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Best practices for dealing with human waste in the great outdoors
- themafia 1y agoFecal contamination is how we verified the route of Lewis and Clark. https://offbeatoregon.com/2501d1006d_biliousPills-686.077.html https://offbeatoregon.com/2501d1006d_biliousPills-686.077.ht...
- guntars 1y agoOnly due to their mercury chloride heavy diet.
- dang 1y agoThis spent 17 hours on HN's front page (and is only just off it, I think): Lewis and Clark marked their trail with laxatives - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45087815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45087815 - Aug 2025 (78 comments)
- slowmovintarget 1y agotl;dr: Prepare ahead of time and take it back with you, or bury it at least 6-8 inches deep and 200 ft. from a water source. https://lnt.org/why/7-principles/dispose-of-waste-properly/ https://lnt.org/why/7-principles/dispose-of-waste-properly/
- goingmonk 1y agoWith the high level of foot traffic in certain parks, packing it out is the only responsible way to deal with it. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/idkt_lnt_3.htm https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/idkt_lnt_3.htm
- metalman 1y agomy mom handed me a shovel before heading out on a cross continent road trip,lived in vans and busses for years, back roads mostly, best camp spots are not on any map what so ever....hay roads, or just some ruts leading off then lived way back away from the road in a few different spots I have noticed that many "popular" sites are truely disgusting and rarely go to them, and stick to the path, or bushwack cross country well away from the main route
- andy99 1y ago> Mount Everest – known as Sagarmatha in Nepali – to national parks in Norway and Aotearoa – known as New Zealand to English speakers Very hard to read around this stuff
- simondotau 1y agoThis is bad copy editing. Detail like this belongs in parentheses at minimum, preferably footnotes. They should at least be consistent about using common or traditional names first.
- ecshafer 1y agoWeird how they don't say "Norge - known as Norway to English Speakers".
- BobaFloutist 1y agoI mean "Norway" is pretty clearly an anglicisation of Norge, much as Sagarmatha is of सगरमाथा.
- aoki 1y agoWell, at least “smearing” isn’t a default choice anymore
- amarant 1y agoWhy is human fecal matter worse for the environment than animal fecal matter? Something in our diets?
- andy99 1y agoI'd guess it worse for us because it's a vector for disease. (And grosser to see for related evolutionary reasons). There's probably a greater volume in heavily trafficked places vs similar predators. Otherwise doubtful that pound for pound it's actually worse for "nature".
- stefantalpalaru 1y ago[dead]
- SR2Z 1y agoWe are apex predators, and our shit contains the condensed toxins from all of the lower rungs on the food chain. The other extreme would be an animal like a cow, which shits basically smellier grass. That's basically it. A human being that's only eaten plants has much less devastating poops.
- dmurray 1y agoI don't think this last conclusion is true. It's really about harmful bacteria, not "toxins". Even vegetarians have a complex digestive system that can harbour pathogens. Perhaps their faeces are safer to use as manure than those from a meat-eating human, but much closer to that than to a cow.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- FollowingTheDao 1y agoIt is not the pooping that is the problem, it is the density of human pooping that is the problem. All they are talking about in the article are the national parks, and yes, this is a problem in the parks. Human feces is no more or less dangerous than animal feces.
- sugarpimpdorsey 1y agoThis needs to be printed onto leaflets and dropped over SoMa.
- iancmceachern 1y agoFor real. We live and work in the neighborhood and I've come to the conclusion that putting 5 gallon buckets out with toilet seat lids on them chained to the trash cans so they throw the full ones away when they collect the trash would be better than what is going on now.
- skylurk 1y agoPrint it on the toilet paper, effect would be the same.
- tzs 1y agoIf you want a more in depth look at this, in a format you can take with you consult while in the woods, you might enjoy the book "How to Shit in The Woods" [1]. [1] https://www.amazon.com/How-Shit-Woods-4th-Environmentally/dp/1984857134/ https://www.amazon.com/How-Shit-Woods-4th-Environmentally/dp...
- s0rce 1y agoAnother good resource is here: https://andrewskurka.com/how-to-poop-in-the-outdoors-part-1-site-selection/ https://andrewskurka.com/how-to-poop-in-the-outdoors-part-1-...
- benjbrooks 1y agoI summited Mt Whitney last fall, a trail that 1) is notoriously hard to get a permit for and 2) requires all waste to be packed out via Wag Bags. I was surprised to see a dozen or so wag bags tossed to the side of the trail over the course of my trip. You’d think that visitors would either poop on the ground with no regard for others or pack out their waste, not take all the effort to bring the bag but leave the remnants. It really left a sour taste in my mouth (and smell in my nostrils).
- pixxel 1y ago[dead]
- kyralis 1y agoThe portal side of Whitney is a sad sight. I ended a week-long trip there years ago, and the difference between the backcountry side by Guitar Lake and the portal side in terms of human impact and trash was somewhat horrifying. And it's not like Guitar Lake is unpopular - the line of headlamps climbing the path up before the sun comes up attests to that.
- e40 1y agoI feel the same about dog owners who bag their dog’s crap and then leave the bag in the middle of the sidewalk.
- moribvndvs 1y agoI have enough of dog walkers leaving bags of shit everywhere, and with our national parks overwhelmed and understaffed, I just carry a stuff sack hooked on my belt to throw it and other garbage into. The laziness and disregard demonstrated by this society is sickening, and the senselessness is astounding. Why bag it and then just throw it right on the ground? That’s almost worse. This is rhetorical, of course, they think there is an army of park janitors waiting eagerly, despite the clearly obvious fact that these bags are just sitting there for days or weeks as well as the, I dunno, numerous large signs saying to pick it up and carry it to the trash cans. It really makes it harder to relax and enjoy myself.
- don-bright 1y agoI feel like eventually the Leave no Trace convo will shift to the microplastics hikers have dumped into the environment, especially shoes but also clothes, packs, gear, maybe even waste products
- s0rce 1y agoThe best option in busier places is a privy/outhouse that gets emptied, sometimes by pack mule or helicopter. Sometimes these have amazing views, like the one near here: 52°16'13.7"N 125°57'22.4"W
- lesser-shadow 1y ago[flagged]
- globular-toast 1y agoI went on a multi-day boating trip down the Orange River between South Africa and Namibia. They told us very explicitly how and where to defecate. Sufficiently far from the river, and we were to take three things: a spade, toilet paper and a lighter. Dig hole, shit in hole, wipe, burn the toilet paper, fill in the hole.
- bohrbohra 1y agoWhy burn the toilet paper ?
- Etheryte 1y agoIn super dry climates, things don't break down the way you would expect it to elsewhere. It's the same reason why many interesting archeological findings like clothing items often come out of Africa. They've just been sitting there in the desert for thousands of years, it's too dry for anything besides sun damage to happen.
- actionfromafar 1y agoThe paper takes more time to degrade into soil. Ashes basically are soil.
- globular-toast 1y agoApparently even if buried the paper would just sit there until the next flood then they'd find it all caught up in the trees downstream. Burning is a sure way to leave no trace.
- beAbU 1y agoI went hiking in the Fish River canyon "just" upstream from where your river boating excursion took place. 5 days, 90km and zero facilities. Pristine nature despite it being very popular. Same story as yours: non negotiable items in your already overweight pack is a shovel, TP and a lighter/matches. You had to burn the TP and bury your logs. Only difference is in the canyon you cant really get far away from the river. I rather enjoyed the burning ritual afterwards. Somehow it felt like it cleansed my soul, after slogging 25km over round loose stones and soft sand carrying 20kg on my back. It was the little things that made that experience beautiful.
- wisdomseaker 1y agoMyself and friends use dog poo bags, I'm unsure of their techniques but I tear one open and place on ground to give a decent target, pop used paper on my feces then pickup by the corners to drop it all in another bag. Tie it up then drop it inside a empty large foil crisp packet to help avoid piercing. It can then easily be carried out with any other rubbish
- dyauspitr 1y agoI have a hard time believing wrapping up your poop in 2 factory produced dog bags and then a non biodegradable chip bag that will end up in a landfill is better for the environment than just digging a hole. Best thing I can imagine, especially if you’re car camping and have the room is to have a post hole digger and then dig a hole 2 foot down in less than a minute, poop in it and then cover it up.
- kcplate 1y agoI am pretty sure that elaborate process is the commenter taking the piss.
- tetromino_ 1y agoThe idea is to sacrifice one part of the environment (municipal landfill and surrounding land) in order to have everything else reasonably clean and beautiful. (Alternative being a thin layer of waste and garbage spread all over the planet. First World did that until 1970s; many poor countries still do it. Looks shabby and ugly.)
- dyauspitr 1y agoHow does buried poop not keep things beautiful?
- bruckie 1y agoLots of ways: - In popular camping/hiking areas, there's just too much of it. - In dry areas it can take decades to break down. - In rocky areas it's really hard to bury it deep enough (and so people often don't). - In some areas (like the deserts of the southwestern U.S.) the ground is really fragile and shouldn't be disturbed. Cryptobiotic soil can take decades or centuries to regrow. - People often don't move far enough away from camp sites / trails / waterways before they dig a hole. And even in areas where it's easy to dig, the soil is moist enough to it break down, and it's easy to move far enough from sensitive areas, people are just lazy and often don't dig holes that are deep enough or far enough away. If people were super conscientious (maybe it works great in Japan?) and/or only did low density camping/hiking, it might not be a problem—and indeed in many areas it isn't really a problem. But I've also been to campsites where if you take 20 steps from the trail you can see 5 or 10 places with TP peeking out from the soil within a small radius—and who knows how many more that you can't see.