A plan to encourage climbers to bring their rubbish down from Everest has been scrapped – Nepali officials have told the BBC it has failed.
Climbers were required to pay a deposit of $4,000 (£2964), which they would only get back if they brought at least 8 kg (18lbs) of rubbish with them.
It was hoped that this would begin to address the problem of littering the world’s highest peak, which is estimated to be covered in around 50 tonnes of rubbish.
But 11 years later – and with a pile of waste – the plan has been shelved after it “failed to show tangible results”.
Cleaning operations are usually concentrated in the lower camps of Mt. Everest because it is difficult and expensive to operate at higher altitudes. [David Liano]
Himal Gautam, director of the Department of Tourism, told the BBC that not only had the garbage problem “not gone away”, but the deposit scheme itself had become an “administrative burden”.
Officials from the Ministry of Tourism and Department of Mountaineering told the BBC that most of the deposits have been returned over the years – meaning most climbers bring back their trash.
But the plan is said to have failed because the climbers usually brought the garbage from the lower camp – not from the upper camp, where the garbage problem is worst.
“People bring back only oxygen bottles from the high camps,” said Chiring Sherpa, chief executive officer of the Everest Pollution Control Committee.
“Other things like tents and cans and boxes of packaged food and drinks are often left there, so we can see piles of garbage.”
Mr. Sherpa said climbers produce an average of 12 kilograms (26 pounds) of waste while they spend up to six weeks acclimatizing and climbing.
Apart from the “error rule” that requires climbers to bring back less waste than they produce, Everest region officials say lack of monitoring is the main challenge.
“Apart from the check point above the Khumbu Icefall, there is no monitoring of what the climbers are doing,” Sherpa said.
Nepali officials hope the new plan will be more effective.
The lower parts of the Everest region below the base camp also see litter abandoned by visitors and trekkers. [Getty Images]
Under the changed rules, officials said, non-refundable cleaning fees from climbers will be used to set up checkpoints at Camp Two and mountain rangers will be deployed to the upper reaches of the mountain to ensure climbers bring their waste.
Officials at the Ministry of Tourism said it would likely be $4,000 per climber – the same amount as the deposit – and would come into force after it is passed by Parliament.
Mingma Sherpa, chairman of Pasanglhamu rural municipality, said that the Sherpa community has been lobbying for many years to change.
“We have been questioning the effectiveness of the deposit scheme all this time because we are not aware of anyone being penalized for not taking their trash down.
“And there was no designated fund but now this nonrefundable fee will lead to the creation of a fund to enable us to do all these cleanup and monitoring operations.”
The growing number of climbers on Mount Everest has become a growing concern for sustainable mountaineering. [Getty Images]
The non-refundable fee will be part of a recently introduced five-year mountain cleanliness action plan, said tourism ministry spokesman Jayanarayan Acharya, designed to “immediately address the issue of litter in our mountains”.
Although there are no studies quantifying the amount of waste on Mt. Everest, it is estimated that there are tons of human excrement, including rotting on top of the mountain due to the cold temperatures.
And the growing number of climbers each year, averaging around 400 with many support staff, has become a growing concern for mountaineering sustainability.
