Nepal government sent a dedicated clean-up team to Mount Everest this season with a target to bring back 10,000kg of trash in an ambitious plan to clean the world's highest rubbish dump. Photo: AP
After every party it’s time to clean up and Mount Everest is no different. The record number of climbers crowding the world’s highest mountain this season has left a government clean up crew grappling with how to clear away everything from abandoned tents to human waste that threatens drinking water.
Budget expedition companies charge as little as US$30,000 (RM125,000) per climber, cutting costs including waste removal. Everest has so much garbage – depleted oxygen cylinders, food packaging, rope – that climbers use the trash as a kind of signpost. But this year’s haul from an estimated 700 climbers, guides and porters on the mountain has been a shock to the ethnic Sherpas who worked on the government’s clean up drive this spring.
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