Originally Posted By: saltydog

How are wag bags and solar toilets mutually exclusive or in any way alternatives or opposites to each other? Unless you think you can make it to TC or OC from anywhere on the trail in time, placing solar toilets there will only be a very partial solution maybe not even for a majority of it.

Not a scientific survey of course, but we should not assume that even the best toilets would obviate the need for other measures.

As Salty points out there is no guarantee that toilets will totally eliminate the need for wag bags, and since the toilets will not be built this year, why not consider ways to improve the current wag bag system.
1. Improve the quality of the wag bags. Include a separate bag for transporting the wag bag (attached to the backpack?).
2. Set up "pick up stations” every 1, 2, 3,... miles, where they could be dropped off. I'm confident that containers could be designed for easy sanitary use, as well as easy to transport down the trail every 1,2,3,...weeks as needed. Hauling a "hermetically sealed" drum would (I think?) be preferred to picking up wag bags by the rangers. Llamas could be used to haul these drums I guess?
These two steps would partially eliminate the issue Steve brings up about hauling shit in the same backpack that one's food, sleeping gear, etc... is carried in. Perhaps we would get a higher use of the wag bags (we really do not know how many do not bother with the wag bag, and simply shit in the woods, or behind a rock), and would certainly reduce the number of wag bags left along the trail side.
The cost of these "pick up stations” would certainly be less than the toilets, and "might” reduce the amount of excrement left in the wilderness. Certainly not the final solution, but perhaps a step in the right direction. Not sure if any data is collected about the amount of waste collected at the trail head, but if it is measured it would be possible to compare the amount of waste collected the old way, and the new way. The results would be interesteing.Doing nothing is shameful.
I have a feeling that this is not such a new/novel suggestion, but I offer it nonetheless.
Any other suggestions?