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Rotting garbage and human feces make for a very unhealthy environment.  Garbage attracts animals and rodents that may carry disease, and human waste contains some of the most contagious threats, such as bacteria that can cause diarrhea, typhoid, cholera and dysentery. Proper disposal or quarantine of garbage and human waste is extremely important in the aftermath of any disaster.  In many cases, it will not be long before regular trash pickup is again available, especially if people continue to inhabit a disaster-stricken area. However, in the meantime or in the event of a prolonged interruption of services, you can’t just let the garbage stack up and go unattended.

 

Solid Waste:

Solid waste (garbage) should be removed from your home or shelter on a daily basis.  For a short time, you can stockpile your garbage away from your home (at least 100 feet).  However, in the event of an extended interruption in your garbage pickup, you will have to deal with your garbage using alternative methods.  If you live in the city, this is a major obstacle and you may not be able to safely deal with your garbage.  We can only hope that the local and federal agencies will see the need for emergency action.  However, if the nature of the disaster is nationwide, such as a failure of our economy or infrastructure, the government may not be of much help for a while.  We will be forced to organize with neighbors to dispose of garbage or stockpile it in a safe and common location until services are restored.

 

If you live in a rural or country setting, you will be able to more effectively deal with your accumulated garbage.  There are basically two methods:

Incineration:

In many parts of the country, burning garbage is against the law.  It has been proven to be unhealthy and unless efficiently incinerated, damaging to the environment.  However, in a time of emergency, one might be forced to weigh the consequences of not disposing of garbage against the consequences of burning it.  If you decide to burn your garbage you must take every precaution to protect yourself from toxic fumes and fire hazard.  You should never burn garbage in your household furnace, fireplace or wood stove.  This practice causes dangerous build-ups of creosote in chimneys that can cause house fires.

 

The most effective way to burn garbage is in an enclosed incinerator that is designed to efficiently burn debris at extremely high heat.  You can purchase these incinerators online at Burn Right. 

For a more economical solution you can make a burn barrel out of a steel 55-gallon drum with the top removed.  They are a lot less efficient but will work in a pinch. You should make some ventilation holes on the side of the barrel, near the bottom. It is best to have a grate of some kind inside the barrel so that ventilation space is provided under the burnable material. Also, you should have a metal screen over the top of the barrel so that burning debris does not escape.  While burning, take care to not breath in the toxic fumes that can be created by burning plastics and other household garbage.

Burying Garbage:

If you live in an area that allows room to do so, burying your garbage may be your best option.  The best way to do this is to dig a large trench.  Deposit your garbage starting from one end of the trench and bury it as you go, leaving the rest of the trench open for future deposits. Cover the garbage with at least a foot of soil.  Bear in mind that you may be required to dig up the garbage and properly dispose of it after things return to normal.

Be sure to locate your garbage trench as far away from your home as possible (at least 100 feet).  Also make sure not dispose of trash, using any method, within 100 feet of your well or other water source.

 

You may elect to do a combination of the two methods to deal with your household garbage. You can separate burnable material from cans and other non-burnable material.  You can dispose of the ashes from your burn barrel in the garbage trench.

 

Human Waste:

There are several options for the disposal of human waste.   If you live in the country, you could build an outhouse but that won’t work for most of us and outhouses are not the most environmentally friendly things out there.  However, they have worked for people for hundreds of years and an outhouse at least keeps the waste outside the home. Here are a few more convenient and less obtrusive options:

 

Portable Toilets:

There are several brands of portable toilets on the market.  These toilets have a detachable tank that is easy to empty and best of all, they are not messy.  They are convenient because you can use them in your home and the empty them into a bury pit after several uses.

Double Doodie Bags: 

Reliance Double Doodie Toilet Waste Bags with Bio-Gel are a good choice for use with portable toilets. The double zip locking mechanism ensures a tight, leak-proof seal and a tough outer bag that minimizes any chance of puncturing.

Trash Bag Option:

This method is the least expensive and is also the least convenient.  It requires a good supply of 5-gallon garbage bags (one bag per use).  Simply stretch the bag over your toilet seat or a 5-gallon bucket.  After use, seal the bag and dispose of it in your bury pit or other suitable location.  The downside is that these bags do not have the bio-gel to break the waste down so you must be even more conscious of where you dispose the bags.

Whichever methods you use for waste disposal, be sure to prepare in advance.  Once a disaster has occurred, waste disposal will be a compounding problem unless you have provided adequate measure for dealing with it.

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