A total weight of about 3,000 kilograms of solid waste has been collected from Mt. Everest since when an ambitious clean-up campaign was launched by Nepal on April 14.
The campaign was aimed to collect the tonnes of trash from the world’s highest peak, which has lately turned into a “garbage dump” due to human adventure sport. The 45-day ‘Everest Cleaning Campaign’, was led by ‘Khumbu Pasanglhamu’ of Solukhumbu districts. The Rural Municipality began on April 14 on the Nepali New Year and made an aim to collect nearly 10,000 kgs of garbage from Mt. Everest. The team was also dedicated to bringing down the dead bodies from the Everest if they were able to find any.
It was the first time ever that all stakeholders have come forward together to clean up the world's highest peak, Ghimire said. The Tourism Department of Nepal estimated that about 23 million Nepalese rupees were about to spend on the campaign.
According to the reports every year, hundreds of climbers, Sherpas and high altitude porters used to visit Mt. Everest, and there leaving behind tonnes of both biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste - like empty oxygen tanks, kitchen waste, beer bottles and fecal matter - on the highest peak, which has lately got the tag of being the "world's highest garbage dump".
It has been expected that the collected waste will then be "showcased" to the public in Namche town, before being taken down to Kathmandu, where it will once again be shown during World Environment Day on June 5. After that, the collected waste will finally be sent out for recycling. The main goal of conducting this drill by the Nepal government was to restore the original glory of the mountain which has been diminished due to human intervention.
