3,000 kg of garbage collected from Mt. Everest
World’s highest mountain, Mt Everest is reeling under tonnes of plastic and organic waste, that has been lying there for decades, mostly left behind by mountaineers who climb up the peak. The garbage that has collected over the years on the peak has turned the mighty peak into the world’s highest landfill.
A total of 3,000 kilograms of solid waste has been collected from Mt. Everest since when Nepal launched an ambitious clean-up campaign on April 14. The campaign is aimed at bringing back tonnes of trash from the world’s highest peak, which has lately turned into a “garbage dump”.
The 45-day ‘Everest Cleaning Campaign’, led by Solukhumbu district’s Khumbu Pasanglhamu Rural Municipality with the Nepali new year and aims to collect nearly 10,000 kilogrammes of garbage from Mt Everest. This is the first time ever that all stakeholders have come together to clean up the world’s highest peak
Every year, hundreds of climbers, Sherpas and high altitude porters make their way to Everest, leaving behind tonnes of both biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste — including empty oxygen canisters, kitchen waste, beer bottles and faecal matter — on the highest peak, which has lately acquired notoriety as the “world’s highest garbage dump”.
There have been attempts in the past to clean up Everest, including a 2014 government-mandated provision making it mandatory for every climber to come down the peak with at least 8-kilogramme of garbage – the amount of trash estimated to be produced by one climber.
The campaign will conclude on May 29, the day marked every year to commemorate the first summit of Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
