Do People That Climb Mt Everest Have to Bring Their Trash Back Down?
This picture taken on May 21, 2018 shows discarded climbing equipment and rubbish scattered around Camp 4 of Mount Everest.
( Doma Sherpa/AFP/Getty Images)
- Sherpas have removed more than 3 tons of garbage from Mount Everest.
- Hundreds of climbers and support staff discard their trash on the mountain each year.
- The cleanup campaign's goal is to collect more than 10 tons of garbage by the end of May.
A 14-member team of sherpas sent by the Nepalese government have removed more than 3 tons of garbage from Mount Everest, including used oxygen bottles, discarded climbing equipment, cans and plastic debris.
The "Everest Cleaning Campaign" began on April 15 and will continue through the end of May. The team will collect garbage from as high as Camp 4, located at 26,080 feet. By May 1, the team had removed 6,613 pounds of garbage, or 3 tons, Agence France Press (AFP) reported.
"Under this campaign we will be collecting around 5,000 kilograms (5.5 tons) of garbage from Base Camp area, while 2,000 kilograms (2.2 tons) of garbage will be collected from the South Col region and around 3,000 kilograms (3.3 tons) will be collected from Camp 2 and Camp 3 area," Dandu Raj Ghimire, the head of Nepal's tourism department, said during an April press conference to kick off the campaign, The Hindu reported.
"Our goal is to extract as much waste as possible from Everest so as to restore glory to the mountain. Everest is not just the crown of the world, but our pride," Ghimire told reporters in April.
First summited in 1953 by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the world's tallest mountain at 29,029 feet draws hundreds of climbers and more than 1,000 support staff to the site each May when a brief window of favorable weather allows climbers to attempt the summit. Last year, a record 807 climbers reached the summit.
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Sadly, the world's highest peak has also become the world's highest garbage dump. Climbing teams tend to just leave their rubbish, including tents and other large items, on site rather than lug it back down the mountain at the end of the climbing season.
In an effort to reduce the amount of waste left on the mountain, Nepal implemented a $4,000 rubbish deposit in 2013 that would be refunded to climbers if at least 18 pounds of waste was brought back down the mountain. Only about half of the climbers have returned with their waste, AFP reported.
The garbage collected during this year's cleanup campaign will be "showcased" in Kathmandu on World Environment Day on June 5. After that, the trash will be sent out for recycling, some of it recycled into trinkets that can be sold to tourists.
Global warming is also having an impact on the mountain. Melting glaciers have not only exposed more trash, they have revealed the remains of climbers killed on the mountain.
Ghimire noted that the team will bring down any dead bodies the team comes across on Everest.
Last year, a 30-member team from China removed more than 6 tons of garbage and 2 tons of human excrement from the mountain, along with several bodies, China's state-run Global News reported. On the Tibet side, another 8 tons was removed.
Do People That Climb Mt Everest Have to Bring Their Trash Back Down?
Source: https://weather.com/science/environment/news/2019-05-22-mount-everest-cleanup-sherpas-3-tons-garbage-removed
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