Portable Potty Keeps Outdoors Great.

Human waste on the battlefield is a perennial problem for the U.S. military, and the environmental health hazards it can create--diphtheria, cholera, and other diseases--have often caused more deaths than actual combat.

Traditional handling methods such as burning or burying all have shortcomings. For example, buffed waste may leak pathogens into the groundwater. Alan P. Schlie, a force documentation analyst for the U.S. Army Engineering School at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, believes the solution may lie in the PETT[TM] (short for Phillips Environmental Toilet), a portable toilet his unit recently field-tested. "The way the PETT is designed makes it easy to transfer and dispose of waste," Schlie explains. "I believe the PETT will eliminate the waste disposal problem in the military."

The PETT is the only portable toilet on the market to use disposal bags that degrade along with the waste, unlike the usual plastic waste bags. The bags are labeled a Group II (nonhazardous) waste product--the same as regular garbage--in the 47 states that classify them. The used bags can thus be put in a regular solid waste landfill.

Each waste bag kit uses dual degradable bags that can be used about 5-10 times. They contain an absorbent powder that neutralizes odors, gels waste, and initiates the decay process. The PETT is the size of a standard toilet, but weighs only seven pounds and can function in temperatures ranging from -40 [degrees] F to 140 [degrees] F. "We believe our product is eco-friendly as well as sanitary, because it's designed to prevent spilling and splashing," says Bill Phillips, CEO of Phillips Environmental Products, the Bozeman, Montana, company that developed the toilet.

The PETT is being considered for use in protected areas under the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Forest Service. "Many people like to create a Lewis and Clark-type expedition in these areas," says Pat Crowley, solid waste regulatory program manager with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. "They dig their pit toilets at the campsites ... and in no time you have dozens of smelly holes in the ground. The sites become littered with human waste and strewn toilet paper. It's unsanitary and looks real ugly."

In a 15 May 2001 letter to Phillips, senior specialist Gary Marsh wrote that the BLM does not object to the use of the PETT along with other acceptable human waste disposal systems currently in use. Marsh stressed, however, that "great emphasis must be s placed on educating d the user and monitoring [the bags'] disposal," and that if PETT bags are found to be improperly disposed of in protected areas such as federal or state campgrounds, the BLM would "have to re-evaluate their usefulness."

Phillips Environmental Products is now looking for ways to sell the PETT in the consumer market. Wal-Mart is taking a serious look at the toilet, and the company has been in negotiations with potential partners in Japan and Canada. Says Phillips, "My marketing experience told me that there is a tremendous need for something like the PETT."