Cleanwaste
Single-use human waste disposal kits and folding portable toilets, made in the USA since 1999
🇺🇸 Made in USA
Our assessment
Company details
Where Cleanwaste products are made
The original WAG BAG kit, the bulk Toilet in a Bag and the GO Anywhere portable toilet each carry a Made in the USA headline on their own product page. Three distinct families — a flexible disposable, a bulk consumable and a moulded hard good — is well past the two-family test, and it means the claim is not resting on a banner.
The company states the GO Anywhere kit is the only one equipped with a NASA-developed gelling agent that traps, deodorises and breaks down waste. Each kit gels up to 32 ounces and the company says it holds forty per cent more than competing products. The chemistry is the product; the bag is packaging.
Cleanwaste products carry national stock numbers — 4510-01-485-0759 for the twelve-pack of kits and 4510-01-485-0736 for the portable toilet. The toilet itself weighs seven pounds, folds to briefcase size and is rated to 500 pounds. Getting an NSN means the specification has been verified by someone other than the manufacturer.
The Made in the USA statements on the WAG BAG, Toilet in a Bag and GO Anywhere portable toilet pages, the site-wide Proudly Made in the USA banner, the 1999 founding date, the NASA-developed gelling agent description, the 32-ounce capacity, the national stock numbers, the seven-pound weight and 500-pound rating, and the figure of more than sixteen million units sold are all published by Cleanwaste on cleanwaste.com. The Oceanside, California address is in the footer of every page; the company was historically based in Belgrade, Montana, and older references to Montana are out of date. The December 2021 acquisition by American Innotek is a matter of public record and the two companies share image assets. The sewn privacy shelters were not separately verified and are excluded from the claim above.
The story
Cleanwaste solves a problem most people would rather not think about and that a surprising number of people have to: what do you do with human waste when there is no plumbing. Since 1999 the answer it has sold is a sealed single-use kit — a bag, a dose of gelling powder, toilet paper and a hand wipe — that turns the problem into something you can seal and throw in an ordinary trash can.
The technical heart of it is the gelling agent, which the company says was developed by NASA. It traps liquid, deodorises and begins breaking the waste down, which is what makes the bag safe to carry out rather than merely somewhere to put the problem. Each kit handles up to 32 ounces, which the company says is forty per cent more than competing kits.
The product line widened from there into bulk toilet bags for volume users and the GO Anywhere portable toilet — seven pounds, folds to the size of a briefcase, rated to 500 pounds, and approved for use on dozens of North American rivers where pack-it-out rules make a kit like this mandatory rather than optional.
The customers are a strange and telling mix: multiple branches of the US military, river guides, disaster preparedness stockpiles, healthcare, and the permit systems on Kilimanjaro, Machu Picchu and Mount Whitney. The company reports more than sixteen million units sold. In December 2021 Phillips Environmental Products, trading as Cleanwaste, was acquired by American Innotek of Oceanside, California, which also owns the Brief Relief and RESTOP lines.
Why they matter
This is emergency preparedness equipment, which makes the origin question different from usual. A sanitation kit sitting in a disaster supply closet has to work in five years, after a hurricane, when nobody can re-order it. Domestic manufacture of that kind of consumable is a resilience question, not a preference.
The military procurement angle says something a marketing claim cannot. A national stock number means the product has been specified, tested and accepted into the federal supply system. Two of Cleanwaste products carry one, which is third-party verification of the specification even before you get to where it was made.
And the claim itself is unusually well evidenced. Most companies with a site-wide made-in-USA banner cannot show you a single product page that repeats it. Cleanwaste repeats it on a disposable, a bulk consumable and an injection-moulded hard good — three different manufacturing processes, each stated individually.
Shop Cleanwaste products
Browse Cleanwaste GO Anywhere toilet kits, WAG BAGs, bulk toilet bags and the folding portable toilet in the Buy American Campaign store.
Frequently asked questions
What is a WAG BAG?
A Waste Alleviation and Gelling bag — a sealed single-use toilet kit pre-loaded with a gelling powder, plus toilet paper and a hand wipe, which can be sealed and disposed of in ordinary trash.
Are Cleanwaste products made in the USA?
Yes. The WAG BAG, Toilet in a Bag and GO Anywhere Portable Toilet product pages each carry a Made in the USA statement, and the site carries a Proudly Made in the USA banner. The sewn privacy shelters were not separately verified.
Who owns Cleanwaste?
American Innotek, Inc. of Oceanside, California, which acquired Phillips Environmental Products, trading as Cleanwaste, in December 2021. American Innotek also owns Brief Relief and RESTOP.
Where do you dispose of a used kit?
In a normal trash can. The gelling agent solidifies the liquid so the sealed bag can be carried out and thrown away without spillage.