Originally Posted By: Art_in_FL


Most baby wipe manufacturers seem to declare them biodegradable. Some are clearly mislabeled because they are made out of polyester scrim and are not biodegradable in any conventional sense. Some others might break down but only very slowly and they can reemerge months later. Hike any trails where the general public goes, particularly the duffer, easy, trails, and you find the woods littered with toilet paper that didn't get burned and buried and baby wipes that get washed up or dug up by animals un-degraded, if they were buried at all.


Learn how to dig a latrine trench and be willing to educate your fellow campers if groups are going to be in the woods any time. The life you save could be your own.



Let me elaborate on my previous hiking TP etiquette post - pack it in, pack it out, always. For some reason that gets the Eww factor from some hikers, I've never had a problem with it - dedicated zip lock baggie does the trick. If you're doing it 'right', you're not packing alot of feces. Nothing worse than seeing someone elses TP along the trail. I tend to pack those strays out too...

I will admit the water/left hand method makes more sense, but I can't get used to it myself. That may go back to a traumatic experience with a bidet in the Dutch lowlands many years ago...

In any emergency prep you had better consider where you'll sh&t. A 5 gallon bucket with a top is a start, an outdoor trench may make sense, but bucket with a dedicated toilet seat and anti-odor powder is deluxe. I am considering having a sewage backflow device put on my sewer pipe to prevent sewage in my house should flooding put the nearby sewage treatment plant out of commission. Anyway, think about it, make a plan.

I am reading an interesting book on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, The Forever War, and in one spot the author mentions the dilemma of moving 5,000 troops under fire through an urban area like Fallujah. Any event organizer can tell you, 5,000 folks in 24 hours will invariably require xx porta-potties. These guys are under fire, but nature calls. He says they dedicated an anteroom filled with cardboard boxes.