by Work the World

For the last few years there has been plenty of chat about Everest base camp and the amount of litter that people leave each year. We've heard about highways being built to cope with the number of tourists and we've seen lots of footage of overly burdened gurkas carrying sack loads of tin cans back from the well trampled route. The Saving Mount Everest Clean-Up Expedition team bring over 8 tonnes of rubbish from Mount Everest and its trekking trails!

People and rubbish = a big problem.

The environmental group, Eco-Himal have decided to tackle part of the problem, focussing on a different kind of waste.... the human toilet kind!

The Guardian reports today that Eco Himal is arguing that public toilets would make it easier to maintain a clean environment at base camp.

The recommendation to the Government, which will be part of a much larger plan to save the natural environment around Everest, is in its earliest planning stages, and would have some technical hurdles to overcome. For example, critics of the idea have said that due to shifting ice and snow, it would be difficult to build permanent structures to house public toilets on the mountain. Proponents of the plan say that they are trying to undo nearly 60 years of damage to Everest, and that the toilets would go a long way in succeeding in that effort.

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