Steve’s reply:

“A variant of this idea has been implemented successfully on a small scale (the grey water evaporator at Marble Point), but the volumes that are handled make large-scale implementation problematic.  Conducting on-site treatment at remote sites requires additional equipment beyond a drum or bags-buckets, so on-site collection is hard to get around.  Once it arrives at McMurdo it is almost  always frozen solid.  Thawing of very large pee blocks requires a warm facility and lots of time, both of which are hard to come by.  Doing something similar with poo would be even more problemmatic, as once it thaws, there are unpleasant odors.  And then there are the skuas.  Additionally, there are health-related concerns.  Twice, thawing on a large scale has been tried, with heat wraps even being used around the drums, and the same problems listed above were encountered, now with additional energy and labor costs.  In addition, there are legitimate health concerns every time you have someone using a drum “stinger” to pump out bacteria laden goo.  And who wants to come to Antarctica to do that job anyway?  So, reduction or elimination at the source is the key, and we at one time looked into purchasing composting toilets, incino-lets, and things of that sort.  I’m not sure what happened on those fronts, but I think it didn’t go far, as costs were increased, logisitics were made more complex (how many to buy?  for how many people, how long?  what type of waste results?  how will the residue be captured?  how will the crapper be cleaned?  and if we still have to send human waste out, why not just pee or poop in a drum, and be done with it?).  On the WM end of things (no pun intended), all waste is transported to California on the cargo vessel, which goes back regardless of how much trash is aboard, so that leg of the journey is paid for already.  Once it gets to CA, then we pay to transport it to various facilities — UG goes to a local wastewater treatment plant, where drums are pumped (they arrive thawed, after being super-heated upon crossing the equator), and frozen HF boxes or plastic barrels get land-disposed in a landfill in AZ (I know, not a pleasant thought).  So, presently the costs are: containers, on-ice labor to transport/store/track, domestic transportation, and disposal.  Sustainable?  Not really, but without stepping up to either permanent infrastructure investments (like has been done with MCM’s WWTP; not feasible at small camps), or purchase of porta-potties of some kind, that’s where we’re at.”