How to Choose the Right Camping Toilet for Your Van or Motorhome

A common question: How do you handle toilets in your van or motorhome?

In short, when nature calls: How? Where, and what if you're in a rush...?

Yep, no more home comforts! No more flushing or sewage systems! While in a motorhome, built-in chemical toilets offer some convenience, what about the converted van or van conversion?

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Quickly, let's get to the point: several options:

  • Simple composting toilets
  • Urine-separating composting toilets
  • Chemical toilets
  • Eco-friendly and self-sufficient "Etteliot" toilets
  • Nature toilets
  • The DIY option

But the real question is what is your lifestyle and which solution fits you best?


Table of Contents


Composting Toilets

Let's cut to the chase: for us, the composting toilet is the best solution for a converted van:

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  • Wood shavings
  • Sawdust
  • Biodegradable bags
  • Eco-friendly toilet paper

We cover everything in this article about composting toilets.


Cardboard Camping Toilets

A cardboard toilet could be a good option to "take a first step" into composting toilets!

cardboard-toilet

Indeed, you have an affordable toilet for your van or motorhome that lets you try before committing to a more "final" solution.

Despite its appearance, this camping toilet can support a weight of 115kg.

The manufacturer also offers oxo-degradable plastic bags.

In summary, an economical camping toilet solution that can work in emergency situations.


Urine-Separating Toilets

To separate "solid waste" from urine, you can opt for an urine-separating toilet

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By separating urine from fecal matter, you reduce the amount of sawdust needed by 10 times

The downside is that it makes standing up to urinate difficult (compared to a simple bucket)

For fecal matter, you'll need to wait 2 years before you can use it in your garden

However, urine can be used at any time, simply dilute it with some water and it becomes a very good nitrogen-rich fertilizer for watering plants


Chemical Toilets

Chemical toilets are very common in the motorhome world.

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However, the advent of smaller vans and campervans, compared to motorhomes, makes dealing with chemical odors more challenging, as well as waste management.

The composting toilet is gaining ground. Learn more in this article dedicated to chemical toilets


Etteliot Turns Your Urine into Mist with Its Ingenious Solution

A word about the eco-friendly and self-sufficient Etteliot toilets: Our urine makes up 80% of our daily waste, around 1.5 liters!

Imagine the volume over 3 days of travel with 2 or 3 people!

Principle and Functionality

If your van, motorhome, or converted van is equipped with urine-separating composting toilets, ETTELIOT offers a small brilliant device that attaches to your toilet to vaporize the urine. Definitely the future!

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Equipment

Etteliot has designed a device that adapts to urine-separating composting toilets to eliminate the urine.

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It ensures filtration, disinfection via electrolysis (enzymes, bacteria, urea, and ammonium are transformed into a stable, odorless solution) – and vaporizes the solution into mist using an ultrasonic misting device.

This air evacuation with no need for emptying is a real time-saving and handling advantage.

Advantages of Etteliot Eco-Friendly Toilets

  • Advantages of urine-separating composting toilets.
  • Economical and eco-friendly.
  • Huge comfort as there is no more urine storage, no urine emptying, and no odors.
  • Low power consumption (60 W/h)

Disadvantages of Etteliot Eco-Friendly Toilets

  • Requires an electrical connection to power the device.
  • Needs external ventilation to release the vapors.
  • Cost to factor into your budget, approximately 950 euros.


DIY Toilets for Camping

If the motorhome replicates the comforts of home, the van offers simple comfort with a life open to the outdoors.

In the "van" philosophy, the vehicle is primarily for traveling and sleeping. For the kitchen, toilet, and shower, the DIY approach means "getting by" as situations arise.

Note that rental vehicles also don’t have toilets on board!

Where to Find Public Toilets?

Public toilets are often used in converted vans. But also in cafes and restaurants, shopping centers, rest areas, stores, train stations... They're everywhere!

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Mobile apps will help you find nearby public toilets, whether paid or free, with or without disabled access, or hidden toilets in street corners, with directions included, like "Toilet Finder" or "Flush"......

They are helpful in big cities but require frequent updates. It's up to you to find the app that suits you.

Speaking of apps, "FreeTaps" shows many drinking water points near your location.


Off the Beaten Path: Nature

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Dig a hole at least 15 cm deep, never at the edge of paths or less than 100 meters from a water source. Use a stone or stick, or a shovel (which will come in handy for other tasks in your van)

Remember to bring a small trash bag like the "dog waste bags" to collect used toilet paper and dispose of it in a trash bin, unless it's biodegradable!

Toilet paper, when buried, takes 2 to 3 months to break down completely in the ground.

Urine, if you relieve yourself against a tree (always far from water sources), will be broken down and absorbed by the soil organisms and will act as a fertilizer.

Don’t forget to cover your hole and pack it down: you must leave nature as you found it!

Be mindful of the image you give of vanlife if you don’t respect nature.


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For women, don't forget the convenience of the “stand-up pee” device, either disposable or reusable, when you find yourself with people around your van or converted vehicle, or when you’re afraid of being caught off guard during your nature break.

A little video for purists: How (to properly) relieve yourself in the woods?


Camping Toilet Accessories

Essential camping toilet accessories include:

  • Compostable bags for emergencies; they don’t take up much space
  • Sawdust for composting toilets in case you need to cover odors
  • Eco-friendly toilet paper is very important


Is Eco-Friendly Toilet Paper for Camping Possible?

For Our Planet

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Toilet paper is very useful, but did you know that:

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We use 4km of toilet paper per year, which is 4 meters a day!
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White toilet paper is bleached with chlorine!


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Toilet paper is made from cellulose wadding in wood chips or from recycled office paper (deforestation, use of large quantities of chemicals, energy, and water, pollution, etc....).
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Toilet paper rolls, like the “aquatubes” you can flush down the toilet, create an extra load for treatment plants, which increases costs for consumers.


For Our Health

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  • Perfumed, printed, or colored toilet papers are loaded with petrochemical additives, inks, Bisphenol A, etc... carcinogenic, endocrine-disrupting chemicals toxic to all living things! (including organic compost material!)
  • Doctors warn us about yeast infections, urinary or gynecological infections, irritations, anal itching... which may be caused by using colored or perfumed toilet paper.


Impact on Van or Motorhome Use

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  • For composting toilets, the paper should be thin to decompose quickly
  • You should use recycled fiber paper in gray or beige so it can compost with the waste. There will be an impact on cost.
  • In nature, if you have regular toilet paper, you can decide not to put it in the bag (for burial) of your portable toilet and throw it in a different bag for trash. If buried, count on 2 to 3 months for degradation.


Should Western Practices Change?

70% of the world's population rinses with water instead of using toilet paper. Only 40 centiliters of water are needed, whereas 168 liters are required to make just one roll of toilet paper.

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As bidets have disappeared from our homes, the portable bidet was created to clean your intimate areas anywhere.

Portable mini showers and other accessories can be a huge help for the most demanding purists, as they are very hygienic and reduce toilet paper usage. It’s up to you to choose!

portable-bidet-travel-sprayer


But Could Your Buttocks Do Without Toilet Paper?

Some interesting statistics for those wanting more figures on toilet paper usage: toilet paper statistics


The Awning Tent for Discreet Camping Toilet Use

Finally, if you plan to stay in one place for several days, especially if you're in a group, you can use a dedicated space to hide from prying eyes: (and it could also serve as a shower and more)

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An awning tent for van toilet
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A toilet and shower tent like the one offered by Decathlon
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A DIY toilet curtain


Some Vanlifers' Camping Toilet Stories

  • If you're with others and it's cold, night, or rainy, and you urgently need the toilet, the user will use the toilet inside the van while the rest of the group walks by pulling the curtain for privacy, using headphones for the sound, and a nose clip for the smell!
  • Lighting 1 or 2 matches will eliminate odors!
  • Some use essential oils, white vinegar, or baking soda to disinfect their composting bags!


Which Solution Fits You Best?

  • If you need the comforts of home with a fixed bed, kitchen, bathroom, and toilet, you're thinking motorhome and will likely choose chemical toilets. However, more and more people are converting their chemical toilets into composting toilets for ecological and economic reasons.
  • If you prefer the essentials with a life open to the outdoors, a simple comfort without domestic constraints: you primarily need a vehicle for travel and shelter to sleep. For cooking and showers, the DIY approach suits you, getting by as situations arise. You're a van person. So, you'll go with composting toilets, or use a "public toilet location" app and nature spots.

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A great team, a high-quality product, a very competitive price. We sold our converted van because our annual usage time did not justify such an expensive investment. We bought a utility vehicle that we converted to our taste with the possibility of modifying its configuration according to our needs following the many very professional tips received from COMBEING. The team took the time to welcome us into the company and to assemble our modules in order to have a tailor-made layout with everything necessary to live independently: gas, water point, electricity, toilet, solar panel, shower... In short, everything necessary to live pleasant moments according to our desires without having to have our vehicle approved in VASP. Thanks again to the whole team for their welcome, their availability and their professionalism which really deserve to be highlighted

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1 year(s) ago

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