For years, tons of waste have been calling the planet’s tallest mountain, Mt. Everest, their home. Some stories even described the mountain as “the world’s highest garbage dump.” Adding to it, the geologists let us in on the fact that the surrounding areas are more exhausted by the junk and debris problem than the mountain itself. Surprisingly, the Everest region welcomes tens of thousands of tourists each year. Consequently, with the visitors comes tons of waste ranging from soft drink bottles to leftover camp meals to human excretes and more.
Who is to be held accountable for this highly-escalating problem? As a matter of fact, every life on this planet is responsible for destroying nature in one way or the other. As far as the blame-game goes on, it is always easier to lift your foot from the dirt and point a finger at someone else. But on a priority, the need to deal with the waste problem has been the most decisive area of the limelight. For years, the Nepal government and local authorities have been formulating cleaning strategies reducing the waste to some extent. But the problem has not been annihilated as the debris entering the Everest region increases just as much as it has been reduced.
However, finding a solution to this problem, the local authority at Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality has now banned the use of plastic in the Everest region. Starting from January 2020, the Everest region is set to be a “no-plastic zone” with the prohibition on the use of plastic bags below 30 microns. However, for now, there is an exception for plastic water bottles. With the implementation of such a strict restriction, the Everest region will now hopefully remain clean for quite some time. So, to all those travel wizards, if you are heading to the Everest region in the coming days, help out the cleaning campaign by reducing waste as much as possible. Look out for reusable options instead of cluttering around in the area. And be sure to keep plastic at bay from the Everest region!
How Himalayan Glacier supports this campaign?
Well, since the beginning of this rising waste problem in the Everest region, Himalayan Glacier team has been encouraging the travelers to minimize the waste as much as possible. Now, with the implementation of the plastic ban, we wholeheartedly request the fellow trekkers and travelers to give a second thought before overstepping the newly imposed law. We, as a team, bolster up this ordinance; what about you?
