The Clesana C1 Toilet is the Future of Bush Bathrooms

 

Every hiker knows the stench of an overwhelming, hot enclosed drop dunny in the middle of nowhere. It’s the ultimate punish for doing the right thing and leaving no trace, but thanks to the Clesana C1, dropping off your ones and twos responsibly is about to get a whole lot fresher.

 

The quality of toilets in remote places in the outdoors varies greatly. I’ve been to pristine almost-odourless toilets in NSW with excellent ventilation, well-oiled locks, and plenty of toilet paper supplied. I’ve also been to narrow ramshackle timber shacks in the Victorian bush that could be smelt from 50m away, and were providing lodgings for all manner of insects. 

Ventilation top and bottom is always a good sign, but you still might cop a horde of flies in your face when you open the lid | Shot by Jo Guthridge

The problem of waste disposal in our wild places isn’t an easy one. It’s expensive to construct, maintain, and transport the byproducts of remote toilets. Heck, it’s hard enough for caravan owners who have to structure their trips around dump points if they want to continue to have the convenience of a toilet on board. 

But all this inconvenience and smell might be on the way out thanks to the Clesana C1 – Australia’s first water-free toilet system.

What is it?

Straight outta Europe, the Clesana C1 portable toilet uses a heat-sealing method to transform your deposits (ones and twos!) into neatly sealed, odour-proof bags, which can be thrown away in normal household waste. No water, no giant hole, no swarm of flies.

It’s been designed for ‘integration into caravans, yachts, tiny homes, and remote tourist facilities’. And according to Clesana Australia Director Sebastian Langton, this high-performing miracle toilet ‘combines hygiene, comfort, and environmental sustainability all in one package’.

If you’re anything like me your mind is already reeling with possibilities.

While these are mostly being utilised in domestic, community and mobile caravans right now, the potential to drastically improve waste disposal and smell mitigation in hard-to-access places is huge. This’d be great along multi-day hiking trails to replace the nightmarish smelly loos that cost a bomb in maintenance.

Even though we already have WAG Bags, and poo tubes, large communal drop toilets still leave a hefty trace on the environment – and the Clesana C1 could change all of that! The excitement is high.

Read more: 10 Tips to Leave No Trace in Our Wild Places

How do these toilets work?

Picture this: You’ve just answered nature’s call on the C1. Instead of a long drop, or using a small spade to drop wood chips down there, this toilet heat-seals everything into a sanitary bag. The bags, which come in rolls of 100, are easy to load and even easier to dispose of.

You can chuck them in your general household waste, and they’re good to go.

The liner foil system traps germs and bacteria along with your waste, so there’s no smell.

I couldn’t find what the bags are currently made from, but Clesana are developing a ‘liner from bio-based and recycled Polyethylen to make the C1 even more eco-friendly’. So that’s good news.

The toilet system sounds like a stellar solution for caravans and campers, but I’m wondering what it means for remote toilets. Assuming these get adopted into our parks, will the bags be collected and removed by rangers, or would the onus be on thru-hikers to carry our waste out and dispose of it ourselves upon return to civilisation?

Frankly any solution that means we see less of this is a winner in my book | Photo by Rick McCharles via Flickr | License

Is there a Catch?

New product innovations are never cheap – and the Clesana C1 is no exception. Currently being manufactured in Waterloo, in Sydney, each Clesana C1 is $3,500 a pop. So it’s going to be out of reach of just about every campervan owner I know, and short of being an accessory add-on it’d rival the cost of some trailers altogether.

I don’t think we’ll be seeing them in caravans or private setups anytime soon, but there’s definitely potential to see these in our national parks and on longer hiking trails.

What do you reckon? Do you think the Clesana C1 will replace drop dunnies in our wild places?

The Outdoor Hygiene Knowledge You Need

• How To Poo in the Bush
• Best Products for Burying or Packing Out Poo in the Outdoors
• Long Live the Poo Tube! Why It Might be Time to Start Packing Out Our Turds
• Managing Your Periods While Hiking