Litter on the summit of Mount Everest has attracted media attention for many years. But the trash left behind by trekkers in the surrounding national park is just as big an environmental problem. The Nepalese project Sagarmartha Next aims to tackle it through better waste management, recycling, and making art out of the tourists’ trash.

When Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1953, the duo became the first ever to climb the world’s highest mountain. The news soon reached far beyond Nepal’s borders, starting a race among mountaineers and adventurers who also wanted to try their luck. But it wasn’t just the world’s highest peak that appealed. The magnificent scenery of the Khumbura region also attracted trekkers and other tourists who wanted to experience the grandeur of the Himalayas. In 1976, Sagarmatha National Park was created to protect wildlife and nature from the growing tourist influx.

And the climbers and hikers kept on coming, in the tens of thousands every year. On the one hand, this created socio-economic development in the area, but on the other, it put enormous pressure on nature. According to some estimates, each visitor brings at least eight kilos of waste up the mountain, and much of it remains on the slopes due to poor waste management. At the “death zone” and Basecamp, the more than 600 people who attempt to climb Mount Everest each climbing season leave behind tents, climbing ropes and gas cannisters as they hurry down after their attempts to reach the 8,850-meter peak. Not to mention the feces they leave behind on the glaciers, which during the melting periods runs off into rivers and streams, making the water undrinkable for the locals.

At lower altitudes, candy wrappers, soda bottles and disposable items are thrown away along the many trekking trails visited by nearly 80,000 visitors annually. The 200 tons of waste generated by visitors each year has made Mount Everest, or Sagarmatha as the Nepalese call it, so beset by littering that it is increasingly nicknamed “the world’s highest garbage dump.”

Mount Everest tourism: Growth, but with environmental costs

To hide the growing mountain of waste from visitors to the area, the rubbish is buried in huge dumps – a solution that is hardly sustainable in the long term. That’s why the Nepalese government has long tried to reduce the waste problem around Mount Everest. In 2014, they introduced, among other things, expensive deposits that each visitor pays before their visit and gets back only when they carry down their eight kilograms of garbage from the mountain. Since 2024, mountaineers have also been given poop bags at base camp to use at higher altitudes where there are no toilets. The poop bags must then be displayed upon their return.

“Our mountains have started to stink. We get complaints that human feces are visible on the rocks and that some climbers are getting sick. This is not acceptable and is tarnishing our image,” Mingma Sherpa, chairman of Pasang Lhamu rural municipality, told the BBC.

Every year, the Nepalese Army also clears Mount Everest and the neighboring peaks of Lhotse and Annapurna of trash. In total, they have collected 110 tons of waste since the start in 2019 according to their own calculations.

Sagarmatha National Park: Balancing tourism and conservation

Mountaineers and mountain guides have initiated major cleanup projects such as the Eco Everest Expedition, Big Mountain Cleanup and Clean Everest, projects that have received a lot of media attention in recent years. Non-governmental organizations have also long been trying to keep the stunning national park free of litter. One of the most active organizations in the area is the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), founded in 1991. Run by local Sherpas, they have been developing waste management in the area for many years, and have tried to educate visitors on how to take care of their waste on the mountain.

However, one very important question remains unanswered: What to do with the collected waste? Currently, most of it is left in the many pits dug in the Khumbu Valley and Sagarmatha National Park, where most of the waste is simply burned. The lack of infrastructure in the high altitude regions and the difficulty of transporting the waste out of the valley have forced actors in the area to think outside the box. One of these actors is Sagarmatha Next, an organization that has supported SPCC for many years.

Sagarmatha Next aims to promote sustainable tourism throughout the Khumbu region and around Mount Everest in particular. Partly by informing visitors about the growing problem, partly through an art gallery where famous and lesser-known artists create art from plastic, metal and other materials left on the mountain.

Carry Me Back: Engaging tourists in recycling efforts

When Swedish photographer Martin Edström visited Mount Everest for the first time more than a decade ago, he was struck by the enormous mountains of waste. But so was Swedish climber, environmentalist and co-founder of Sagarmatha Next, Tommy Gustafsson. Since then, he has returned almost every year to help Sagarmatha Next reach out with its messages to more visitors.

“The area around Sagarmatha is a local example of a global problem. Too many people are taking too many liberties in too small an area. The littering on Mount Everest is the worst example of the downside of tourism,” says Martin Edström.

Together with his colleagues at the production company IVAR Studio, Martin Edström has helped produce a film that highlights the waste problem in the national park.

“The film we have produced for Sagarmatha Next runs probably 20-30 times a day at the visitor center in Namche Bazar, a village everyone passes on their way to base camp. The exhibition and movie show how visitors can help keep the mountain clean.

“The goal is that everyone who comes from the movie screening will be converted and want to carry garbage down from the mountain,” says Martin.

Alongside art projects and exhibitions, Sagarmatha Next is also working to get litter off the mountain. Carry Me Back is one such project. SPCC’s waste handlers shred metal and plastic waste, which is then placed in one-kilo bags that visitors can voluntarily take down the mountain for recycling. A pilot took place in 2019. Then, 2,500 hikers and climbers managed to bring four tons of rubbish down the mountain for recycling.

“Sagarmatha Next has realized that they cannot reverse the trend themselves, but that they need to get tourists to be part of the solution. This means bringing less stuff up the mountain, and bringing more stuff back down. In recent years, the project has really gained momentum, with several major sponsors and many guide companies getting behind the idea,” says Martin Edström.

 

Lead Photo: Martin Edström