Waste Management Outlook for Mountain Regions

Options for waste management

systems are also commonly used in the European Alps to remove waste from refuges. There has, however, been limited success in policing and monitoring these practices. An estimated 200 kg of human faeces were left in campsites around Mount Aconcagua during the 2010/2011 summer season, representing a 10 per cent non-compliance with Park policy (Barros, Pickering and Gudes, 2015) – which requires packing up waste in bags for deposit at Park exit points. Other solid waste, such as plastic residue and other materials are often burned in open pits or carried off the mountain and dumped in nearby landfills. However, many of the existing municipal and regional waste management facilities are basic and poorly resourced (if they exist at all), and are not designed to deal with additional solid waste; they can be filled to capacity or even overflow (e.g. Wani & Ahmad, 2013; Anand & Singh, 2014). Other issues include a lack of adequate lining (such as geo- membranes) covering the floor of these landfills; these help to contain leachate from toxic refuse such as batteries and plastics, which can pollute groundwater and subsoils.

There are many different ways of dealing with human waste (urine and faeces) from mountaineers, although leaving the waste behind (buried in soil or snow, or deposited in crevasses) is still by far the most common means of disposal in remote alpine environments (Derlet et al., 2008; Pickering and Barros, 2015). Initiatives such as the Clean Mountain Can (CMC), introduced by the American Alpine Club in 2001 in Denali led to the current policy requiring all climbers to carry and use CMCs (Rassler, 2014). The CMC is a portable toilet which is specifically designed for use on three-week expeditions. The CMCs have had some success in minimizing contamination of surface snow, although there are reports that climbers empty out the CMCs in other crevassed areas (Apollo, 2014). Another similar programme is the ‘Pack it out - Poo pots’ introduced in New Zealand (Department of Conservation, n.d.). Other forms of human waste removal are more expensive and resource intensive, such as fly-out systems using helicopters, as is the case on Mount Aconcagua. Fly-out

Mountaineer carrying a green Clean Mountain Can on top of his rucksack. Photo © Coley Gentzel

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