The good, the bad and the ugly – three approaches to management of human waste in a high-mountain environment

Abstract

Each year, millions of mountaineers visit high-mountain areas. They generate tonnes of faeces and cubic hectometres of urine annually. Thus, proper disposal of human waste is important for the conservation and appropriate management of high-mountain areas. The management can address the issue in three ways: the good (complete/non-invasive); the bad (partial/superficial); and the ugly (invasive). With use of those categories, 20 selected summits from different parts of the world have been evaluated, separately in respect to faeces and urine. It was expected that correct or incorrect disposal of human waste would depend on the changing altitude and/or development level. Disappointingly, the correlation between selection criteria (better or worse solution) and the increase of altitude does not exist. Similarly, the increase of the development level does not play a significant role, especially when urine is taken under consideration. The problem is more global than was thought. The paper makes recommendations which could lead to reduction of this problem.

Keywords:

• High-mountain environment
• faeces
• urine
• disposal

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Professor Viacheslav Andreychouk and the anonymous Referees for their valuable suggestions and comments. I am also thankful to the Editor, Dr Michael Brett–Crowther, for his contribution. Any mistakes are my own.

Notes

1. A ‘transportable excretion can’ is designed to have its contents dumped directly out or be lined with a biodegradable bag such as Wag Bag (Figure 5(f)). The term ‘transportable excretion can’ may be found more precise and serious than some other terms, which are neither elegant nor precise [see Section ‘Mount Cook (3724 m)’], or which are imprecise like ‘Clean Mountain Can’ (Figure 5(e)) [see Section ‘Denali (6190 m)’].

2. Penitentes (Spanish: nieves penitentes; English: penitent-shaped snows), are snow formations found at high altitudes. They may arise through a complex interaction of solar radiation, cold, dry air, and microscale airflows that transport sensible heat. Penitents take the form of elongated, thin blades of hardened snow or ice and are closely spaced. The resemblance to intense, penitential believers, thin because of fasting, explains the term.