Lane County's dirtiest jobs: Portable toilet cleaner

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EUGENE, Ore. - Chances are you've used a portable toilet or two in your lifetime, but have you ever thought about what goes into cleaning one?

At Buck's Sanitary in Eugene, hundreds of portable toilets are moved in and out and cleaned on a daily basis.

"You know we happen to be in the liquid waste business," said owner Scott Weld. "It's just like a cook, you know: he goes and does his job, we go and do ours."

Weld has been in and out of the portable toilet business for most of his life.

He said cleaning the toilets when they come in isn't hard, but it does take some work.

"It's not rocket science, you just got to get in, get the dirt out of them, get whatever's in them, out of them."

He said it's not uncommon to find some interesting things left behind too.

"Needles, the underwear, whatever else happens to land in the toilet," he said. "You name it, we've found it in the toilets, sunglasses, cell phones, anything."

After getting the toilets back from an event, employees hose out any waste, which is then stored in an underground container on site.

"We have a tank here in the yard that we dump in," said Weld,"and the waste goes to a company in Roseburg called Heard Farms."

The farm uses the waste for fertilizer.

After it's suctioned out, each toilet is pressure washed inside and out with hot water and soap.

"It just takes off the mold and all the residue and anything like that, it makes it clean."

Even after all of that, Weld said he considers his job to be one of the cleanest.

"We're in the business to clean things," he said. "I don't like my bathroom to be dirty at my house, so I want my toilets to be clean out on the street."