Gadgets Blog: Unusual Gift Ideas

Cardboard crap, or a re-invention of the portaloo?

I have today been directed to a product fairly new to the market. It is one of those things that could revolutionise a particular niche market with its simplicity, somewhat like the Post-it Note. Or it could just be a really crap idea. Allow me to introduce the “Shit Box”.

This is the brainchild of one Richard Wharton.  He awoke in a tent early one stiflingly hot morning with a need to answer the call of nature. Afflicted by the excesses of the previous day he couldn’t face a trip to the ‘long drop’ toilets.  If you’ve ever been to a festival you have probably seen these, and know all too well how grim they get after the first couple of days. While considering his options he spies a tissue box, and naturally, as I’m sure we’ve all done at some point (or not), he then considers that if the box were slightly larger, more sturdy and by simply inserting a plastic bag he would be able to meet his needs with that handy item right there and then. Eureka!

Now I was always of the opinion that epiphanies and eureka moments like these normally came on the toilet, not thinking about using one…?

For the princely sum of £15.67 you can get the ‘Bog Standard’ edition which includes a box and 10 degradable bags, with more bags available on their own in packs of ten. Not content with being a just portable loo it also claims that if you fold the lid down you have your very own stool to sit on, maybe in more ways than one. 

To be honest I’m not too sure about this myself. After all you’re going to need to use this in your tent, unless you are a total exhibitionist, and with the inevitable excesses abound at festivals, as well possible complications from a rouge dodgy burger, it could get very messy, very quickly. A few of my friends have said they are quite curious about it, and as such have suggested we take one with us to the Reading festival this year. Others have suggested if we do they don’t want to camp anywhere near it.  But is this really all that different to already available products such as the “SheWee”, or indeed, just doing the same over a big ‘vat’?  At the end of the day it is more eco friendly than a chemical toilet, you know exactly who’s used it, and you have no need to venture out in the rain, or middle of the night.  People will be put off at the idea of doing their business in a box though.
Now at this point I could very easily say this is a movement in the right direction, or some other pun filled paragraph, but instead I shall simply direct you to The Brown Corporation and let you read your way through their highly entertaining site yourself.