Tested: Ezygonow portable toilet

Pick any bush camping area and you’ll be guaranteed a hive of human activity around the long drop dunnies. While they may not always offer a fragrant experience, at least they provide an opportunity to take the weight off while you ….. errrr get on with the business so to speak.

The beauty of bush camping is discovering your own piece of paradise, whether that be a remote area along a river or sheltering between the swales in the middle of the desert. And this means being self-sufficient.

We’ve been lucky enough to do a lot of travelling, in particular bush camping and sadly, toilet paper confetti is a wide spread problem in camping areas without facilities.

Problems arise where the ground is hard, campers are lazy, or when wildlife dig up the waste, causing untreated human waste and used paper to be strewn across the landscape.  Not a sight you want to encounter when entering an otherwise pristine natural setting.

The other option is a chemical toilet although they’re generally restricted to the major bitumen tourist routes where dump stations are plentiful. Without a regulated dumping point, they’re next to useless.

Long drop toilets use natural bacteria to break down waste.  Any chemical addition such as the discharge from a chemical toilet kills this natural process. It’s also an offence under the Environmental Protection Act which may lead to prosecution.

So if you’re thinking of dumping your chemical toilet in one of these facilities, a word of warning: DON’T!

Alleviating many of these issues is a new system from Ezygonow, marketed under the Cleanwaste brand. The key to the solution is the so eloquently termed “Poo Powder”.

The theory is that the powder uses liquid to solidify and encapsulate solid waste while dealing with associated odours, and a decay agent helps break down the waste.

The Cleanwaste Toilet Kits have been classified in Australia as solid putrescible waste, which is the same category as household waste, incontinence and sanitary pads, so they can be disposed in general garbage.

The waste can be stored in a bucket with a retained lid or a rear wheel rubbish bag and disposed in a bin when you return to civilisation. They’re not designed to be buried or dumped in long drop toilets.

We tested the Cleanwaste Go Anywhere Total System which combines the Portable Toilet, Go Anywhere Toilet Kits and a Privacy Shelter which provides a self-sufficient bathroom in a back pack that weighs 8.2kg.

At first glance, the privacy shelter resembles one of those pop-up shower tents that spring into action without a hitch, but have been known to create more than the odd headache at pack-up.

The Go Anywhere Privacy shelter takes this design to the next level, using a series of lockable elbows in a similar way to a Jet Tent F25. Like all instructional videos, it helps to have watched the assembly process beforehand and it’s easiest to work from the top and work your way down, locking in the elbows of each corner of each level as you go.

The privacy shelter has windows with mesh on each side, an internal pocket and a small external opening and roof tab to hold a shower rose, expanding its usefulness.

The only criticism was the pegs, which were considered a little below spec being relatively short, thin and without a spike to help the penetration of hard ground. At least that’s easily resolved.

Our testing covered both number ones and number twos. The former jells up quickly. For solids, the process is dependent on a little liquid to activate the powder, so you can add a small amount of water if for some reason, you don’t do a number one with your number two! 

A range of other, interesting products are available. Although not tested, the Unisex Pee-Wee Urine Bag created a lot of interest, particularly in how the ladies would fair without stepping outside to a privacy shelter. 

The Toilet in a Bag makes do with just the core ingredients, a plastic bag and the Poo Powder. These bags can be used on the ground, in a bucket, in an existing portable toilet or the Go Anywhere Portable Toilet.

Just place the bag in a position where the powder is exposed. Rather than using a separate bag with each visit, you can just add an additional spoon of powder as you go, but that will come down to individual preferences.

Poo Powder canisters are available in mini or large sizes, while Separate Toilet Kits add a secondary puncture-resistant zip lock waste bag, hand sanitiser and a small quantity of toilet paper. We found the quantity of toilet paper adequate.

The Cleanwaste Go Anywhere Portable toilet is another clever bit of kit. Folding to the size of a small briefcase, the toilet weighs a smidge over 3kg yet will support a full 226kg of seated body.

Three legs support the seat, which when unfolded, sits about the height of a standard toilet pan. A mesh inner net stops the bag from going south when in use. To provide extra stability for use on uneven ground, the lid can be used under the rear legs.

So would I use it? For me, it’s a big resounding YES!

If I camped at a bush camp with long drop toilets, I’d use those, but for remote camping, the Cleanwaste products are a no-brainer.

The product range offers a match for every budget, with products ranging from waste bags, kits, a portable light-weight toilet and a complete bathroom in a backpack.

But better still, it offers a total environmental solution, protecting you, other campers and the environment, which can only result in very happy campers.

The products are available on the Ezygonow website, at the following prices: Pee-Wee Unisex Urine Bag 3-pack ($8), Toilet in a Bag -15-pack ($31), Toilet Waste Kits - 12-pack ($52), Poo Powder Mini - 55-use ($59.99), Portable Toilet ($136.99), Privacy Shelter ($165) and Bathroom in a Back Pack ($399.99).