Eco-friendly or luxury camping?

If you are a farmer looking to diversify, or you have some land and are considering starting up a glamping venture in 2020, then this blog is for you. We will take a detailed look at both ends of the glamping experience, from the eco-friendly to the luxury end of glamping. We will also explore what that means in terms of considering and managing appropriate waste sanitation solutions.

First things first, let's start with an up to date definition of glamping. A few years ago, the classic description of glamping was about it being the luxury end of camping. Think camping with style including some of the comforts of home. Think also, carpets, cosy sofas and double beds with duvets.

But, today, glamping is also a lot more than luxury camping. Its identity is now much broader in 2020. With some glamping sites, the attraction is on 'less is more'. So, different glamping sites offer different glamping experiences, ranging from the eco-friendly to luxury 'glamps'.

Whatever the glamping idea though, the 'Glamping Hub' say 'when you wake up and step outside of your tent, yurt, restored trailer, or tree house you're in your own natural retreat. So whether it's climbing a mountain, taking in the sea-side, fresh air and endless adventures abound. What more could you ask for?' Here, here - well said!

Eco-friendly Glamping

Here, eco-friendly, even off-grid, is more the name of the game. These sites are likely to include sustainable materials used in the construction of the glamping site and its ongoing maintenance. That may also mean eco-friendly, glamping businesses have considered the use of local natural resources their value proposition as well. So, for example, some glamping sites may have erected treehouses, or perhaps cabins with thatched rooves. Others may have build shepherds huts out of recycles materials.

Composting waste

Furthermore, such sites can also be remotely located too often without sewage mains and even water mains connections. When it comes to off-grid eco-friendly green places, the business model will likely extend to operate on more sustainable water and waste sanitation solutions too.

For example, waterless composting toilets will often replace conventional flush-and-forget toilets. But, composting Toilets do take a bit of mindset recalibrating. For instance, composting loos are a sit-down job. Yes, that's right, no standing gents! That is because Poop and Wee need separating to avoid lingering toilet odours.  Also, every time you poop, it needs manually covering with sawdust or bark mulch. From a management point of view, Poop and Wee have different collection and bio-breakdown processes:

• Poop needs composting over a 2-year cycle before it is safe to use as a fertiliser. So a storage process is required.
• Wee, however, can be diluted and collected for use as a water-based fertiliser. Again a process is required to manage this.

Luxury Glamping

At the other end of the scale is the luxury end - here imagine, posh yurts, cabins or large wigwam tents etc. Here wifi and log burners are an expectation. From a water and waste sanitation point of view, running, hot water, flushing loos and whirl-pools are also a prerequisite.

Collection Tanks and Packaged Sewage Treatment Plants

Mains water connectivity is a must. But, if there is no access to a mains sewage drain, then that can be accommodated too. Here, there are a couple of solutions:

• Firstly effluent collection tanks can be located nearby glamping units to store waste. These are principally a cesspit. When these get full, an effluent tanker vehicle is then required to empty the collected sewage from the tanks.
• Secondly, packaged sewage treatment plants are becoming a highly effective option to handle the effluent waste. This is especially relevant today as new septic tank regulations now apply. This means either that a bolt-on treatment plant or drainage field is retrofitted or that the septic tank itself is replaced with more efficient packaged sewage plant.

At Glampsan, we have the expertise to advise glamping businesses as well as an extensive one-stop-shop product range to meet all of the above requirements. Our broad range includes Portable Toilets, Portable Showers, Portable loos, Composting Toilets, Effluent Collection Tanks, Lifting Pumping Stations, and Packaged Sewage Treatment Plants. We also provide fresh and potable water tanks too.

Social Media

One of our passions is that we love using social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in quirky, fun and useful ways to inform you. For example we have an awesome blog site aimed specifically as glamping businesses to help to inform you of waste sanitation solutions. So, head over to our blog website https://www.glampsan.com/blog. We do regular videos too to help get useful messages across to our customers, and we'd love you to tell us, in the comments, what you think too people.

Sincerely, JT

0800 999 6010‍

https://www.glampsan.com (Part of Plastic Solutions based in Aldridge)