like the flush toilet or chamber pot, require an additional "down stream" disposal system, such as:

• Septic tank and drain field. Typically found "down stream" of flush toilets
• Tree bog. A tree bog is essentially a compost pile that contains human feces and other organic material. Tree bogs are located near trees or other nutrient "hungry" vegetation, hence the name
• Cesspit. A covered pit in which human feces is deposited. (Like an outhouse, but without the house!)

I immediately ruled out a flush toilet and associated septic tank and drain field. Too expensive. Too much impact on the environment. Too much water consumption.

I then shifted my attention to pit toilets, which happen to be legal in my area of Virginia. I came up with various ideas to try to make the outhouse experience a nice one (yeah, right!) Like a colorful, cheerful little house with a cute moon cut into the door. And plenty of ventilation courtesy of solar powered exhaust fans. Even a gas heating system for those cold winter nights. But outhouses have a bad reputation, and I was sure my guests would be less than thrilled to use one. Then there's the problem of digging that big hole, and explaining it all to my landlord. Even so, it was a possibility.

Next, I considered a composting toilet. Again, they're pretty expensive, and it just seemed like overkill. Why such an elaborate system? But I did like the idea of composting the waste. And zero water consumption.

Chamber pots and earth closets were simpler than composting toilets, but required a separate means of disposal, like a cesspit or tree bog. But I sort of liked the idea of taking the waste far away from my tent for final disposal.

In the end, I settled upon an earth closet (using sawdust, which I get for free from a local sawmill, instead of dirt for the litter material) and a tree bog.

An earth closet is simply a bucket-like container placed below a toilet seat. You sit on the seat and defecate into the bucket. It's similar to a chamber pot except that it's design as a non-movable fixture with a seat. The other major improvement over a chamber pot is that it uses "earth", or in my case sawdust, as a litter material that keeps the feces away from the walls of the bucket, thereby improving sanitation. The sawdust is also used to cover the feces after use.

Below is a picture of an earth closet invented by Rev. Henry Moule in the 1860s.

Moule's Earth Closet from the 1860s

My first earth closet wasn't nearly as high-tech as Moule's design. It was based on the simpler Loveable Loo design. It was a simple plywood box with a hole cut in the top. I attached a traditional toilet seat for added comfort.

My original bathroom

My first earth closet

The plywood box had a hinged top and was large enough to hold two five-gallon buckets, one for the waste (on the left) and a second for the sawdust (on the right). I put a scoop in the sawdust bucket. After each use, you just lifted the lid and scooped sawdust onto your waste.

Inside the earth closet. On the left is the waste bucket. On the right is the sawdust bucket.
(The dark stain on the inside of the top is from incense smoke.)

In October of 2012, I installed a new kitchen and bath which included an old earth closet that I found at an antique store.

My new earth closet

Of course, the earth closet isn't the end of the story. It's just the collection device. The waste must still be disposed of, and that's where the tree bog comes in. A tree bog is really just a compost pile located near a tree or other vegetation. In my case, I simply dump the earth closet waste bucket around a tree some distance from my tent. The sawdust, feces, and toilet tissue creates an extremely active compost that breaks down quickly. I move from one tree to the next every three months or so. After about six months, the bog breaks down to something very close to dirt and can then be buried if desired. But at that point, there are very few pathogens left and the bog can as well be left in place.

I'm trying to keep all aspects of tent living above-board and legal, including my waste disposal system. So before going too far I visited my county health department to see if what I wanted to do was legal. I explained exactly what I had in mind. The earth closet with sawdust. The tree bog. The option to just leave the bog above ground, or to bury it after six months or so. It was an open discussion with full disclosure.

As we discussed the solid waste problem, the health department agent began asking me about liquid waste. So-called "grey water". I had already decided to install a dump sink and dry well to solve that problem, and to use that system for all grey water, including urine, so I told them about that system, too. I would use the dump sink for dish water, bathing water, and urine, and the earth closet for solid waste.

Well, after a good discussion, with me looking for every possible loophole I could think of, we finally concluded that what I wanted to do was against county health regulations. For one thing, the county doesn't differentiate between grey water and black (or toilet) water. All of it was just waste water that had to be disposed of in a proper drain field. For solid waste, I had three choices: a certified composting toilet, a flush toilet (with a septic tank before the drain field), and a pit toilet.

Damn! Oh well, I tried.

From that point, the conversation turned to understanding the process for health code violations. (That's right, I was moving to Plan B, outlaw toilets!)

In my county, the process for health code violations is as follows:

1. The county health department receives a complaint (usually from a neighbor) about a potential health code violation
2. A county field agent visits the accused violator and investigates the complaint
3. If a health code violation is found, then the violator is cited. At that point, the violator has 30 days to remedy the problem
4. After 30 days, the field agent returns to ensure that the problem has been remedied. If it has, then the case is closed

No fines. No fees. No legal actions. I can live with that.

The violation in my case would be the tree bog. Tree bogs have been around for nearly 20 years and are fairly well known in Great Britain. They appear in permaculture designs near Zone 2 (by the orchards and beehives!) But alas, in my area of Virginia, they are currently illegal.

Cesspits, on the other hand, are perfectly legal where I live. So if I'm ever visited by a county health department field agent, it looks like I'll get a 30-day assignment to dig a 5' x 5' x 4' pit. Ok, that's fair.

I'm pretty happy with my system. My earth closet is comfortable and easy to use. It's simple, eco-friendly, and it consumes no water. In the summer, I dump the waste bucket after each use, but in colder months I can simply cover the feces with sawdust and I don't need to dump the bucket so frequently. It's surprising how well the fresh oak sawdust covers odors. I routinely burn incense as an air freshener. And between the sawdust and the incense, I have absolutely no problem with odors. In fact (and I know this sounds gross), there's a sort of sweet, pleasant smell that surrounds you when you sit down on the earth closet.

The earth closet is a 200-year-old solution to an age-old problem. Hopefully tree bogs will make their way to the US before too long as an alternative to pit toilets. Both of these solutions fit right in with tent living and I'm pretty pleased with the results.