Belgrade company – Phillips Environmental Products making eco-friendly portable toilet

BELGRADE — Ask Brian Phillips where he wants to be one
year from now and he has an immediate answer.

"I want to be the No. 1 guy in the No. 2 business," he said.

By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer

That’s No. 2, as in pooh.

He’s vice president in charge of sales for Phillips
Environmental Products http://www.thepett.com/ a family company that has
developed what it maintains is a better portable toilet, one
that weighs only seven pounds, one that you can fold up and carry like a briefcase, and one
that renders everything odorless and ready for disposal.

Now 3 years old, the company has focused on selling to outdoor enthusiasts their Portable
Environmental Toilet, or PETT. The device is available locally and in big recreation catalogs
like Cabela’s, REI and Campmor.

As more and more people are heading for the nation’s forests, canyons and mountain peaks,
disposal of human waste has become a bigger problem. With increasing frequency, managers
of popular or especially sensitive places are requiring visitors to haul their waste away with
them.

On desert rivers in Utah and Arizona, the container of choice is an army surplus ammunition
can, an uncomfortable and fragrant receptacle often called a groover because of the distinctive
marks it leaves on a human backside.

In other places — caves, alpine peaks, sensitive riparian areas — people use ziplock bags, which
pose some obvious challenges of their own.

Still, it’s important not to leave your waste lying around. It tends to add up and create health
problems, especially in busy places.

Disposal of the contents of either type of container poses other problems.

You can empty a groover in an RV dump station site, but you’ll want a noseclip and some
rubber gloves. The ziplock option puts untreated sewage, wrapped in nondegradable material,
into a landfill.

The Phillips family — Brian, and his parents Bill and Pamela, can solve those problems.

The PETT is a molded plastic toilet with a mesh bag suspended under the seat. To use it, you
line the mesh holder with a biodegradable garbage bag that contains what the Phillips call
"Pooh Powder." That’s a trademarked name for a mixture of a super absorbent polymer,
aluminum silicate (a common element found in deodorant) and a proprietary ingredient the
family doesn’t like to talk about.

"That’s our 11 herbs and spices," Bill Phillips said of the secret ingredient.

Whatever it is, the mixture works. It quickly turns liquids into a semi-solid, odorless gel about the
texture of silicone caulk, and accelerates the decay process.

Once you’ve made a deposit, or a series of them, you fold the garbage bag and enclose
everything into a heavier-duty black ziplock, also biodegradable.

The package is secure, an asset that Phillips recently demonstrated by jumping up and down
on a newly filled bag. (Filled with water, not with … well, never mind.)

It didn’t leak a bit.

Then you can throw it in the garbage. It’s approved by the Environmental Protection Agency
for disposal in landfills.

Some people are absolutely sold on the product.

"It turned our worst nightmare into a problem solved," said Susan Ague, a supply unit leader for
Forest Service firefighting teams in the Northern Rockies. "It took a really messy issue and made
it simple."

Last summer, she explained, her team put 200 to 300 people in spike camps during a fire in
Idaho’s Salmon River drainage.

That many people create a lot of "never mind."

In the past, spike camps used liquid based "outfitter" toilets, some of which looked like
sawed-off portapotties, all of which had to be flown to camp under a helicopter.

Flying them to camp was not a problem, Ague said, but when they come back with "that
incoming flying mess," people tend to run for cover.

When it came time to unhook the load, the "hookers" who do that work made themselves
scarce.

"I don’t blame them," Ague said.

With the PETT, the offensive contents are bagged up, then packaged again, and can be
dumped in any landfill.

"You don’t have that big bucket of stuff" to deal with, Ague said.

Plus, the PETT comes with a privacy tent that women firefighters find especially useful and
that goes up in just a few seconds. Tent, stool and bags all fit in a backpack that weighs less
than 20 pounds.

Others are confident as well.

The Montana Board of Research and Commercialization Technology recently gave the
company a $265,000 grant to take its products to the next level, and the city of Belgrade
recently sponsored a $200,000 low-interest loan, enabling several workers to be hired. The U.S.
Army’s engineering school calls the PETT "a much needed technological solution to a
problem that has faced soldiers throughout history."

Company President Bill Phillips says he envisions people using the PETT all over the world in
lots of situations, especially for disasters and emergencies, when normal plumbing goes out. It
wouldn’t just alleviate nasal strain, it could prevent disease outbreaks that often follow
catastrophes.

The bags can be used without the toilet, too. Just place them in a home or RV toilet (a dry
one), or dig a small hole in the ground to hold the bag open.

The company has invested over $1 million in perfecting the product, Bill Phillips said, and is
partnering with an Ohio plastics company to manufacture the stool and assemble the bags.
(Those operations might move to Belgrade, he said, bringing about a dozen jobs here. There
are eight employees now.)

Though interest is picking up as far away as Japan and Peru, there have been some uphill
battles in educating purchasers and regulators.

For instance, the Bureau of Land Management has okayed the PETT for experimental use on
rivers it administers. But that message has yet to sink in with some on-the-ground river
managers, who send paddlers off with traditional groovers.

"It’s pretty tough at first, with something new," Bill Phillips said.

That’s unfortunate, Ague said, adding that once people see the PETT in action, they become
believers. She said she’ll never order anything but a PETT in the future.

The toilet, tent and a starter kit of bags retails for $269. Replacement bags, which hold one or
several deposits, sell for $1 to $2, depending on how many you buy.

Scott McMillion is at [email protected]

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