What happens to Mount Everest's over 110,000 pounds of waste?
Mount Everest is littered with an estimated 50 metric tons of waste, and each climber generates an average of 8 kilograms more. The Nepalese government spends $7.5 million yearly on the Mountain Clean-up Campaign, retrieving dozens of tons of waste from Mount Everest and nearby peaks. But it's still not enough to deal with the seemingly insurmountable trash problem. One organization, Sagarmatha Next, is raising awareness of the issue by making art out of trash.
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00:00 These bottle caps were collected from the slopes of Mount Everest.
00:08 And here at Saganmata Next, locals are turning this trash into art.
00:14 But it's just a fraction of the estimated 50 metric tons of waste that litter the slopes of the world's tallest mountain.
00:23 We followed the trash down from Everest's peak through its collection, sorting and transformation
00:30 to understand how locals are trying to control the Himalayas over 7.5 million dollar waste problem.
00:38 Local residents are acutely aware of the trash overwhelming their communities.
00:49 But before workers can recycle some of it, it must be collected from Everest's highest camps.
00:56 Waste efforts are carefully organised by the Saganmata Pollution Control Committee, or SPCC, a Shirpa-led non-governmental organisation.
01:08 Climbing guides carry down waste from higher camps and combine it with trash at base camp.
01:14 This includes plastic, food scraps and human waste.
01:19 (Music)
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02:03 As of 2023, 2,306 expedition groups had attempted or summited the mountain.
02:10 And each group generates a lot of trash, an average of 8 kilograms per person.
02:17 At base camp, Suraj sorts the waste into burnable and non-burnable piles and bundles them for porters.
02:25 The porters then carry the trash on their backs or via yaks down the mountain to designated collection sites.
02:33 At landfills managed by the SPCC, workers like Gelash Rai sort and pack the trash.
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03:25 Some of the bags Gelash is packing are part of the Carry Me Back program, a crowdsourced waste transportation system.
03:33 The program is managed by Saganmata Next, an organization seeking to demonstrate alternative ways to process all this waste.
03:43 To remove it, that's a challenge because we don't have roads and transportation vehicles.
03:49 So we made something we called Carry Me Back. It's a small bag, weighs up to one kilo,
03:55 and we offer everyone who returns back from higher up, going back to the entry point Lukla,
04:02 to take one bag, one kilo, and carry it one day down.
04:06 Lukla is the site of Everest's airport and the gateway to the region.
04:13 From here, the sorted waste is flown back to Kathmandu, where it's processed further at recycling centers.
04:21 Saganmata Next first trialed Carry Me Back in 2019.
04:26 During five weeks, we had 2,500 participants, and they carried back 5,500 bags, so around five tons, in a test situation.
04:37 And that was very, very kind of encouraging.
04:40 In 2023, Carry Me Back scaled it up to eight metric tons.
04:46 But the organization's efforts don't stop there.
04:50 It also repurposes the trash it helps to collect.
04:54 One way it does this is through its partnership with Moeware.
04:59 Moeware sources recycled bottle caps collected from Everest and nearby mountains.
05:09 Upcycling waste into souvenirs like these.
05:12 The molds are inspired by the topography of the Himalayas.
05:19 Saganmata Next's Experience Center also hosts an Artist in Residence program,
05:28 where artists like Jo Rankine repurpose discarded trash.
05:33 The pieces that I've chosen come from a big waste pit that's below the Namche telepad.
05:38 So I've taken my backpack down and collected all the pieces that I want to work with, and I've brought them back up here to the lab.
05:45 And now I'm working on a sculpture, which I'm going to place onto this metal grid down here.
05:52 And this is a real challenge because the metal is so corroded, so every time I've tried to make a hole, it breaks a little bit.
06:04 While Saganmata Next was established to alleviate the waste problem on Everest and in the Khumbu region,
06:11 its founders bear no animosity toward the climbers responsible.
06:15 Well, I think we all have to try to understand as much as possible what it means to be up climbing on a mountain like Everest.
06:25 Most people going up on that mountain are actually struggling pretty hard, both to be safe and to be able to scale and go to the summit,
06:37 and then of course, most importantly, to be able to come back down safely.
06:42 The nature of it itself makes it almost impossible to have, let's say, 100% of all the waste that is up there to be brought down.
06:54 So hopefully we also get that message out in the world that there are many efforts to try to alleviate the problems.
07:02 The SPCC's waste management system is required for expedition agencies and locals alike, but it comes at a cost.
07:13 It mandates fees based on the amount of waste generated by each expedition.
07:19 The SPCC charges a minimum wage of 210 rupees per kg of waste.
07:24 Other waste is also reduced to a minimum, such as polling papers, glass containers, and even plastic bottles.
07:37 Climbers are also subject to fees and regulations imposed by the Nepalese government.
07:46 It requires climbers to pay a $4,000 deposit, which will only be returned if they bring down at least 8 kg of trash, not including oxygen tanks or human waste.
07:58 This regulation is meant to incentivise climbers to help clean the decades' worth of trash on the highest parts of the mountain.
08:06 The fine can be inconvenient for climbers and their guides, like Phurba Wangchu Sirpa, who struggle to meet the requirement.
08:16 We only eat plastic.
08:18 We can't even bring down 8 kg of rubbish.
08:24 If we can't bring down 8 kg of trash, we have to return the garbage we have collected.
08:35 That's why it's so difficult.
08:40 We have to bring down 16 kg of trash.
08:46 If we bring down the oxygen tanks, we can't bring down the rubbish.
08:54 We only have plastic bags and gas.
09:00 We have to bring down the trash.
09:07 While oxygen cylinders don't count towards the 8 kg of waste required per climber, they're too expensive to leave behind.
09:14 Each cylinder costs $600, and that price has incentivised climbers to return them instead of leaving them on the mountain.
09:23 When climbers use the cylinders, they feel like they're a piece of metal.
09:30 The first person to bring the cylinder down is the climber himself.
09:37 If something happens to the climber, his guide will bring him back.
09:44 Because the cylinders are expensive, we have to go on expeditions to find the right place.
09:53 But the cost of bringing the cylinders down is very high.
10:03 In 2019, the Nepalese government enlisted the National Army to assist in cleaning up Mount Everest and other heavily trafficked mountains.
10:11 The annual programme, the Mountain Cleanup Campaign, costs the government $7.5 million.
10:19 In 2023, the army, in conjunction with Sherpa guides, collected about 30,000 tons of trash.
10:29 In 2022, the army, in conjunction with Sherpa guides, collected about 36 metric tons of waste.
10:35 Despite recent cleanup efforts, Everest's climate is still under threat.
10:41 A 2022 study found that in about 25 years, Everest's highest glacier lost 2,000 years worth of ice.
10:50 The receding ice revealed decades worth of trash, but also some of the hundreds of bodies on the mountain.
10:58 Removing a single dead body can cost as much as $70,000, and even occasionally the lives of the climbers tasked with recovering them.
11:08 But the impact of pollution on Everest isn't limited to the mountain.
11:14 About 2 billion people live around and downstream of the Himalayan mountains, in Nepal, China, India, and other regions in South and East Asia.
11:26 A study of snow and stream water extracted from Everest in 2019 found concentrations of microplastics, predominantly polyester fibres.
11:35 Toxic heavy metals, pathogens, and PFAS, known as forever chemicals, have also been detected in Everest's snow and water.
11:45 Concerns over the polluted water supply have led locals to consider changing their water sources.
11:52 The water here is open to the public.
11:57 We don't use the water here. There are toilets everywhere.
12:02 We don't have a good facility here.
12:05 We get water from the icefalls.
12:16 And for those who earn a living from Everest tourism and mountaineering, alleviating the problem is an existential issue.
12:25 The pollution is increasing.
12:30 The temperature is increasing.
12:35 The snow on the mountains is melting.
12:39 There are only black stones left.
12:42 The tourists don't come here.
12:45 To preserve the natural beauty, we need to control the pollution.
12:52 If we don't manage the problem, we will lose our world-famous mountain.
13:02 It will be a great challenge for us to manage.
13:08 [Music]