How to dispose of human waste (poop and pee) after a disaster

after a major catastrophe hits an area of the things that people often overlook is what to do with human excrement it's easy to get focused on stocking food and water but if you live in an urban or suburban environment in relatively high population density this can become a huge problem this is a very important discussion as diseases like cholera or dysentery can quickly spread through a community leading to severe illnesses or even death would you know what to do if a catastrophe prevented you from being able to use your toilets and sewage you [Music] can show your support for this channel by clicking the like button sharing on social media providing feedback in the comment section and don't forget as a subscriber to click the bell icon below to get updates enjoy the video recently one of my viewers Carlos Boreas asked can you make a video on how to dispose of feces in an urban setting that's a great question Carlos and it's something that is not given as much attention as it should when it comes to emergency preparedness and prepping so let's jump right into this discussion here's what we'll cover in this video regarding handling feces and urine in an urban environment after catastrophe considerations in an urban environment sanitation and disease existing options for a waste disposal how to build your own disaster toilet right now for cheap how to properly use your disaster toilet and other options on the market so what do we need to consider in an urban environment in this video we'll discuss how to dispose of your excrement in an urban or suburban environment where options like digging a hole or burning it probably wouldn't be a good idea or even possible if you live in the country and have a septic tank that's not relying upon the grid being operational well you're lucky for the rest of us what a little planning which we'll cover you'll be just fine the typical person on a daily basis outputs about two to three pints of urine and about one ton of excrement now if you do the math for your family you'll quickly realize that a typical family of four is barely producing more crap than a US congressman does within one hour since most people living in our urban or suburban environment are producing this amount of excrement they'll need to quickly dispose of it at the sewage stops working or bigger problems will start happening quickly imagine if your toilet when flush and you only have a few thousand square feet of land in your yard simply digging a hole and doing your business here will be problematic as you start running out of the places to dig holes and in addition having excrement that is that close to your house or raises severe sanitation problems and an even bigger problem comes up if you live in an apartment or an inner-city environment we're simply digging a hole is not an option we also have to consider proper sanitation and the issues of diseases failure to properly dispose of human waste leads to epidemics such as typhoid dysentery cholera and diarrhea diseases like cholera were so rampant in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake due primarily to sanitation issues when most people in the prepping community considered the aftermath of a prolonged redound scenario they often prepare for things like food and water and security which are all very important but you're far more likely to die from germs due to improper sanitation than a gunfight it's important that we keep our human waste away from our food and water as well as ensuring we're keeping our hands clean after using the bathroom nothing would be worse than watching your family suffer and potentially die from a preventable medical illness when there's no doctor around to help and you're trying to simply survive staying healthy in a shtf scenario is critical so what are available options for waste disposal that you already have the first option is to use your toilet now this option is only available if you're 100% sure the sewage lines are intact and you're being advised that you can use your sewage if you're not 100% sure did absolutely do not use this option but if the local authorities are telling you that it's safe then you can simply double bucket of water into the throat of the toilet and the waste will be washed down again you must be 100% sure that this is approved if you don't know and don't use your toilet if the sewage lines are damaged or plugged if you flush your toilet you'll probably get a sewage backup in your home which can lead to additional sanitary problems also it may not be a bad idea to shut off the water behind the tank to prevent someone from accidentally flushing the toilet if you can't flush your toilet where the sewage lines are backed up then what can you use well the toilet can still be used but first let's be sure to shut off the water valve behind the toilet remember righty tighty lefty Lucey then remove all the water in the toilet container behind the bowl using a cup this water is safe to use for other things by the way you want to remove all the water in the toilet bowl as well with a cup and probably best to put on some nitrile gloves when doing this to avoid contamination you can double line the toilet bowl with a heavy-duty garbage bag and all the same procedure as you would put a disaster toilet which we'll discuss more momentarily I personally would not use this approach as a waste is now sitting in a bag in my toilet which has to be removed and carried to a disposal site so how can you build your own disaster toilet here's what I did I went to Lowe's and I picked up a five-gallon bucket with a lid and several other items at the dollar store these items including the bucket only set me back about 25 dollars which considering how important this would be in a grid down scenario to help prevent the spread of disease is a great deal in my opinion it's important to note though that this option is good for a short term solution when you can store trash back somewhere until the grid comes back up and sanitation services are restored toward the end of the video we'll give a quick introduction to more long-term approaches that the grid does it come back up within a few months so here's what I did I went to Lowe's and the dollar store today I get a five-gallon bucket with a lid and several other items which we'll go over the first thing I did was cut a noodle I've purchased up a dollar store lengthwise with the noodle on the edge of the toilet see you now have a comfortable place to sit when nature calls here's what's inside my five-gallon toilet bucket remember you can modify to your specific needs but here's a breakdown in my setup a five-gallon bucket with a lid noodle from the dollar store that is very cut to fit on the bucket diapers if you have a baby a small gardening trowel nitrile gloves calcium hypochloride or as it's more commonly known pool shock mixing this with water and putting in a spray bottle which I have in the bucket allows you to create a disinfectant spray to clean the bucket washing detergent that can be used to help create an odor barrier sanitary napkins and personal hygiene items paper towels or cloth towels to use after washing your hands a spray bottle to mix the calcium hypochlorite in water also be sure to label it to use as a disinfectant hand sanitizer heavy-duty 13 gallon trash bags to line the five-gallon bucket and by the way don't skimp on these and buy the cheap thin trash bags imagine what would happen if one of these excellent split open on you yeah 2 liter bottle of water for washing hands several rolls of toilet paper hand sanitizer tissue wipes and sanitizer wipes for your hands all right so how do you properly use your disaster potty for this bar the video will need some props I suppose a Snickers bar and apple juice for just fine after taking the Browns to the Super Bowl and urinating it's a good time to put down a layer of sawdust dirt or leaves depending on what you have around you okay even kitty litter will work in a pinch or after pinching one off having a bucket with quicklime leaves kitty litter or sawdust nearby will be helpful so that after handling your business you can put a layer of covering which will help reduce the stench and prevent flies from being attracted since we're discussing short term waste disposal in an urban environment you can throw your toilet paper in the bottom of the bucket if we were discussing a long-term situation which will touch on toward the end of the video you'd be better off putting your toilet paper in a separate container when the bag is about 2/3 to 3/4 full or beginning to be a little unbearable simply tie the bag off and take it outdoors until it can be disposed of properly when sanitation services resume in the kit we built we included a spray bottle and calcium hypochlorite you might want to spray some of this inside the bag to help reduce the smell or even a splash of chlorine bleach will help if you live in an apartment and have nowhere to bury the bags double bagged them and then seal them the best you can place them in a large garbage can until the city can collect the trash and dispose of it if you live in a more suburban environment and don't have a place to take the bags or there's not a dumpster nearby then you need to take it far away from your home and bury it also best not to bury it in your streams or places where it will be run off as you will inevitably contribute to diseases that could impact your community again after disposing of the bag be sure to wash your hands and sanitize your hands we want to do all that we can to avoid getting sick which is why I included the nitrile gloves so here are some other options that are on the market I've never personally purchased any of these or use them but they consistently came up when I did a research on this subject the first is a luggable loo it's basically Bucky it would have closed the lid and see you can find these on Amazon they have really high reviews they also have the option of waste bags with bio gel that you can add you can also use these bags with a standard bucket and if you want you can just buy the lid by itself which snaps onto a five-gallon bucket there's also the portable waterless toilet again I've never had an experience with this I'd be curious to hear back from the community if anyone has experience with these another option is a compost toilet if you go to Amazon you search compost toilet you'll see a lot of options again I don't have any experience with these and I'd love to hear back from the community as again they seem to be pretty popular online speaking of compost toilets you should definitely google how to make a compost toilet I learned a lot researching these options which am i discussed in a future video came across some really interesting articles which I'll provide a link to in the description below about how after the earthquakes in Christchurch New Zealand the community began using compost toilets who are unable to use their own flush toilets because of the damage to the centralized city sewer system the permaculture community came together to teach the residents what to do with their poop and pee add to the sewage system went down and you should really study this more if you're interested in a long-term approach to handling human waste if the grid does it come back quickly in an urban or suburban environment again I'll provide a link to the article in the description below thanks again for taking the time to watch this video if you have any feedback or insight into anything on this or didn't cover please feel free to share in the comments section below as I learned so much from the YouTube community if you enjoy the video please feel free to like or share on social media again thanks to Carlos for requesting this video as always be safe out there you

Channel: undefined

Views: 566,201

Rating: 4.8860011 out of 5

Keywords: prepping, preppers, emergency preparedness, human waste, sanitation, human excrement, poop and pee, disaster

Id: uWeYtEFDNZU

Length: 11min 7sec (667 seconds)

Published: Sat May 13 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/Alt-Right_is_rising]

• https://beprepared.com/tote-able-toilet-with-6-gallon-bucket-and-2-enzyme-packets.html

• Heavy duty trash bags

• Toilet paper

• Kitty litter