also called black water dump · sanitary dump point · cassette dump
A designated place to empty toilet or wastewater tanks from a camper or RV.
A marked spot where you empty the toilet and wastewater tanks of a camper or RV into proper drainage. Every few days of off-grid camping the tanks fill and you need one. Hookups are the opposite service: points that supply you with water and power rather than take waste away.
Someone free-camping across the countryside in a van goes several days between towns and realises the grey and black tanks are full with nowhere legal to empty them. The next stretch of the trip becomes a hunt for a dump station before anything overflows.
Without nearby dump points, multi-day free camping becomes a waste-management problem.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
These split by whether you have facilities and permission.
Boondocking and wild camping both mean staying without paid hookups, boondocking usually on public land and wild camping's legality varying by place.
Hookups are the campsite connections for power, water and sewer; a dump station is where you empty waste tanks; and an aire is a simple European motorhome stop with fewer facilities than a full campsite.
aire · boondocking · hookups · wild camping
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