While finding a place to empty the toilet cassette can often be a challenge for long-term travellers, there are certain things that are always a giant ‘no-no’.
One of them is most certainly just dumping the tank’s contents on the side of the road.
While grey nomads often jump up and down saying it is always other sorts of travellers who are responsible for this sort of behaviour, sometimes there is no denying the facts.
This motorhomer was caught in the proverbial act by well-known truckie, Mike Williams, who quickly confronted him.
Big Rigs magazine reports that the red-faced driver quickly apologised before saying: “There’s only water in it mate, honest.”
The incident which happened at a popular truckies’ stop near Rileys Hill, NSW was filmed by the Big Rigs columnist, and podcaster, and posted to his popular Twitter page.
“This is the sort of stuff that happens in our rest areas!” he writes. “There’s a whole toilet block and I believe a dump point in the little buildings right there!”
Mike Williams told Big Rigs that he hopes the errant RV driver – and others like him – think twice before illegally unloading their black tanks at rest areas.
On Twitter, followers were quick to applaud the truckie for calling out the motorhomer.
“Fantastic Mike, it’s good to see someone catching them in the act,” said one. “He’s got no right to be in that parking bay to start with.”
“We saw this time and time again when we were caravanning,” said another. “One tourist was even emptying it on the road while they kept driving … filthy pig.”
As a caravaner, it discuss me that others would do this and see us all tarred with the same brush.
The story goes on to say that some even dump their ‘black-water’ on the road as they drive. I think some may be confusing the difference between ‘black’ and ‘grey’ water. And I’m not suggesting that’s dumping grey water as you drive is ok, but some plumbing can hold a couple of litres that only comes out when rounding corners.
Confused no way if you own a RV or what ever and you have toilet you know what you are dumping. So if a septic tank clearer what to dump a load of waste liquid on the road is that okay. But it’s only grey water full of chemicals. Is it so hard to just what till you get to a dump point. It is selfish people that think it’s there right to just do what they want.
I carry 3 cassettes in my sprinter one being used 2 in case can’t find dump point but only had two full at once
I wasn’t going to comment on this article but then thought that I should air my ideas. The first thing that should be considered is the First Law of Physics ie “matter cannot be created or destroyed”. Therefore it dosn’t matter what we do with our wast it is always still there in some shape or form. In densely populated areas we empty it into a sewer and transport it to a treatment plant where it undergoes a certain amount of transformation varying from simple maceration to full treatment and return to the drinking water supply. Our humble toilet cassette is part of this system. I am not qualified to comment on the chemicals that are used to keep the smell at the desirable level and am with the SOG brigade. No chemicals required.
I now come to the crux of this article. Where is it OK to empty our cassette and where it is not? The cassette is designed to allow us to carry our waste to a dump point and generally this is not too difficult to do as they are located in almost ever small town to cities. I find it hard to justify emptying them at a roadside stop or anywhere along a busy highway. If I am in an area where there are no dump sites then a shovel and a hole in the ground is as good a way as any to dispose of the business. After all recycling is recycling and most people agree that it is a good thing, or do they?
The most prevalent dumpers are those that are too lazy to walk to a toilet or if there is not one to dig a hole. Every camping area that has no toilet and more than occasional visitor has the scourge of blowing toilet paper and little heaps of fly covered poo.
Finally, I do not think there is any point in pointing the finger. If truck drivers choose to take a dump near their vehicles then that is their business. Saying look what he is doing only makes it sound like we are trying to justify what we are doing
We have taps and screw on end caps on all our water outlets so that no water can spill out on the road while we travel.
Yep that’s just a grubby act!
name and shame
Bloody disgusting feral grub
While I’m definitely not condoning this disgusting act, I know for a FACT that truckies ate not saints either. They will and do pull up take a dump between their wheels and drive off. So lets just say thrre must br MORE public conveniences made available to all travelling public
I agree not enough toilets on hws especially in Victoria.
Rubbish!!! Plan your trip including going to the loo before you set off on a trip. Disgusting animals need to be dobbed in for littering at the least.
“[…] They will and do pull up take a dump between their wheels and drive off. […]”
I heard a story about a big fat truckie who habitually took a dump whilst sitting on the drawbar of his trailer when parked up on the roadside; so one of his mates who was parked behind snuck up on him quietly from behind with a long-handled shovel and held it underneath the fat truckie’s bum to catch the dump and then whisked it away, leaving the fat truckie still wondering to this day what in the heck happened to his dump! Perhaps he thought it was time to give it away?
A dingo with a long-handled shovel stole my dump!
Or they pee into bottles then throw the bottle out of the window! Revolting and illegal to be littering.
Yes, we need more public toilets, particularly along tourist areas like the great Ocean Road, where tourists in vehicles with no toilets can relieve themselves without spoiling the environment.
A human empties treated/decomposed waste onto the side of the road. People say. “What a disgrace”.
Cattle empty untreated/fresh waste onto the side of the road and people say “isn’t nature wonderful”.
Get off your high horses. Go pick on someone who deserves it.
I agree! Mind you a bit if manure from what ever sources I don’t believe is damaging. But a few litres as others have said with the chemicals is another thing. If you get caught out while travel and have to use the side of the road get a spade out and don’t be lazy and dig a hole which people and the armed forces have been doing for generation with no detrimental effects (not large quantities).
Rob…Animals are animals….they do what we expect. They eat and they poo where they live. Humans are given facilities to environmentally discard their waste (either in a house or when travelling). It is a ridiculous argument to compare the two.
This is NOT ok! What if every traveller decided to do it….can you imagine it.
Before white man came along how did the original natives do it?
For 60,000 years they did it anywhere and everywhere. No harm done! No shaming, no disgrace tips comments! But they didn’t have chemicals.
Perhaps chemicals should be banned from RV toilet cassettes and authorities make it mandatory to have SOG units- no chemicals required. Can empty cassette into any toilet then.
Cows don’t eat or drink chemicals that I’ve seen
Hope it was reported
That incident was posted on Facebook by the truck driver. He did show the numberplate of the persons vehicle. The cassette this bloke is emptying was from the toilet (dark water not grey).
what is meant by THEY SHOULDN’T BE IN OUR AREA ?
Well, I know one truck driver thats glad i was parked in the Parking area at the top Of Mount Ousley ,, the driver was having a heart attack ,, trucks rolled in and out , I saw him sweating bad and while i stopped for a coffee i noticed him stumble I kept an eye on him while the ambulance turned up.
I never make a mess I would never even throw my coffee grinds out but I did see a Truck driver drop his pants and have a crap in front of his Truck ,
OH ISN’T NATURE GREAT !
If you get a composting toilet you will not have to deal with this crap. I cannot understand why anyone would persist with chemical toilets that use water and have to be dumped every few days. We have a composting toilet in our van. Ours separates solids and liquids – liquids can be emptied every few days as grey water. A peat brick that is about $2 in bunnings, with a small amount of water added at the start, takes care of the solids (instead of having blackwater) for months. No water needed. A fan removes any odour, but because compost is ‘dry’ there is little odour. We use lavender oil to spray the toilet to keep it smelling fine. I urge you all to ask your van supplier to install a composting toilet. I couldn’t possibly go back to a chemical water-wasting toilet!
These kind of acts give us grey nomads a bad name. We do the RIGHT thing when travelling and have no time for others who don’t fo the right thing! Think of the reputation you are pinning on those who do the right thing will you ?
There seem to be a lot of perfect people until they are caught. After 4 years on the road all over this great land of our, we have just about seen it all. We don’t have a composting but have an SOG ventilation system on the toilet with no chemicals necessary to get rid of smells.
Does Mike Williams ever mention the truckies that have a dump in the middle of the road in a rest area at night, leaving faecies and toilet paper everywhere? I pulled up one clown truckie who did just that, he wanted to make an issue of it and he ended up with a broken nose. Filthy pig!
Much of the crap left at truckie stops, especially toilet paper are o/s back packers with their crappy cheap cars and not a porta loo insight. Have travelled much of Oz and have seen this for myself. Maybe a truckie does this ocassionally but blame some of the b/packers who don’t respect Oz…
Not condoning or justifying what this RVer allegedly did I’m just wondering as a matter of interest how many and how often do truck drivers relieve themselves beside the truck in roadside parking bays?
Not allegedly but caught via pic and his acknowledging it. Further more there is a big difference between truckies heading bush to relieve them selves of what ever….and a person dumping their crap (with chemicals abound) because they are too f…. lazy to seek out a dump point..
I was furious when I read this..
I sent this to to WA Minister Dawson. Guess what. They don’t care.
Coastal Pollution on the Ningaloo Coast
While recently caravanning in the Exmouth and Shark Bay area I came across a very concerning discovery.
We visited the Ningaloo Station beach camping area with the intention of perhaps spending a few days there with our caravan.
In conversation with the management of the facility I enquired about toilet and fresh water availability. I was advised as follows:
1. Fresh water was only available from a perched “fresh” water source above a salt water table in the dunes along the coast. I was advised that campers would dig a hole in the dunes about a metre deep, insert a PVC pipe into the water, backfill the hole and extract the water with a small bilge pump.
2. All campers had to have chemical toilets. I enquired about a dump point and was advised that campers were advised to walk back into the dunes, dig a hole and empty the chemical toilet into the hole and back fill the hole.
3. I understood from the camp management that they often have over 300 caravans/campers on the sites. With 300 toilets containing about 20 litres of effluent being emptied around every 5 days places 6000 litres of effluent into the environment. Over a month this would be around 36000 litres.
My research has indicated that Chemical Camping Toilets are NOT safe to be discharged to the environment. This area is part of the Cloates Sanctuary Zone.
We discovered a similar situation when we visited the Gladstone camping area located in the Shark Bay Marine Park on the coast just West of the Wooramel Road house.
While Gladstone has a dump point I saw little to give me confidence that it would be used by everybody as some caravans are over three kilometres away. Gladstone has a single eco shower and toilet at the entrance. At the time of my visit I was advised that there were 80 caravans/campers on the premises. The facilities are in my opinion obviously inadequate.
COMMENT: Sometime on a long trip away from all conveniences, you gotta go when you gotta go. Providing not near a water source, there is nothing wrong with wandering off the beaten track, digging a hole, doing your business and then properly covering it over (nature will dispose of it). But its a totally another issue and unacceptable to be emptying a chemical toilet contents in or on the ground. I’d like to try and provide some perspective here. Think about this one: Where do the millions of our peoples poos normally go, and where do people think all the (washing machine, toilet fresheners, soaps, shampoos, bleaches, dishwasher chemicals, etc) chemicals that all go down their drain go? At the (so called) treatment plants, it gets treated a bit before it is discharged into nature. None of the toxic chemicals however are (or can be) removed before discharge to the environment, so the same chemicals used in your camper chemical toilet are being continuously dumped 24/7 into our environment big time from the cities and towns. Also, did you know that most freshwater filter plants put up to about 21 chemicals into your drinking water. Most of the chemicals stay in the drinking water and you use this water to flush your home toilet (unless on tank water). A lot of factories are still illegally sending their waste chemicals down the sewer. Even worse, every time there is a lot of rain, the sewage treatment plants have to open the bypasses and all the raw sewage goes out without any treatment at all. Some plants discharge into our rivers some plants discharge into the ocean etc. Either way, millions of tonnes of faeces and really really toxic chemicals are being dumped into our environment. But we seem happy to ignore this fact of life. A few caravanners doing the wrong thing out in the wilderness is but a drop in the ocean of pollution compared to what most of us are doing every day to our environment just by being alive.
Well said, there is definitely food for thought in the area of water treatment plants.
Bad bad bad could have buried it in such nice soil. I’m from SA and the road side stop’s in SA in general are rubbish no facilities at all. People just dumping on the ground w/c paper every ware. Can’t dig a hole most of the state is solid rock. The SA gov could give a rats. Local Gov is better in the towns and local community groups do a fantastic job. Regular emptying is the answer don’t completely fill the water chem tank and empty more often.
Well said & agree absolutely
After reading all the comments there seems to be a lot of blame shifting. Lets not blame others but look to our own actions. As a profit once said
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Happy travels every one.
I’ve seen a number of caravaners over the years sneak into the caravan park toilets in the wee hours with a toilet canister. They really need to put cameras at the entrances to catch these halfwitts One occasion was at Archaroola in South Australia where they rely solely on septic. what a selfish $%^&
Confronted RV owner in Broome who washed his cassette using the potable water tank and rinsed it onto the lawn. His excuse was that the tap at the dump point didn’t have a handle to open it. He got quite abusive with my hubby and couldn’t see what was wrong with putting the potable water tap inside his cassette and then emptying on to the lawn. This is alongside the tourist office in Broome, he could have just walked inside and asked for the tap handle and all would have been ok
What a bloody low life and too right I would get up them if I saw this happening ..
Its like dog owners who don’t pick up their poop, am right on to it and sometimes with a few choice words…
This is what causes problems for the majority of us that do THE RIGHT THING…