The shitter that's never full
“Mom, Marley rolled in poop,” my daughter states matter-of-factly. Marley is a snow-white Labradoodle, and this type of deviance isn’t uncommon.
We’re camping off the grid in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, located in northeastern Utah. Our campsite, which is surrounded by a gorgeous aspen grove, is in cattle country. That’s my first thought. It’s just cow dung. Not so bad. Then I see Marley. She’s caked in what can only be a fresh, pale-brown dump of human origin. Doh!
I’d just setup a tankless, hot-water shower, and it was ready for use. My wife grabs rubber gloves and a bottle of dish soap, and we tag-team Marley with multiple rounds of washing, scrubbing and rinsing until her shaggy coat is entirely free of fecal matter.
The biggest challenge in off-grid camping is how to manage human waste, and there are really two ways. First, you can poop in the woods and “bury” it. That’s how Marley got in trouble. It wasn’t quite buried. It’s also not ideal for our public lands, as the ethos dictates that we pack out whatever we pack in. The alternative is a portable cassette toilet. This offers a more civilized pooping experience and has less environmental impact. However, it requires that one empty and clean the thing after every trip. And by “one” I mean me. It’s dreadful, tedious and disgusting. So I set out this winter to find a viable alternative to these options. Given all of the high-tech camping gear on the market, there had to be a better way to poop in the backcountry.
After a few different search queries and keyword combinations, since I really didn’t know what I was looking for, I found the Wrappon Green toilet ($990) from Japanese-based S.E. Technologies. At first it felt like I’d stumbled onto the dark web, as the website is pretty dated. SET Corporation and its wholly owned US subsidiary, S.E. Technologies, are not accustomed to selling to consumers. Rather, this is a high-tech manufacturer that sells to large corporations and governments. Which is why most have probably never heard of it.
Indeed, the Wrappon Green toilet was born of necessity...and a large contract from the Japanese government. Following the devastating tsunami of 2011, which caused a series of meltdowns at the Fukushima power plant, the groundwater in the area became severely contaminated. This called for a waterless toilet that could properly capture and dispose of human waste. The Japanese government purchased a lot of these toilets—a crapload, to be precise—in addressing this historic natural and man-made disaster. Seeing the potential for other applications like RVs, boats, and primitive camping, the company later established a US presence to explore these markets.
Flushing is more like packaging
If you’ve ever used a Diaper Genie, the basic principles are quite similar. The Wrappon Green uses a continuous, plastic roll to individually bag and seal each dump. But this plastic isn’t simple Saran Wrap. In fact, it’s a five-layer polyethylene film that includes a deodorizing resin layer. With each successive flush, your best work is hermetically sealed and contained through a proprietary heating process.
The user experience is actually quite delightful. First, you pour a packet of coagulating powder into the toilet...more specifically, into the bag within the toilet. This condenses the liquids and includes a deodorizing agent. It’s technically an optional component but certainly handy if the waste needs to be stored for a few days before you can properly dispose it. When you’re finished doing your duty, you press the button on the flush controller, which also includes a flush counter. The plastic is drawn down below the toilet, where the package is heat sealed and then cut. This process takes about 30 seconds to complete, which says to me that the job is being done properly. The finished product drops out the bottom and can be safely stored until a proper trash receptacle can be found. Again, it’s similar to disposing of dirty diapers.
Unlike water-based cassette toilets, the human waste is immediately removed and stored separately in the odorless bags. The toilet itself never gets dirty, contaminated or smelly. It hardly needs to be cleaned other than to wipe the seat. So it can also be stored and transported wherever you like. It folds down into a contained package with a carry handle that can fit under the seats of most camper trailers or stacked in the back of an SUV with other luggage. There is also the option to have it permanently installed in a camp trailer or Sprinter van without the external case.
You could carry it on a plane
The unit comes with a traditional 110v power cable, and you can opt for 12v adapters in the form of the cigarette lighter interface or alligator clips attached to, say, a motorcycle battery. The plastic film roll will get you about 50 flushes and is easily replaced. With the coagulating powder, it’ll cost you about $1.50 per flush. This is nothing compared to the emotional cost of emptying five days’ worth of your family’s business into a pit toilet or else rinsing a steaming load from the fur of your Labradoodle.