[wheresmyusern]

we seriously need a better solution for toilets. toilets use huge amounts of water. if you want to have a toilet in a moving vehicle, or anywhere that is not directly connected to a sewage line and a giant water treatment plant, then you are just out of luck because all the mobile toilet solutions out there suck. it amazes me that a good solution has evaded us for so long.

when considering how to travel where-ever i want and for cheap i considered a van or rv. in both cases im stuck chasing after land installations that allow me to essentially use a toilet. with the rv, you have to offload somewhere and with a van you have to be near someone else's toilet.

the best solution i can think of is to have a special toilet that uses plastic bagging. a continuous sleeve of plastic is fed through the toilet and lines the inside of the "bowl" and is sealed at the bottom of the bowl forming a plastic bag. waste is collected and then the plastic material is rolled out -- so the bag descends and is replaced with new plastic material above. plenty of extra plastic is reeled out and a heating element comes in and seals the bag above the waste, simultaneously creating a new "bag" to catch waste and sealing completely the waste in the old bag. the end result is a completely clean bowl and fully contained waste. the waste bags could then be disposed of in an incinerator or a processing plant at some later time. the bag could be made biodegradable and a sterilizing agent added to the bag before its sealed to allow the bags to be disposed of without processing.

[rileymat2]

I would be curious if all this plastic in your plan actually saves resoures over water.

[dawnerd]

Yeah uh, water is at least fairly easy to reuse and isn't "wasted". My old apartment recycled water on site (one of the first in north america to do it) for the toilets/landscaping. If cities would just put in non potable water lines and make it code for new buildings to use it for toilets and landscaping we'd really reduce how much drinking water is used.

[wheresmyusern]

im not sure how you and every single other person who responded to my comment came to think that this was about saving resources. the only reason i dont want to use water is because water is a terrible way of taking care of waste on a mobile platform. water is super heavy and you have to use a lot of it each time you flush. and on top of that, the result is a toilet that slowly gets super dirty. plastic is better because you could store hundreds of "flushes" in a small box that doesnt weigh anything and because the toilet is totally and completely clean after every flush assuming all the waste stays inside the bowl and doesnt splatter up and out all over the place (which is a pretty good assumption). and lastly the waste can be stored with almost the minimum possible weight overhead and doesnt make its storage tank dirty or smelly. overall you have a lightweight, highly clean and maintenance free system.

in the end, water and plastic are largely the same thing. oxygen, hydrogen and carbon are all you need to make either. recycling plastic will, in the future, be trivial. same with water and all other substances.

[tomcooks]

Don't you need resources (in the case of plastic, oil) PLUS WATER to create anything?

Sawdust is the only alternative in my opinion

[chaoticmass]

At least until the three seashells come along.

[prawn]

I follow the van dwelling scene a bit (got a site in the space: https://vanspiration.com) - it seems that many beforehand overstate the need for a toilet. Those moving a fair bit amongst urban areas often make-do with public or business toilets and go months without needing to use their in-van solution. Those out in the bush are digging holes.

Many will typically have a pee bottle, and then a bucket double-lined with plastic bags and filled with dirt or cat litter. There are contoured lids that fit over common bucket sizes and make something of a seat.

There are loads of cassette-type portable toilets too.

[rimliu]

Water is only a problem in some places. And I think it is less a problem globally than plastic.

[tomaskafka]

1 this sounds utterly wasteful

2 and it already exists and is common in eg. campers

[heywire]

Reminds me of the diaper genie :)