Mountains have always fascinated me. It has fascinated me enough to be like them, strong and fearless. My love for mountains could be because of my country having almost 1310 mountains. Moreover, it is the land of the highest peak of the world, Mount Everest. Mount Everest stands 8848.86 m tall from sea level. No wonder why it is nationally called ‘Sagarmatha’ which means ‘Forehead in the sky’.
Ironically, the immortal shine and pristine state of Mount Everest are at stake. In 2019 24,200 pounds of waste and trash were pulled off from Everest. Consequently, various news and authorities have called upon the alarming state of Mount Everest. It is an under-rated but severe environmental problem affecting not only the environment but hundreds of lives tied to this area.
What trashes Mount Everest?
The main grounds behind waste piling up on Everest are tourists and climbers. The wastage seems to take a peak more during the climbing season. The route to Everest is very long hence climbers carry food, gear, and necessary commodities along with them. Sadly, such items never come down. Now imagine the consequence of 500 climbers climbing Everest per year! The recent study even claims that the base camp has now been littered with poo and dead bodies as well.
Thankfully, different campaigns have been initiated to overcome this sensitive issue.
Bally Peak Outlook 2019,2020
It is an initiative launched by a Swiss luxury brand. The main goal of this campaign is to preserve the world’s most extreme mountains which are facing harsh consequences due to climbers and global warming. In 2019, the brand partnered up with locals. Likewise, the initiative is led by Nepali climbers and environmental activist Dawa Steven Sherpa. Additionally, Dawa Steven Sherpa has been removing trash from the mountain since 2008.
In 2020, they came up with the idea to clean up all mountains which are above 8,000m. Recently this initiative received immense praise when Nepalese climbers spent 47 days cleaning 2.2 tons of trash from Everest. Since tourism and trekking are temporarily not open. They took this opportunity to clean the highest land on earth. They say that removing decades of wastage and trash encourages them to work even harder.
Mt. Everest Waste Cleanup Campaign 2019
The largest joint cleanup initiative discarded and retrieved garbage and dead bodies from Mt. Everest. The theme of this campaign is “Clean our pride” which aims to preserve Everest at its pristine state. This campaign is a great collaborative effort of all three ranks of government (central, provincial, and local). Nepali Army along with non-profits organizations such as SPCC, NMA, and WWF Nepal, and corporate companies, such as Coca-Cola, commercial banks, and airlines having a common interest in saving the mountains came together to thrive for the noble cause.
More importantly, The campaign collected a total of 4.7 tons of garbage from Mt. Everest. A total of 5.6 tons of garbage from EBC and its foothills. Moreover, the waste cleanup campaign was also successful in retrieving four dead bodies of climbers from Mt. Everest.
Furthermore, there are few more campaigns that thrive to clean Everest. At the end of every climbing season, Mountain clean-up camps dedicatedly prosper to eliminate trash and waste. Hence, such campaigns give us hope that waste management in the Everest area is however being looked, and cared upon.
Also Read: Climbing Mount Everest Facts and Information
