Please Note: 1. Listing of vendors does not mean we’ve tested and endorse. 2. Most suppliers of “emergency” toilets or components for DIY toilets assume that users have disposal options: land where waste can be composted or buried or municipal services with toilet waste pick up. In a true emergency, this may not be the case.
Supplies for the Christchurch Twin
Buckets with lids: Buckets in various colors with lids that fit. Get one with a spout for half a buck more. Order here. You may also be able to get these free from supermarkets and restaurants.
Seat covers: Fit 5 gal buckets (3 gal for kids); available for $10. While you can remove the toilet seat from your bathroom toilet and duct tape it on a bucket, it’s best to have a seat which can switch from bucket to bucket.
Lids for buckets: You can get buckets free from grocery stores and bakeries but sometimes they come without lids. You need lids. You can also buckets with lids.
Bucket toilets: Tote-able: bucket toilet has with snap-on lid. $15 . Store-a-potty: bucket with air-tight red cover stores emergency supplies and converts into a toilet with addition of seat. $25 Buy two, one for pee, one for poo. $25
Personal funnels for females include the reusable GoGirl, Whiz Freedom, and the disposable P-Mate.
Other Dry Toilets and Toilet Kits
Air Head Toilets: Designed for use in boats, this small, well-designed, vented, urine diverting dry toilet also comes in a household model. $995
Video: In 2 minutes video shows how a urine-diverting dry toilet works.
Waterless Urinals: Good for a workplace. Falcon, Waterless, Sloan and others carry them.
Loveable Loo: Video shows construction and use of Loveable Loo 2.0 available here assembled ($225) or in kit form ($160); extra buckets and liners extra. (Loveable 1.0 vid is more fun.)
Makeshift Christchurch Toilets an Online Hit. This popular website shows that even at the worst of times a homemade toilet can bring comfort and be infused with whimsy. Pit latrines were dug in the beginning but gave way to containerized dry sanitation which does not contaminate.
How to make a simple composting toilet. The instructions are sound but the assumption is that one toilet will be used for both urine and feces. This means problems with odor, unsightly mess and limited volume. The solution is to have two toilets, one for urination and one for defecation. It’s a good idea to have some back up buckets with lids since disposal may not be an easy option.
DIY Composting Toilet Video 3:22 shows easy to make toilet using 55 gal drum.
Emergency Sanitation Accessories
Toilet Seals: If a quake is followed by a tsunami and flooding, household toilets will likely overflow. A company in the UK that provides instant sandbags, which expand when wet, also carries toilet seals.
Disposable toilet bags available commercially include Restop, BiffyBag, and the famous, low-cost PeePoo, currently for sale only in Kenya.
Enzyme packets help break down and control odor of feces and sell for less than $1. We haven’t tested these yet but if you don’t mix feces and urine, there should be no smell.
