A bucket toilet for Burning Man

Shade, water, and a kitchen are either the camp's job or yours. A toilet is the same question, and it is the one people skip in the email. The Survival Guide tells you to bring a five-gallon bucket with a lid and liners as an emergency toilet, and it says the portos take human waste and 1-ply. The human-waste page is the rule for everything after that. We do not rewrite it. We shop the bucket.

We are an independent outfitter. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Burning Man Project. The event name is used so you know which week this gear is for.

The seat and the bags

A five-gallon bucket with a real seat and a lid is the hardware. Double-bag with the bags made for that seat. Buy more bags than days. Store the clean ones in a zip pouch so they are not already dusty trash on Tuesday. Used bags go in a sealed bin, labeled, out of the noon sun, and nowhere near the food. A grocery sack is how this fails in the dark.

The seat we point at is the Reliance Luggable Loo. The button opens an Amazon search for that name, because the exact listing rotates. Pick the seat, then the bags made for it. Read the count on the box you actually open. We do not print a number the listing might change.

What the portos take

The portos take human waste and 1-ply. A roll in the bike basket, inside a bag so the dust does not turn it into a brick, is the roll you will have at 3 a.m. Two-ply belongs at home. Wipes belong in a heavy zip bag until that bag goes in the contractor bag, and that bag comes home. A box that says flushable does not change the tank.

Hand sanitizer at 60 percent alcohol or more lives in the same pouch. That is the must-bring line. It is not a rinse for filthy hands. Those get washed with water you already counted, and that water goes in the gray-water jug, not on the playa.

Hand sanitizer lives in the basket. Gallon zip bags hold the used wipes. Unscented wipes are for hands and faces at camp. They are trash on the way out. The wash water stays in a gray-water jug. Their leave-no-trace tips are the city's version of that sentence.

In the tent

The walk to a porto in a whiteout is a real walk. Some people want a way to pee without that walk. A rigid funnel is for people who cannot already pee standing. Practice at home, in the clothes you will actually wear, and rinse it. In a tent, use a jug with a screw lid. People who already stand to pee can skip the funnel. Urine and solids still go in the porto or in the waste you planned. They do not go on the playa. Rain does not change that.

Pack it out

Keep the lid on. Keep the bucket where it will not cook beside the kitchen. At the end of the week the bags leave with you, in a bin you can carry, inside contractor bags if that is how the bin stays shut. The seat comes home too. An RV has a black tank and a pump-out, which is a different page. A personal bucket does not get a secret hole. Digging is how a small problem becomes a Ranger conversation.

• —A written yes from camp, or a seat and bags in the car.
• —More bags than days, stored clean.
• —1-ply in the basket, in a bag.
• —Wipes in a zip bag that comes home.
• —A labeled bin for used bags, lid on, away from food.
• —A funnel only if you need one, practiced at home.
• —The whole system in the car on the way out.

Ask before you buy a second toilet. That page is questions for your camp. The sweep of the hex is MOOP and leave no trace. The storm version of the same bucket is rain and playa mud. If the bedroom is an RV, the tank and the pump-out are in RV and car camping.