Bucket toilet

This article is about an actual bucket that is used as a toilet. For a portable fully-enclosed restroom, see Portable toilet. For buckets of actual honeybee honey, see Beekeeping. For the song, see Honey Bucket (song).

A plastic bucket fitted with a toilet seat for comfort and a lid and plastic bag for waste containment

A honey bucket, also called a bucket toilet or bucket latrine, is a bucket used as a toilet for homes, outhouses, camping sites, or other places that lack waste disposal plumbing. It is a very simple, crude form of a dry toilet and may carry significant health risks compared to an improved sanitation system. In regions where people do not have access to improved sanitation - particularly in low-income urban areas of developing countries - a bucket toilet might sometimes be an improvement compared to pit latrines or open defecation. Bucket toilets are often used in low-income urban areas of developing countries and as a temporary measure for emergencies. Finally, they have also been historically common in cold climates where installing running water can be difficult and expensive and subject to freezing-related pipe breakage.

More sophisticated bucket toilets sit under a wooden frame affixed with a toilet seat and lid and may be lined with a plastic bag, but many are simply a large bucket lined with a bag. Newspaper, cardboard, straw, sawdust or other absorbent materials are often layered into the bucket toilet.

Applications

Developing countries

Bucket toilets are used in some developing countries where people do not have access to improved sanitation.

A somewhat similar method used in urban slums for lack of other toilet options is to use a small plastic bag for a single defecation event (but without using a bucket). The filled plastic bag is afterwards discarded indiscriminately - a method called euphemistically "flying toilet".

Cold climates

Bucket toilets have been historically common in cold climates where installing running water can be difficult and expensive and subject to freezing-related pipe breakage, for example in Alaska (USA) and rural areas of Canada where the local term is "honey bucket".

Emergencies

In natural disasters and other emergencies, the portability of bucket latrines can make them a useful part of an appropriate emergency response, especially where pit latrines cannot be isolated from floodwater or groundwater (potentially leading to groundwater pollution) and where the contents can be safely disposed into sanitary systems. The Wellington Region Emergency Management Office for example, gives instructions on how to build a simple bucket toilet. For safe handling when emptying and cleaning it recommends using gloves and disinfection.

Usage and maintenance

The bucket is emptied when it becomes full or emits excessive foul odor; usually once a day for large families, and about once a week for smaller families. A "bucket toilet well" is a hole in the ground containing a bucket toilet, often capped with a raised wooden enclosure.

To minimize offensive odors, the material in the bucket can be covered with some covering material after each use, such as quick lime, wood ash or fine sawdust (similarly to the operation of a urine-diverting dry toilet).

Disposal or treatment and reuse of collected excreta

When the bucket is full, it can be covered with a lid and stored away until the collected human excreta can either be disposed of (e.g. by burial) or treated further for safe reuse in gardening, e.g. via composting the material.

Health aspects

Health risks with using bucket toilets are due to the fact that an open bucket does not offer much protection to the user from the pathogens in the feces. Also flies may access the content of the bin, unless it is always kept securely covered, except during use. There is also the potential for the bucket tipping over. Secondly, unhygienic emptying and disposal practices add another risk.

Bucket toilets are not considered as improved sanitation systems according to the definition of WHO and UNICEF for monitoring access to basic sanitation as part of Goal 7 of the Millennium Development Goals. The reason is that they usually do not adequately separate the user from the raw (fresh) excreta.

Upgrading options

"Two bucket system"

For application in emergencies (e.g. after earth quakes), it might be advantageous to use two buckets: one for urine, the other one for feces and soiled toilet paper. The Wellington Region Emergency Management Office recommends strong 15 – 20 litre buckets or pails and the use of dry mulch that can consist of sawdust, dry leaves, soil or shredded newspaper. The bottom of the "urine bucket" should be covered with water and emptied every day The content is then poured onto a disused green space after diluting the urine with water. The bottom of the "feces bucket" should be covered with dry mulch. After every use a handful of dry mulch should be used to cover the feces in order to keep it as dry as possible. After the bucket is full, it should be emptied into a hole in the ground or into a separate large storage bin.

Examples

Ghana

Bucket toilets are still used in households in Kumasi metropolis of Ghana.

Kenia

In the region of Wajir, few residents have access to improved sanitation. Because of the high water table pit latrines are impossible to use, and instead bucket toilets are common. By the time the waste collectors come, the bucket toilets are often already overflowing. The unhygienic circumstances can lead to frequent outbreaks of diarrhea.

Namibia

Due to high poverty, some inhabitants still use bucket toilets.

North America

Bucket toilets are common in many rural villages in the state of Alaska, such as those in the Bethel area of the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta, and are found throughout the rural regions of the state. Bucket toilets are used especially where permafrost makes the installation of septic systems or outhouses impractical.

They were also relatively common in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut of Canada, but by now they have mostly been replaced with indoor plumbing and sewage pump-out tanks. They are still found in summer cabins where the use of a sewage tank is impractical.

Südafrika

The "bucket system" has been used by low-income communities in South Africa. The South African government aims to replace this bucket system with sanitary sewers and other sanitation systems, but as of 2015, this has not yet been completed in the entire country. In fact, a survey in 2013 showed that the number of households in South Africa using bucket systems was actually on the increase – with nearly 100,000 households using them, mainly in the Free State, Eastern Cape, and the Northern Cape. An article reports on protesters in parts of Johannesburg's townships because of their bucket toilets had not been emptied by city officials. It also states that 5.3 percent of houses in South Africa had either no toilets or bucket toilets in 2012.

See also

• Dry toilet
• Honey wagon