I wrote the forest service when they were considering the changes to the existing situation. I suspected it would not be entirely, very, altogether, whatever successful. Have I been proved wrong or right in the past year or two.
I did not think the removing the toilets completely and replacing with a "carry-out" system would work very well over time. In an "emergency" in the Grand Canyon I had to use the plastic sheet and ammo can. All I can say is that trying to bury the very mis-used plastic (it was an emergency) was worse than if I had dug a hole initially. The ammo can came back empty. Down in the canyon a hole is more possible than high up on Whitney. Private privy holes probably will not work up there.
At least, in the canyon, for multi-day trips one does not need to carry around their waste - that can be problematic.
But then, on a 12 mile hike, not everyone will time their "constitutional" to the location of toilets at 10,000 and 12,000 feet so you still run into problems.
Frankly, having spoken with a variety of rangers in the Sierra over a number of years, I got the impression that some (by all means not all) were/are against anything unnatural in the wilderness including hikers. I think some would like to remove any human intrusion. I'd go as far to suggest that one motive of the "anti" hiker set was wag bag turning folks off to hiking Whitney at all. As others have said, generally human nature is repulsed by having to do anything but flush. So you can eliminate a number of people by making the idea repellant - you must carry your poop up and back. Whitney is a unique place and dispersed camping and pooping is not really possible but I don't think this answer is further restrictions.
I admit that I don't pay rangers to wrangle poop as they use to do so I don't know what solution will work. I'd vote for trying the NEW, IMPROVED composting toilet if the forest service opens this up for further or renewed discussion.
