Trash to treasure: Everest garbage given new lease of life
A group of tourists sip water at a five-star hotel in Kathmandu, unaware that the green glasses in their hands were once bottles discarded on Mount Everest — left by climbers eager to make their ascent.
In homes across the Nepali capital upcycled items, from pots to lamps, crafted from Everest waste products are slowly making their way in as authorities and businesses look for fresh ways to tackle the damage caused by decades of commercial mountaineering.
Tonnes of trash — including empty cans and gas canisters, bottles, plastic and discarded climbing gear — litter the mountain, which has been dubbed the “highest dumpster in the world”.
“Waste doesn’t need to be wasted,” Nabin Bikash Maharjan of local recycling organisation Blue Waste to Value (BW2V) told AFP.
“We received a mix of materials from Everest — aluminium, glass, plastic, iron — much of which could be recycled,” he explained, adding: “We need to up-cycle and add value to them.”
After heavy criticism for the condition of one of its greatest natural resources, Nepal’s government and mountaineering groups this year organised a six-week clean-up.
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