[Paddlewise] toilets and the Pett system

Ok I have been waiting with bated breath for the toilet topic to come up
again! ;-p   I did a little research on the Pett toilet system and here is
what I found out.  There is still a little ambiguity about the legality or
safety of the system, but it does appear to be legal.  Here is what the
National River Coordinator of the Bureau of Land Management (Federal land
management agency here in the US) had to say about the system.  Incidentally
there are no copyright violation with copying stuff from the government
since taxpayers funded it.
 "After a year's trial period of your products on the BLM lands and rivers
of the WAG (waste alleviation and Gelling) bag and PETT products we have no
negative impacts, or complaints or incidents where this product has been
improperly used.

WAG bads are suitable for disposal in Type II regulated household,
commercial, institutional, or muncipal(non-hazardous and or non infectious)
solid waste landfills,incinerators or composting facilitites in compliance
with federal Subtitle D standards.  After having discussed the use of your
technology with a number of backcountry rangers and managers, the BLM has no
objections to your continued use of this technology with other acceptable
human waste disposal systems."  (Gary Marsh National Rivers coordinator)

ONe of the outfitter guides on our Forest wanted to use this system with
their clients, and I think we will be allowing it.

Here is what Oregon Department of Environmental Quality had to say. " When
used as designed, solely for the collection and storage of human waste, the
WAG bags and their contents would not be classified as human waste under
Oregon Laws. Undre Oregon's solid waste management rules it would be
permissible to dispose of the used WAG bags and their contents directly into
municipal waste landfills in such a way as to minimize the potential for
human contact with the contents of the bag.  We remain concerned regarding
the potential health issues and possible risk of human exposure to
infectious waste that may occur when handling this type of waste as part of
the routine solid waste management process.

Due to the possibility of human contact with potentially infectious waste,
we would not recommend the collection of the WAG bags in garbage cans,
dumpsters, or other solid waste containers used by the public for general
garbage collection or storage in Oregon.  If any containers are used for the
collection of WAG bags they should be designated and managed for this
purpose.

Because of the problems associated with the plastic it would not be
appropriate to dispose of WAG bags into septic systems, RV dumps stations,
or waster water treatment facilities.  In addition, the placement of WAG
bags and contents into any container, disposal system, or landfill may be
subject to specific regulations by other state agencies or local
jurisdictions as well as individual landfills themselves. "  (Jan Whitworth
acting manager solid waste policy and programs development section)

So that is the best information I could find, it appears to be legal, but
please be careful with disposal and don't put them in RV dump stations or
vault toilets.  Plastic bags are a huge mess when you clean out the
vaults. -- MZ
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