Oh, crap. How to deal with sanitation when TSHTF.

Food, water and elimination are essential concerns in a survival situation. If the power’s off, so is the water… and your toilet won’t flush. (Unless, of course, you pour several gallons of water into it, and that’s probably not the best use of that precious resource.)

So, what to do? You could buy portable camping toilets that uses chemicals to deal with the contents.

Or, you can improvise with heavy duty plastic buckets with a strong sealed lid. A five gallon bucket would do it… you want something that you can take out to empty once a week, if things get dodgy. Obviously, this may vary depending on the number of people you have living with you.

Your best bet is to line it with a heavy-duty garbage bag that’s sturdy enough to lift the contents out to discard. Don’t let it get too heavy. You definitely don’t want it to break! Remember, too, that feces emit methane which expands, with the potential to destroy a bag that’s tied too tightly.

In order to minimize smell, you’ll want two buckets- one for solids, one for liquids. Toilet seats for buckets are available, or you can modify a regular one. A pool noodle can be used as an impromptu toilet seat. You can also line your toilet with the garbage bag and lift that out, although it might be dodgy.

How to mitigate the smell and germs?

A bit of kitty litter or diatomaceous earth can absorb liquids and help with smells. Also, putting out an open bowl of vinegar is great for removing scents from the air.

Other possibilities include using chemicals as disinfectants. One part liquid chlorine bleach to ten parts water is a readily available fix. You could also get commercial disinfectants. Portable toilet chemicals from camping stores, powdered chlorinated lime from a building supplies store or calcium hypochlorite at a swimming supplies store.

Prepared toilet bags with chemicals are simple to use, but they tend to be pricey and thus less practical for longterm use.

Free Resources

This free pdf is a great source of information, with diagrams, charts on requirements for different numbers of people, how to compost the waste, and how to build an outdoor hand washing station using buckets. Highly recommended.