Mountain of trash
Expedition teams start acclimatising at Everest Base Camp with the arrival of spring in April. Tents, toilets and kitchens here appear well-managed, but as climbers and their staff ascend, waste management becomes more challenging.
To reclaim a US$4,000 deposit, every mountaineer who climbs above Everest base camp is required to bring down 8kg of waste with them- but the trash has kept mounting regardless. Clean-up teams have collected everything from plastic wrappers and paper to glass bottles and cans, while a 2020 study published in the journal One Earth found microplastics in streams and snow waters on Everest.
“There is a lack of effective regulatory mechanisms in the high Himalayas of Nepal,” said Shilshila Acharya, co-founder of the Avni Centre for Sustainability, which recycles mountain waste.
“A waste monitoring body is present only on Mount Everest and absent on other mountains. It’s difficult to monitor in the base camps, and the areas above it are even harder to regulate.”
Acharya estimates there are about 1,000 tonnes of trash and about 350 to 400 dead bodies on Nepal’s mountains.
The Nepal army, part of the clean-up project since 2019, plans to collect more than 10 tonnes of waste and bring down at least five dead bodies from the Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse peaks this year, according to army major and campaign leader Aditya Karki.
Local community-led non-profit organisation the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee is responsible for clean-up around Everest Base Camp, as well as the trekking trails and settlements leading up to it.
A 30-person team, including army personnel and Nepali climbers, are involved in the initiative, with about 15 Sherpa mountaineers collecting trash at various altitudes almost up to the summit. Each person carries down around 12kg of garbage, which is segregated into biodegradable and non-biodegradable items at Base Camp before being dispatched to Kathmandu for recycling.
“But bringing dead bodies is riskier – we have to be mindful of upholding the dignity of the dead and the safety of our men,” Karki said, adding that two of his Sherpa team members died last year during a mission. “We need about 12 specially trained men to bring one dead body down, depending on the route and mountain.”
Starting this year, the Pasang Lhamu rural municipality, which oversees most of the Everest region, made poop bags mandatory for climbers.
But such policies are a little too late, according to Sushil Khadka, co-founder of Avni Ventures, which recycles mountain waste. The government should strictly hold expedition companies accountable for waste, he said.
Turning trash into treasure
Biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste is separated at Everest Base Camp, before being further sorted at Avni’s recycling facility in Kathmandu. Avni only works with the waste collected by the Mountain Cleanup Campaign and has recycled more than 80 tonnes of it since 2021.
Acharya said the waste received from clean-up expeditions mostly consist of glass, metal and plastic, and a large amount of imported packaged food. Plastic and paper are easy to recycle, but they have yet to find a solution for recycling glass.
Ropes are turned into handicrafts, Acharya said, and Avni partnered the Maya Rai of Nepal Knotcraft Centre, which works with women to weave craft items.
“This employs women and also promotes Nepal’s indigenous craftwork.”
Another initiative called Sagarmatha Next is “aiming to change the perception around waste” and partnered with the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee in 2017 to recycle or upcycle waste, according to its co-founder Tommy Gustafsson.
Sagarmatha Next has also turned waste from Everest into artwork and sculptures, displayed at its gallery in Syangbnoche on the Everest trekking trail. Its “waste to product” project uses plastic bottle caps found in the Himalayas and hiking trails to make souvenirs.
In 2022, Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee managed 44,713kg of garbage at Everest Base Camp, according to its annual report. About 15,000kg was sent to its waste management facility in the region, and nearly 6,000kg of “non-burnable waste” was transported to Kathmandu for recycling.
However, sustainability experts have questioned whether the practice of burning trash adds to air pollution in the mountains.
“We burn the waste far from settlements. It’s a compulsion, but we are looking for alternatives,” said Lama Kazi Sherpa, chair of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee.
Calls for waste-free mountains
Some say the garbage issue is unlikely to be resolved any time soon unless Nepal limits the number of mountain expeditions.
Khadka from Avni Ventures said Nepal should follow Bhutan’s example, which stopped expeditions to mountains higher than 6,000m in 1994 before banning mountaineering entirely in 2003 for spiritual reasons.
He said mountaineering in Nepal has become a “haphazard and moneymaking machine benefiting only certain parties”.
“Now is the time to put a brake on high mountain expeditions and only allow limited quality expeditions,” he said.
03:03
Nepali village women turn black soldier fly larvae into profit
Nepali village women turn black soldier fly larvae into profit
Last month, Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered the government to limit the number of climbers on Everest, adding that the rules for collecting waste from high altitudes have not been implemented properly.
However, some say reducing footfall is not feasible from an economic perspective.
Lama Kazi Sherpa said most households in the Everest region depend on tourism.
The government has also allocated annual funds and human resources to combat mountain waste, with its liaison officers following and monitoring expedition teams to Everest Base Camp.
However, there have been allegations that many liaison officers bypass the trek, instead working from their Kathmandu office.
Tenzi Sherpa, who posted the viral video last year, also criticised the lack of oversight from liaison officers, asking the government to punish the companies that pollute the mountains.
Army major Karki is optimistic that his team will nearly have Camp 4 cleaned up this year, weather permitting. He said that the government campaign has made both climbers and their staff more conscious of the waste they leave behind.
But the total amount of trash on the mountains is unknown, and those advocating for waste-free peaks say the future is uncertain if garbage continues piling up.
“Everest has a greater brand value, so the focus is there,” Acharya says. “But all mountains are equally important, and we need to shift our focus on them, too.”