Check This Shit Out

If you have participated in any race, be it a trail run, triathlon, or local 5K, you are likely familiar with the long wall of portable toilets set up at the start line.  There really is no way to make relieving oneself in the absence of running water an enjoyable experience, but at this trail race they provided facilities that almost come close.

The Eco Commodes were trucked in the night before the race, and the morning of they were opened for public consumption, so to speak.  They consisted of three large trailers that had eight to twelve private outhouses each.  We were told by the people who worked for Eco Commode that the two largest trailers were just completed the night before and thereby I like to believe that I was the very first person to drop the inaugural load.

The exterior was as clean and as charming as portable toilets can possibly be.  They looked sturdily built, right down to the pressed tin crescent on the logo, which I thought was a nice throwback.  (Sidebar: Unrelated to the Eco Commode, I coincidentally happened to learn that weekend that the half moon commonly used to denote outhouses back in the day most likely came from the fact that there were two outhouses in olden times, one for men and one for women.  Because males were represented by the sun and females by the moon, those shapes were carved on the outhouse doors.  Since women took more care of their toilette, naturally their structures lasted longer, and eventually men started using the women’s outhouses until it became gender-neutral.)

The outhouse interiors had the same artisanal feel to the build, with unfinished wood walls and (thankfully) finished wood toilet seats.  But the brilliance of the Eco Commode is that instead of harsh chemicals to process your festering waste, the idea is you do your business on top of sawdust, which is compostable and odor absorbing.  Once you are done, there is a large bin full of more sawdust right next to you.  Just take the handy scoop and pour a few piles on top to bury your production.

It reminded me of the brand of litter that my cats use which is made of wood pellets that dissolve into sawdust.  I must admit that a few times while scooping out their hard matter, I have wondered what it must be like to shit on Feline Pine.  Now I feel like I know.

The only negative to the system is that it wasn’t long before the piles of sawdust and other sundry matter started to peak precipitously high in the under-chamber.  I never saw it get too tall as to break the plane of the toilet seat, although towards the end of the day a few were so uncomfortably close that I opted to find another stall.  There were people working for the company minding the situation and I believe they had to manually rotate the stock to alleviate the situation.  While I have stirred some shit in my day, that is not a job I would want to have.