Sanitation

Sanitation and Waste. One of the biggest problems to overcome when things really go bad. When water is already a precious commodity, how do you get rid of waste? Not only human waste, but also those empty Spam cans, MRE wrappers and Twinkie wraps? Human waste is a horrible nightmare to contend with as it brings in insects, can spread disease, and can turn a perfect bunker into a living hell. If your emergency is temporary, IE: a few days, then one way to combat the waste problem is to place a kitchen sized garbage bag under your toilet seat in the bottom of the bowl. The kind of bags with the draw string tops are handy as they can just be closed up and carried outside to be buried. When burying waste, you cannot dig a whole deep enough. You want to be sure that the neighbors dog or other critters will not dig it up. Wood ashes from your wood stove or fire pit can be spread over the waste to help control it. Lye is made from wood ash, and as the ash becomes wet, small amounts of lye will leach out and help to control odor. For longer emergencies, a portable camping style toilet is only a temporary fix. Again, you have the problem with disposing of the contents on a regular basis. The chemicals you can buy for these toilets helps to keep insects and bacteria away, but it only helps, not solves the problem. Lugging a 5 gallon bucket out of your shelter and digging a hole in the backyard to bury it is not how I want to spend my last days on earth. You can dump it down a sewer pipe, but DO NOT dump it into a storm drain. There are only two ways to safely get rid of human waste...Bury it deep in the ground or burn it. Burning it is not an easy option unless you have plenty of diesel laying around and all day to stand and stir a big pot of smoking crap. Trust me, I've been there in Iraq where you can't dig in the sand to bury anything. Yes, they do make the "Environmentally Friendly" toilets that use Natural Gas to dispose of the waste, but we are being realistic here...if you can afford one, your in the wrong blog. An outhouse is the easiest long term option, IF you have the resource. The resource being, able to dig a very deep hole in the ground, away from your water source and build a small structure over it. An outhouse should be used for human waste only. Using it as a garbage dump will fill it faster than you think. Cans and plastic will not compress under their own weight and will not decompose in your lifetime. Dig a separate garbage pit far away from anyone's living area and hopefully downwind, then expect it to attract insects and vermin (Which could possibly be used as a food source later.)