Greens Want Port-a-Potties on Top of Mount Everest

Volunteers have hauled away nearly 900 pounds of poop

Green groups say there's just too much poop on top of Mount Everest, not to mention trash and even corpses.

Eco Himal is asking the Nepalese government to put port-a-potties on the famous peak, which they say has become fouled by generations of climbers who leave deposits that can last forever given the climate.

"Human waste is a problem, of course," the group's director, Phinjo Sherpa, told AFP. "I am merely suggesting that if we have public toilets they can be used."

Experienced climbers may come with special toilet cans, but others just find a place in the snow, 29,028 feet above sea level.

Eco Everest Expedition a coalition of environmentalists, has collected more than 13 tons of garbage, including 880 pounds of human waste and four bodies since 2008. Climbers are supposed to show they have returned with everything they carried up the mountain, and must leave $4,000 deposits, refundable only when they show they've done so. Still, some estimate that at least 10 tons of garbage remains on the mountain.

Some 4,000 people have attempted to climb the mountain in the last 50 years.

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