Why National Parks Can’t Figure Out What To Do With Your Poop
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- čas přidán 15. 05. 2024
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Video written by Corinne Neustadter
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As a backpacker, I have been to places that require you to use bags to take your own waste out... I have never seen anything more disheartening than my friends trying to figure out what backpack pocket to put that bag in 💀.
🤣🤣🤣they doin 2 much
Only poop in those bags. Never pee. I made that mistake once. The bag stayed sealed, but I didn't know if I should put it on the bottom or the top. Bottom and if it leaks only the bottom gets wet, but the weight of all my gear could pop the seal. On top everything gets wet if it leaks, but there's no weight to cause the issue. I went with top and it was a good choice. If all the bag has is pooh it's going to be safe.
I'd bury that shit
Put it in the bear canister to make sure it doesn't get crushed and to keep the bears safe from your toxic waste. 🙂
screw that it ruins the whole experience in my opinion... let people bury it
Alternate title: The Incredible Logistics of Poop
"The Inside Scoop on the Poop Situation."
do I smell some wendover comin along?
Then this was just the trailer (pun somewhat intended). Grady at Practical Engineering has an entire series on wastewater management with scale models and synthetic poop.
That would be a good 20 minute Wendover video
Poop brownies from the army. Or poop bricks.
There’s a really simple solution to this that nobody will go for: a three pit compost toilet. In the old days out in middle of nowhere Appalachia, we had a system where you move the outhouse between three pits, and you cover the pit with sawdust or dried leaf material to balance the carbon and nitrogen in the resulting mixture.
One pit is ‘shits’ and that’s the one you use for the year. Then, the next year, the outhouse goes over a new pit, you leave that one for the next year as ‘sits’. Then, the one that sat for two seasons ‘splits’ the dirt that now has had its pathogens broken down into dirt to distribute across non-edible plants as fertilizer. Then, the outhouse goes over that hole, and cycle continues.
If we came up with a consumer friendly way to automatically sawdust the hole after every use, it would be the most ecologically responsible way to solve the problem.
Have a chamber above the actual toilet, with a hatch, and a rope connected to the hatch. Use the hatch as a valve, and have the consumer pull the hatch on their way out. Or, have it tied to opening the door or smth. Automatic, so on, so on
I thought of using the poop as compost or fertilizer too. I never heard of the three pit compost strategy. Wonder why they don't compost? Legal issues? Governmental indifference?
Instead of using sawdust, why not use or invent a toilet paper balanced for this purpose?
@@aviaviavian the door would mean that it would have to release every time someone opens a door. Unfortunately, it is the lifestyle of the US to not care about anyone else when you are in your little bubble.
I’ve been to numerous parks that had someone similar. It was just one pit, but they had a bucket of sawdust to put in.
"You're smarter now, and there's nothing you can do about it."
Is that a threat?
Yes I'm gonna violently make everyone smarter, and there's nothing you can do about it
Yes
try and forget
No, it's more of a statement that impending doom has arrived.
bold thing to say to someone who has alcohol
Child #1 - My dad's an attorney! He's cooler than your dad!
Child #2 - Well, my dad flies poop out of national parks in a helicopter
Child #1 - Um ok, you got me there
Child #2: If my dad wanted to, he could ruin _sooo_ many people's day at the press of a button.
Child #1: O-ok, you're starting to scare me. You won, stop talking like that.
Child #2: Oceans of feces just pouring down on the unsuspecting...no chance to run...no chance to hide. A veritable maelstrom of corn and cliff bars raining down like hellfire on them all...
Child #1: W-Why are you still goin-
Child #2: It's not about the poop, it's about sending a message.
Ngl, kids would probably think that's the coolest job, at least if there's an overlap in when they find helicopters cool and poop funny
I'm an attorney, and I want the helicopter pooplift job
@@MrDogfish83 Brb, quitting my job. I've finally found my true calling in life!
I worked near Olympic National Park for over 25 years as a wastewater treatment plant professional. A number of my colleagues were hired as substitute treatment plant professionals for the Park Service. Dealing with human waste was a never ending problem for the Park Service.
Thank you for your civil service. Much of my research involves human waste on public lands, and has previously been focused in ROMO. It's a major issue people this is easy to solve. Thank you for all the work you did.
Does a bear shit in the woods ?
This brings back memories of my four years as a backcountry park ranger at the Grand Canyon. We used composting toilets in the backcountry that needed to be emptied out periodically. It was fun seeing the disappointment on visitors' faces when they would ask me, "is that helicopter searching for a lost hiker?" and I would answer with, "no, it's flying poop out of the canyon." 😆
Our compost crew, the folks who hiked all over the inner canyon and maintained the composting toilets, were often shorthanded, so we rangers would assist them in their duties while on hiking patrols. It's a strangely satisfying feeling one gets from using a rake to knock over and smooth out a three-foot tall cone of poop in a composting toilet. Almost cathartic... 💩
😂
😂😂
Went camping in Wyoming one winter and saw one such cone of poop in the outhouse by the cabin, talking to the park ranger who stopped by revealed that the temperature didn't get warm enough for all of the cone to unfreeze, so every year or other year they had to climb down and chip the base down. Wild part of a job!
♪"I wanna be a kybo ranger, I wanna live a life of danger"♪
It's sad that we can spend billions on defense, but literal holes in the ground in our national parks are too expensive to maintain
National parks can't payback in 20 years with 18% interests on 800B$ packages
@@fightwithdogma ayyyeeee ur on to it !
The parks aren't lobbying or shareholding a slice of that money back into the policy makers' pockets
spending billions on defense is the reason why the US was able to print money during covid without becoming Zimbabwe, why do you think China continues to increase their national defense budget each year.
@@GamePois0n Fuck China and all, but the reason China is increasing their defense budget every year is because the US keeps threatening to start a war with them. Also, I call bs on the US would have ended up like Zimbabwe for printing money and not having a huge defense budget. Plenty of countries did similar things and they ain't remotely like Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe ended up like it did due to corruption of government officials stealing from the budget, land reform that was mismanaged, economic sanctions, and the military conflict in Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Grand Canyon NP had a waterless urinal in its bathrooms at the visitor’s center. None of the water from the Colorado River was available for park use. There were I think 4 springs that feed into the canyon that they utilize for water use in the park. To help reduce usage naturally. The urinals didn’t have flush capabilities. I believe they just required a good bucket of rinse a day. I’m guessing 1-5 gallons each. They have the modern appearance of a typical urinal but don’t stink or overflow. Almost zero moving parts. So likely inexpensive.
They use these at my former high school. At least where I lived they where never flushed so 0 Liters per day
One of the best reasons why multi-gender bathrooms should still have urinals
that's literally the only kind of urinal yoiu can find around my area here in Europe nowadays. flushing urinals have been dying out really fast for quite a while now.
Waterless urinals, from my understanding, have oil in the trap. It floats on top of the urine to create a barrier between it and the air. More oil has to be occasionally added when needed, but this is somewhat infrequent (not daily... like I believe it can go months before more is needed)
Virginia has those in some rest stops. Very smart idea.
One tip to reduce the load on national parks, go to state parks and national forests! They are just as beautiful as national parks (many state and national parks are directly adjacent to one another), but are less crowded and less expensive. National forests are ran by the national park service, but are way less popular and have similar benefits to state parks.
Roosevelt national forest near the rockies is more beautiful than most national parks in my opinion
Like with many human problems, the action itself isn't the issue. It's a matter of millions of people performing that action multiple times a day.
Good point. But we don't think of anyone but ourselves today so...
Out of sight out of mind mentality is losing steam as population grows. It’s getting harder and harder to push our problems aside. Gonna have to come up with real solutions or we’ll be shit out of luck.
What’s so hard about going BEFORE hitting the trail??
@@seadragon1456 Not sure as im not a backpacker but my guess is: Being on the trail for more than 2 hours, which I assume you would be because how much walking can you really do in between bathroom stops, leaving the park, going to the gas station, and comign back? That sounds very unpleasant and defeating the purpose of, yknow, getting into nature.
I guess you could say they’ve had enough of my crap
Most backcountry locations don't have designated toilets. Most of the time you just walk away from camp, dig a shallow "cat" hole, poop in the hole, and bury it. Be sure to pack out your toilet paper. Yellowstone is the only place I've been that has pit toilets in the backcountry. They're pretty nice on a comparison basis, though they're not at all private. It's just a pedestal with a toilet seat out in the trees over a hole. When the pit gets kinda full a ranger digs another hole close by, putting the dirt from the new hole in the old hole, and then sets the pedestal on the new hole. It's my favorite system. Of course when I do the cat hole thing I try to hike 10 or 15 minutes away from camp so the campsites aren't just ringed with pooh landmines. One time I dug and found a tampon applicator. Seriously lady?!
The vault toilets in Zion are nasty! The last time I looked in the one at Angels Landing there was a hoodie sitting there that somebody had used as TP because there wasn't any actual TP. This was just a few weeks after the vaults had bern helicoptered out. It got gross way fast. The backcountry vault toilets in Yosemite are much better. The best system I've seen is on West Coast Trail in Canada, but they're right on the ocean so access is easier.
I'm really surprised that the waste from Zion is transported to Wellington, UT. That's a long long drive. Taking it to St. George or even to Las Vegas would be way closer.
The pooh bags aren't terrible. Just know they're for solid waste only. Deposit liquid waste directly on the ground but away from camping areas because without regular rain it can really stink. I've used pooh bags in Grand Teton National Park, Zion National Park, the San Juan Mountains, and while camping on the Colorado River. Just use one. You'll survive.
Sequoia NP has a couple of backcountry pit toilets, too. And one popular lake there was recently closed to camping due to 💩.
@Anel Zukic 80% of trees west of the Mississippi are conifers, what pine leaves are you using?
When I went it wasn't that bad but yeah the one at Angel's Landing is Pretty Dirty
A lot of those isolated toilets get gross because well meaning people dump RV tank treatments in them, which kills the natural bacteria that would break the poop down, resulting in a bloom of the RV perfume bacteria, which do nothing to break the poop down, but do make it reek like an old lady who took a bath in 5 bottles of cheap walmart perfume.
@@TheNoodlyAppendage I agree that that would be a bad situation if somebody dumped their RV black water in a composting toilet, but nobody is getting an RV to the top of Walter's Wiggles in Zion NP in million years.
I worked in recreation for the forest service for years. For our wilderness are we had vault toilets we had to have pumped yearly at the trailheads, then pit toilets out in the actual wilderness. And by pit toilet. I mean a hole in the woods that 2 guys dug then put a riser (then actual toilet thing you sit on in an outhouse) over. They had to dig new holes twice a season for the more well used ones.
People throw things in toilets. That really messes the system up.
Thank you. Thank you. Seeing a toilet seat in the backcountry is a most welcome sight.
I have the same problem
Lmaooo
@RedDot Bulgaroid 🇧🇬🤖
That latte joke was so layered i felt a new wrinkle fold on my brain
xD
Looks like a great thing to watch on my lunch break
Well that is your own fault. Your supposed to eat and gossip on your lunch break. Work time is for YT and Reddit. Git with the program. 😂😂😂
Especially with the stock video at 3:58
I clean outhouses for a living, and every year we clean a bunch of outhouses in national parks in our area. While there are some outhouses that are a project to get to, generally speaking we just drive to the location and unwrap as much hose as we need.
And I thought crawling around in attics was rough, you sir have a rough job
4:54 YES I CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. I can remove all the knowledge you gave me by going and banging my head on wall extremely hard which will give me a short term memory loss and I will never remember that I even watched your video.
Don't do it! You'll end up watching the same video again and again. You'll wind up with a concussion! 😂
@@jpaugh64 sorry man but that's a small sacrifice to prove sam wrong
The “cliff bar slurry” made laugh so hard I cried. 😂
If you know, you _know._
*"Leaching excess caffeine into the lake which is like giving fish Starbucks lattes they otherwise couldn't afford."* 🤣🤣🤣
Cliff Bar slurry! Killing it
In Australia we have pit toilets that dump into a tank full of a certain bacteria. The bacteria break down the waste, turning it into dry fertiliser. There's typically no smell at all, and they last years before being replaced, because of how it's broken down. Digging pits seems dumb by comparison.
Um, "we have pit toilets .... pits seem dumb?"
I'd guess there are more visitors in the US and bacteria can become overwhelmed. Perhaps we'd need aeration?
Hopefully, a variety of solutions are being tested because there are a lot of parks that have been chosen for their unique biomes -- and problems with waste management. I think this video doesn't emphasize the point is that there is no universal solution because each park is different.
@@icollectstories5702 yeah pit toilets with containers full of bacteria, as opposed to just a pit. It's all the benefits of the containers mentioned here - able to go anywhere, no interaction with the surrounding ground - but without the need to take it to a processing plant.
I've heard you do that. Isn't it known as "Fosters?"
No need to add poop eating bacteria to a toilet. They already live in your gut. They come with the poop. Pit additives are not proven to be anything more than marketing.
I wonder if that guy from Wendover is now gonna release a video on the world's poop logistics
WAG bags are required for all of Canyonlands in the backcountry. And it is becoming more common elsewhere. And if enough people don't use them where required, the NP Service does have one other solution to the problem: close an area to overnight use (which is also becoming more common).
Sam needs to read "Ecological Sanitation"... The two vault urine diverting dry toilets (or the composting ones) might make sense there...
How much money does it cost to install those systems?
@@edwinhuang9244 A lot cheaper than the conveyor type.. (It is normally a two vault structure....) (The main issue might be that the users will probably need directions on how to use the toilets - sand or ash needs to be added after each use)
That type (two vault urine diverting dry toilets) have been installed in huge numbers in places to deal with Cholera outbreak... (eThekwini municipality in South Africa have installed ~75000 of them. They are not always popular - many people insist on flush toilets)
@@GertvandenBerg Source(s)(For the cheaper than the conveyor type)?
@@edwinhuang9244 I don't have prices for the conveyor type, but UDDTs cost around EUR100 - EUR600 to install in 2013... See "Technology Review of
Urine-diverting dry toilets (UDDTs)
Overview of design, operation, management and costs", from page 39 (links mostly gets blocked in CZcams comments) (and most are for the squatting type (The ~EUR600 was the ones in South Africa, which was not of the squatting type))
(There is a CBC article that cites a cost fo $20k - $50k for the conveyor type toilets... Canadian labour costs might be a factor compared to the places where the vault-type UDDTs were installed title "How do B.C.'s eco-friendly outhouses work? With foot pumps and feces-eating worms")
@@GertvandenBerg The problem with any toilet that requires directions is that people won't read the directions, scream "Ah do whut Ah Want!", and just crap wherever/however they want.
Last spring I backpacked The Needles District in Canyonlands NP which has mandatory wag bags ("airtight" bags you poo into and then carry with you). On day 3 of 4, when I was carrying both 2 days worth of poop bags and 2 days worth of water, I was both grossed out and angry that I couldn't leave the poo behind. That opinion stuck with me until I backpacked the 4 pass loop in the Maroon Bells Wilderness near Aspen, Co a few weeks ago. Walking anywhere near something that seemed even remotely like a campsite was like walking through a field of toilet paper land mines.
Idk what the answer is here. I think that being in nature is important for all humans, not just the super outdoorsy ones but the flip flops and strollers, hotel and car touring ones too. Nevermind the beauty or mental health benefits or the critical importance of conservation, but even just the idea that being in the wilderness makes people care more about protecting the environment is reason enough for National Parks to exist. On the other hand, 350 people all taking a picture of Delicate Arch at the same time really ruins the vibe... idk, I guess I'm with the NPS on this one. Timed entry, 6 month waits for backcountry reservations, dedicated backcountry campsites, and wag bags are the way of the future... that really sucks, but I do think it's the least bad option.
3:10 dats a good 1🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The opening portion left out the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It is beautiful and has some great trails too take!
"You're smarter now and there's nothing you can do about it." you under estimate my ability to forget something 5 seconds after I learned it.
This could 100% have been a full Wendover video! Great work!
This was hilarious, educational, and I gagged the whole time. Well done!
Holy crap (pun intended) "cliff bar slurry" nearly broke me in half
I had to run to the fridge and get a beer, just to kill braincells so I ain't getting any smarter.
Yes, that will work - smart idea - whoops.
😂 If that's actually the reason you grabbed a beer, then, yes, you're literally training yourself to be dumber! One beer won't hurt, though!
As I'm right now on vacation in the USA, visiting fron the Netherlands. Today we visited Canyonlands and Arches near Moab, Utah. These 2 parks were the worst we visited yet. Toilets were clean, but were massively stinking. We also visted Yosemite, Death Valley, Zion and Bryce and those were very good and clean toilets. We will visit a couple more parks and I will hope they are as good as in Yosemite
I hope you’re. enjoying your vacation!
They just need to put a phone charger in the toilets near the park entrance and install five times as many. Almost no one will make it into the actual park.
Amen.
I’m not sure if this would work in the states, but here in Australia, our national parks have toilet blocks built 5-6ft with above ground septic tanks underneath. They flush by using a hand pump with stored rain water. I would assume there’s some sort of chemical(s) in the tank to help breakdown.
As far as I know they are pretty much maintenance free, that is, I’ve never seen any needing to get emptied, and I have done a fair bit of camping in our national parks.
If I’m incorrect please let me know....
Simple solution: More bears. Leads to less people in the woods. Apparently, there are less than 1000 Grizzly bears in Yellowstone. Never been, but I've been hiking in a smaller area with around 3000 bears, didn't see a single one. Way too few.
And yes, I'm aware, someone who knows what he's doing won't have trouble with bears. Tell that to a family from the city planning a nice, relaxing vacation
Mt Rainer has those conveyor belt toilets at Paradise and Camp Muir, I’ve used them on a few occasions
I loved the resignation in the expression of the guy who's just been told that he's smarter now.
Love the classic long drop
Clif bar slurry was the grossest thing I've heard all week especially since I was not expecting anything like that to come through my speakers lol.
Clif Bar slurry... You truly are a wordsmith! lol
Best video to watch while eating!
This is why we used to use lime in the old pit toilet at the old family cabin. It worked great
Why did you have to say "Cliff bar slurry" you're ruining my favorite work snack.
i was literally in the middle of eating one when he said that lmao
@@MithrandilPlays did you finish it? Haha
This episode deserves to be a full wendover productions video.
I portage camped in Algonquin park Canada, you have to canoe to each site, on the 4th day we were 13km in and the park service designated toilet was a box with no walls just a toilet seat and a sign that said “the thunder box”, there was no cover either so you could imagine how disgusting the toilet was and it was almost full, but when you gotta go you gotta go man.
There was also a water fall a couple hundred meters away and right I front of the thunder box there was a wooded field that animals would run through so it wasn’t that bad.
national parks need visitors to run but having too many of them is simply problematic
No they don't, National parks get budget no matter how many visitors there are. They should just charge visitors for visiting for management.
@@organizedchaos4559 which they do
@@organizedchaos4559 Parks continue to exist because visitors exist. All of that land could be used for resource extraction; if no one cared about the parks, they would get rezoned / deleted
Normally, I'd suggest hunting as a way to control the population. 😂 Not applicable in this case!
@@jpaugh64 depends on what constitutes 'hunt' in this case.
At the Phantom Ranch (at the bottom of the Grand Canyon) they actually dry restroom waste and then put it into garbage bags before flying it out. A friend of mine makes good money keeping the system going. I did a video summarizing the process called "Biology Is Messy" and there's a link to my friend's channel at the end where he has all sorts of videos showing how it's done!
I have a few quite good books "How to shit in the woods", it's sequel "Up Shit Creek: A Collection of Horrifyingly True Wilderness Toilet Misadventures" and "Bear attacks their causes and avoidance". All good reads but the latter one is basically it depends what mood the bear is in and these methods may or may not work - good luck!
Cliff Bar slurry had me dead. :D
This is why we need to bring back chamber pots.
That's just peeing on a bush with extra steps.
Wait, how does gravity function to bring pee up to the surface? Seems like an idea that involves retromingents.
poop is heavier than pee so it sinks to the bottom leaving all the pee at the top
@@carlossanchez7583 surely there's a couple floaters
@@carlossanchez7583 That's called a sceptic tank. And yes, while gravity plays a role, as it does with all objects of mass, principally it works because of volume. Im gonna hold out for this new damn fangled technology that makes pee travel upwards, and if Sam doesnt clarify, there are plenty of plastic bottles floating around.
@@sunalwaysshinesonTVs Septic tank*
It's quite likely that the technology involves the use of methods you'd probably find in a wastewater treatment plant, although it's best to look up the original documentation for that!
@@scythal skeptic tank*
Those plants are septic (thank you) tanks but with a skimmer, so your answer I find unacceptable. I demand a technology that makes pee flow up to the surface using gravity! That's what Sam promised, or am I just imagining things....
Having an RV allows you to use a dump station outside the park to help conserve park resources.
I can imagine the immense satisfaction the graphics design guy felt when he got to write "poop logistics" in a thumbnail 😹
Okay I LOVE watching Wendover and HAI over meals but had to stop when we got to “cliff bar slurry”
"you are smarter now, and there is nothing you can do about it"
dont underestimate my stupid
As a former Boy Scout, just dig a hole at least 100 yards from the nearest water source and then bury your bad news.
I think it is called a septic system. A lot of rural homes have them.
This is like an ad for never wanting to visit a national park.
i mean they're already full tbh
Damn. I never thought about this before. Wow. Really makes you think.
I don't really remember much about toilets on coastal trips except for one in California where it had no tank, it emptied right out onto the beach where the tide could wash it all out into the ocean...
Big sur ?
As a Nebula subscriber, it's 100% worth the price. All the original content on there from some of CZcams's best educational creators, with extended cuts of videos that you see on YT, with no ads, it's great! Plus the access to Curiosity Stream makes the price of an annual plan that much better.
How much did you get paid to write this?
Oh I bet it is, but see. I just like going to youtube, its 1 place I need to worry about, I just load it up & the recommendations are pretty good, always stuff to watch.
Its not about the money, it's a great price, I just don't care enough to use another platform.
I'll donate Monero to creators & projects I like cause I use AdBlock, but my donation policy for everything is only if they accept Monero a secure & private crypto unlike bitcoin which is trash.
They are getting more creative with the ads everyday
@@RedmarKerkhof haha this is just free advertising for Nebula, I wish I'd get paid to write this. I probably should tone down the positivity though, make seem less 'advert' and more 'recommendation/opinion'
@@SenorBigDong69 just promoting a product I like, nothing wrong with that haha
I always bring some bags and my 3 shells whenever I go hiking.
Hi I work for the national park service. it is hard to deal with all the poop. but people often forget we also have to deal with all the bear poop. since bears dont poop in the woods.
“Please do not throw anything else other than toilet paper in the toilet. It is extremely difficult to remove.”
Please do not throw cigarette butts in the urinal, they are to hard to relight
If someone in the US figured out how to deep fry an Oreo I feel fairly confident a Scot already did it a decade earlier
1:28 I'm pretty sure that's the rest area on I-70 just west of the CO/UT border. If so, I just recognized a 2 second clip of a place I've been to once in my life. (and it's NOT a National Park)
Pretty sure you're right. Only, I've been there like three times. There's a really nice view there so I tend to hang around for a few minutes. I slept in my car there once too.
After my overnight through hike of The Narrows in Zion a few years ago (Labor Day weekend), I stopped at the backcountry desk to pickup my next permit and the Ranger and I got talking about poop. She was disgusted to report that she had picked up 9 pounds of human feces from around the banks of the lower part of the river narrows. 😳
Not sure which is more disturbing... having to pick it up ...or....having to weigh it.
Do people not realize they are walking in poo run off? How gross.
Falling in one of those is like my worst nightmare you could be trapped for days in there or maybe forever
Gullfoss waterfall in Iceland has the nicest composting toilet I have ever been in. Nice smell, solar powered.
In Indian train they have implemented something called as Bio-toilet which contains some bacteria that would convert the solid waste into water and they will release those water into land. Easy 😅
That's a good idea! Even if the resulting water was too contaminated to release, it would be easier to transport, I'd bet.
My poop is a gift…you are supposed to keep it and treasure it
Incinerator-methane digester toilets might be a viable solution. Use standard water toilets to collect sewage, use appropriately sized methane digesters to produce methane that is then burned with solid waste and water recycled back into the system in arid environments or clarified water reintroduced into the water table in temperate environments. It would be a good solution to pathogen problems and prescription medications being the sewage as well. Problem is it would require a ton of infrastructure, so would only be viable in areas around east access areas. More remote areas may just have to stick with outhouses.
3:58 man I absolutely despise whoever found that stock video lmao. Almost gagged at the idea of someone smearing poop all over their hands
Lol that's just clay.
Which is why we have the small portable and flushing Thetford Porta Potti along with a small privacy “tent” that just pops itself up in a couple seconds. It’s an absolute lifesaver.
For backcountry trips we have a lightweight origami style toilet/bucket that collapses flat and uses a leak proof bag, degradable liner, and a gel inside that keeps it all squared away.
what a random answer to a question that i never knew i wanted
Amateurs talk about poop tactics, but professionals study poop logistics.
:-)
Been to most the national parks in the west. Hiked 12-16 hour days including big wall climbing. If you have to poop during your hike, you’re eating to much and not moving fast enough.
Best explanation of a pit toilet, ever.
Pretty shitty situation to be in.
from my own experience id guess as long as you mix in brown matter(soil, leaves, sticks etc) that a whole pit should be mostly broken down after one hot season, maybe 3 in colder times/places. After a year almost nothing remains in a compost pit. That being said concentrated poop without brown matter mixed in will take quite a bit longer to fully breakdown, especially if its not kept wet as the brown matter holds on to water and releases chemicals to help bacteria and critters thrive who will be the main source of breakdown.
I'm a retired U.S. Forest Service employee and spent nearly all of my career in recreation management and law enforcement. Pit toilets were not allowed anywhere and we always had vaults. Vaults in most toilet designs are not portable, they are large concrete structures built on site to be permanent installations. Some backcountry toilets use portable tanks, some even being 55 gallon drums. These have to be hauled out, mostly by helicopter. Helos are expensive, with per hour charges being in the thousands of dollars. This dependent on how much weight the helo can lift. I can't say this for sure on all public land, but I don't think pit toilets exist anymore. Bacteria can enter ground water and play hell with water quality.
Cliff bar slurry... Whole video was worth it
They need to brick them. Most of the volume is liquid and liquid is easy to dispose with evaporation being a potential option. With the resulting waste dehydrated there could be as little as a quarter of the volume and weight to dispose of. It's not economical to remove all the water so it makes sense to remove it at the site.
A mention of Slough was inevitable \m/
I don’t hike areas through hikers go. Tourist ruin places tbh. I mean I visit many places but I’m usually alone and don’t stay long.
The Forest Service been finding more problems with privy holes. I don’t think there will be a good solution for that, I’m certainly not going to pack out my waste during isolated camp trips.
"you're smarter now and there's nothing you can do about it"
challenge accepted.
I believe the term is _outhouse_ and sometimes it's nice to have a breeze on your buns.
And on your meatballs.
I've been to a lot of those toilets and uh... they're like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gunna get.
:45 Anyone else think that $12,000 for toilet paper for the summer season at a HUMONGUOUS national park isn't all that much toilet paper? When I heard $12,000 I thought the narrator was going to say - per week. But for a whole summer? For a park that had over 4 million visitors per year? I'm not impressed. Thats not a lot of TP.
I built many vault type outhouses in the Great Smokies when I was teenaged working with the Civilian Conservation corps. It's a system begging for modernization.
2:05 Russian Mi-35 helicopter: Finally! A task that is within my capabilities!
i have this problem with HAI videos where ill go to answer a text or something quick and come back to the video only like 15-20 seconds later, but i'm already completely lost. like first we were talking about air lifting poop then fish are drinking starbucks? i have to rewind
Yeah that grizzly bear didn't seem too fragile when he had his jaws locked around my skull...
I am fortunately one of the people who doesn't go number 2 every day. So most of the time while I'm hiking or camping I can usually wait till I'm back to running water.
What’s with people that crap in the middle of hiking activities? I grew up in the mountains, running around and climbing stuff. Never had to drop a deuce in the forest.
Maybe it’s the garbage people eat?
wow never thought about this topic =x
In woodland forests, a single turd takes up to six months to completely break down when buried under 6 inches of soil. That consumes about a 1 square foot area. Multiply that by the number of tourists. Just dig a 6 inch diameter hole about 6 inches deep. Set the soil off to the side of the hole. Place your heels in front of and off to the side of the hole, squat and relieve yourself. Then push the soil back over the poop and tamp it down with the shovel. Push a stick into the ground to mark the spot. In the army we called these catholes. Its ecofriendly and depending on the environment will take anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months to completely break down. You can even throw some local seeds or grass/clover on the ground to help.