Tactical toilet

[DirtyBrad]

I've been putting together some bug-out/bug-in stuff. I figure the most likely situation is a bug-in for a couple weeks or so if there's an attack or major weather event.

In preparing for that, I've begun building a small stockpile of food and water, mags and ammo, etc.

The thing is, I live in an apartment and the neighborhood isn't one where I feel people would band together in a crisis. Our place is reasonably defendable. We have a heavy metal door and are on the second floor. In thinking about just holing up and waiting for the real world to get it together, I realized I didn't have a sewage plan.

I think it's reasonable to figure that a crisis like that would knock out the plumbing (that's why we all stockpile water, right?), so what do we do about using the bathroom? I'm not interested in living in filth and it's not practical to try to get outside and back in a couple times a day.

Any ideas? Thank you. Childish jokes will not be frowned upon.

 

[knoxx45]

Simple

A 5 gallon pail lined with a heavy duty garbage bag (the construction ones). You can even put a seat on it if you want.

 

[DirtyBrad]

And then what do I do with the garbage bag when it's "full"? Do I have a room for waste that I just pile up a couple weeks' worth of crap in?

If that's the case, is there some kind of treatment I can add to it or something to minimize the smell and sanitation issues?

I should probably add quite a bit of hand-sanitizer to my bug-in gear

 

[roo_ster]

Add a bag or two of kitty litter & toss some in after utilizing the bucket. A tight-fitting lid and a makshift toilet seat would make things more homey.

 

[ilbob]

Kitty litter and a 5 gallon bucket will be fine for a few weeks.

You could also buy a campers potty at wally world. They sell a flush version for about $70. Non-flush versions are less and maybe better for your scenario since you might not have anywhere to dump the waste when the flush version fills up. The non flush versions are just a heavy plastic bag you can tie off and set in a corner when it gets full.

Being on a second story, it is entirely possible you could still use the toilet to dispose of the waste. You might not have water for normal flushing, but sewage still goes down hill.

You might want to check and see where the building toilets empty into. Often there is a sump in the building basement that pumps into the city sewer system and without power to empty it, you could have a major problem for the building when it fills up and people continue to use it.

How many stories is your building? I would not want to be below five or ten floors of people without water trying to dispose of their waste, likely by throwing it out the window.

 

[Run&Shoot]

We recently had our water supply break and it tokk a few days to get it repaired. During that time there was no water in the house. Fortunately we had lots of water stored.

Toilets that drain directly to the city sewer still work without running water. Just get a bucket or something to either pour directly into the bowl to cause the flush, or fill up the tank and then operate the lever. It takes about 2-3 gal for a decent flush so it can use up your stored water pretty fast.

But then while digging up the water supply the plumber also broke open our sewer line in a couple of places. So we didn't even have "manually operated" toilets anymore.

One thing we realized was that when it was just our house we had recourse to a neighbor, the local fast food places, etc. for alternate flush sites. However, there would obviously be a huge problem if there was widespread disruption to the water and especially sewer (flood, earthquake, etc.).

It would have to be pretty bad situation for me to poop in a bag and store it in my house for a couple of days or even weeks. Since we live in suburbia I would be digging a slit trench in the garden first. A bucket in the garage would be fine for privacy.

So, in a rural or suburb single house I think there are ways to manage this: use a bucket and contractor bags, dig a hole in the garden/yard, etc. Plus, you have more space to store water. We had enough just in bottles, but we still had another 50 gallons available in the hot water heater. I am thinking of adding another large water heater in-line with the first for extra storage capacity. Without flushing you can probably get by with 1 gallon of water per person per day. With flushing you would need at least 8-10 gallons per day (maybe less as you are likely to get constipated, drink and eat less).

An apartment is a very risky place to be if the water and sewer are out of commission. You should at least store enough water for your household for 1-2 weeks. The Red Cross says 3 days but in any major widespread disaster it is usually more like 2 weeks before any outside help can get to you. Your best bet would be the camping toilet and bags and maybe store them iin the bath tub until the situation is normalized.

Defintely stock up on waterless antibacterial soap, Wet Ones, bottled water, camping toilet and supplies, etc. Consider that most of your neighbors will not be prepared and their "problem" may become your problem via disease, odor, etc. You may want to stock up enough that you could share at least with your immediate neighbors to create a health buffer zone.

 

[svtruth]

Plastic bags

Lots, dump in 'em and airmail them to street. The urine you would of course save for the nitrates to make your own black powder.

 

[wingnutx]

Build a catapult, since you'll already have a steady source of ammo for it.

You could keep a plastic drum around just for this, andd all full bags go into the drum until you get a chance to empty it. Bury it even, like an emergency septic tank.

Check sportsman's guide for camper toilets.

 

[DirtyBrad]

Good information and some good laughs, thank you. I'd wondered about just using the toilet with no water and letting gravity do its thing. Our place is garden apartments, so it's only two layers of people crapping on top of us.

Yet another good reason to get my ass (haha) out of apartments and get a house, I suppose. In that event, I would definitely go with the trench in the yard method. Might have to post a couple of snipers to cover me each time, though.

For now, I'll stick with the kitty litter plan, thank you. Just need to know how much to buy per person per week. I'm sure there's a spreadsheet on here somewhere.

 

[Erebus]

5 gallon buckets

Get a hold of a few 5-gallon buckets with lids and fill them with tap water to store for future use to flush the toilets manually. You don't need anything special to store toilet flushing water. Contractors produce lots of empty 5 gallon joint compound buckets, fast food restaurants get pickles in 5-gallon buckets, or buy 'em for $5.31 a piece plus shipping.

 

[DirtyBrad]

I'm not sure how practical it is to be storing that volume of water now. Our place isn't tiny, but we're still a little tight on space and the boxes of food and other emergency supplies are going to take up a lot of that. I think that weighing the risk vs. reward adds up to toughing it out with plastic bags and kitty litter.

 

[SomeKid]

Ever seen the bedside toilets (not bedpans!) they use in hospitals? Enough size for one good use, and you can re-use the thing. Just pop it off, chuck the contents, clean as best you can, ready for next user. If you aren't travelling, that might not be too bad. Only downside, is they are always weak plastic. Us big guys would probably break them.

 

[DirtyBrad]

Got to admit: I'm getting a little queasy.

I don't need the apparatus, I don't think, just the means of handling it. I can crap in a bag or rig up a bucket without too much trouble. God help me if I had to explain the big plastic toilet in my closet.

 

[the naked prophet]

Okay... so how do you turn your pee into gunpowder? I really, really want to know.

 

[DirtyBrad]

It burned when I had kidney stones. I'm guessing that has something to do with it.

 

[AJ Dual]

It's kind of OT, but the toilet issue has been covered pretty well…

However:

"SHTF"+Apartments+Neigbors+Improvised Heating/Cooking=FIRE

Just my $.02.

 

[Geno]

Simple

Most people thinking of this keep a "camping toilet" around. There are various types. If desiring to use the in-home toilet, most people store 2 kinds of water: drinking and other. Being on 2nd floor, weight might be an issue. I think water weighs about 7 to 8 pounds per gallon. Most toilets use 2.0 to 3.8 gallons per flush. Camping toilet looks better and better.

Doc2005

 

[pete f]

There are chemical toilets that use bio sources to break down wastes very quickly. whats left is very runny, easy to dump. We had a chemical toilet at a cabin we used and it was able to keep up with four people. What was left was just dumped on the dirt.

 

[beerslurpy]

Do what the marines do. Put a bag in a bucket, crap in it, then toss it outside and burn it. Add kitty litter if you want to be all frou-frou.

 

[TallPine]

Toilets that drain directly to the city sewer still work without running water. Just get a bucket or something to either pour directly into the bowl to cause the flush, or fill up the tank and then operate the lever. It takes about 2-3 gal for a decent flush so it can use up your stored water pretty fast.

Simple solution: urinate in a 5gal plastic bucket, and when you get 2 or 3 gallons saved up, use it to flush the toliet (make sure you have plenty of coffee in your emergency supplies)


We don't have that problem though ... we have an old outhouse on our 40 acres in addition to the modern well & septic tank. Plus, there is always the "out" without the "house"

 

[DirtyBrad]

40 acres in Montana? Please adopt me. I'm very low maintenance.

 

[Steve Wynn]

If it's brown, flush it down. If it's yellow, let it mellow. Pure water weighs 8.3 pounds per gallon. Newer toilets from early in the 1990's can not use more than 1.6 gallons per flush. Save the urine, and use it to flush down the solids, if you don't want to buy a chemical toilet. Still worried about defending your turf, bag the solids and use it for defensive purposes. It'll be a surprise from the sky! Dump it on the steps leading to your 2nd floor will make it a bit more unpleasant to gain access to your apartment. There is also a boundary security devise which holds a 12 ga. shell that is fired when a trip wire is broken or pulled. http://www.deltaforce.com/catalog/12gaugeammo.html

Steve

 

[Gord]

...and don't forget to cut a gunport in your bathroom door!

You don't want to be caught with your pants down, after all.

There is also a boundary security devise which holds a 12 ga. shell that is fired when a trip wire is broken or pulled.

It's intended to be used with 12-gauge blanks as an auditory alarm; the shell just sits on a mount, not enclosed, so it wouldn't actually "shoot". If it did, it'd be considered a booby trap, which there are laws against, whih you would be prosecuted under, especially if you used the Delta Force superduper razor wire bolas pirahna dragon crap.

 

[Nathan Williams]

How many stories is your building? I would not want to be below five or ten floors of people without water trying to dispose of their waste, likely by throwing it out the window.

Easy solution. Hang your butt out the window and "let er rip".

 

[AStone]

How to defecate during SHTF...only on THR...
your full service SHTF forum (with a focus on firearms, of course).

<Reading with interest, as this does seem relevant considering the times we live in
(says one who lives in an industrial wasteland filled with trains, industrial waste,
feral cats, sand piles, weeds, rodent clogged ditches, etc ...)>

"We now return to the originally scheduled program, already in progress..."



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