How Often Do You Need to Empty a Portable Toilet?

Although no one likes to think about where sewage waste goes in portable toilets, it’s a problem that contractors and others renting portable toilets need to consider. After all, these toilets don’t magically empty themselves. 

Can I Empty a Portable Toilet Myself?

To answer this question, you can definitely empty a portable toilet yourself. As long as you can stomach removing the waste, you can empty the portable toilet and avoid having the kind of portable toilet that everyone dreads — overfilled and disgusting. 

How Do I Discard the Waste?

Discarding waste is a fairly simple process. 

According to inspectapedia.com, there are several steps to emptying a portable toilet on your own. First, you’ll want to divide the toilet into top and bottom sections. Then, answer the large round cap, which is located on the back of the toilet waste reservoir, to empty it. Make sure that the bottom of the toilet reservoir is not open. You can check by seeing if the "T" handle on the toilet’s front is not sticking out. 

After this, you can tote the toilet outdoors. You can either take the whole toilet outside or divide the top and bottom parts of the toilet inside. After that, you can carry the whole toilet out or carry out each half on its own. Once you’ve got the toilet outside, rinse out the toilet halves with a regular hose like a garden hose. Make sure to wash them out thoroughly. 

If you have a chemical portable toilet, the process is a little different. When you have a local septic tank outdoor access port in the vicinity that you can use, simply open the septic tank pump-out port and dump the toilet waste reservoir’s waste into it. Then, put the cap back on the pumping port as soon as you are done with that step.

As viprestrooms.com points out, emptying your portable toilet is just half the battle. You’ll also want to check your portable toilet at least once a week to see if it’s overflowing and place portable toilets at convenient locations for guests.

If you can’t dump the toilet outside or into a receptacle, you may pour the contents down an indoor toilet. Do this slowly and with care to avoid splashing yourself with waste. 

Some companies offer several options to aid in pumping the waste out yourself. For example, as https://theportabletoiletcompany.com.au/ explains, they offer a rear valve to help you pump out the waste. If you can’t handle the smell, appearance, or overall process of clearing out the waste from a portable toilet, that is understandable.

Just because you technically can do something doesn’t mean you will want to do it. If you can’t bring yourself to empty your portable toilet yourself, call a septic company that can help you with this task.