PART 1 of 2
In recent decades, Mount Everest has earned the nickname “World’s Highest Garbage Dump.” Just in the past week The Guardian and Outside both ran stories about human waste reaching hazardous levels for visitors. However, a major international effort called Saving Mount Everest (SME) has begun to erase that reputation. It is a major trash removal operation that brought down over 8 tons of trash in an organized expedition in 2011 and created a culture of sustainable waste management. What’s important about this project is the fact that this program is taking place in one of the harshest environments where manpower and resources are arguably some of the most strained on earth. The final result can be a prototype, and proof, that a successful program can be implemented in an area of the world with extremely high tourism and extremely scarce resources. That’s a big deal.
LITTER, OR DIE
What would you do given the choice between picking up your trash or staying alive? Careful how you answer, because this is the case on the tallest mountain on earth. At 29,029 ft. (8,848 m.) Mt. Everest’s slopes are host to one of the harshest environments known to man. Climbers can expect to climb for up to 9 weeks to establish camps and acclimate. At least 4 of those weeks are spent repeatedly climbing up and down the mountain with a 30 lb. pack and the final push to the summit can take a week. Then, there’s another 6 days to get back. At this elevation, the human body is starved of oxygen and constantly extremely cold. As a result, climbers cannot sleep or digest food; and that’s on the rare occasion that they have an appetite. The fact is, the longer you stay on the mountain, the weaker you get.
It is no surprise that climbers toss their trash; any relief to the weight they carry can mean the difference between life and death. By the time they are ready for the final push, they have lost weight and overcome significant physical efforts without adequate rest; they are a shadow of their former selves. This effort is not a sprint, it is a marathon, and the athletes you see approaching the finish line have exhausted themselves to the extent of their physical ability — and then they have the return trip. Here, although certainly stigmatized, leaving trash behind does not take precedence over human life; so it is accepted.
THE PROBLEM WITH A TRASH CULTURE
Leaving trash behind has been a culture on Mt. Everest from the first ascent in 1953, and that adds up to about 200 tons of trash on the slopes today. When Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit for the first time, trash was most likely the last thing on their mind, but today the problem is so bad that there are places on the mountain where you can barely see the ground as you walk over it. Anything that gets dropped often freezes to the surface and even organic refuse does not decompose because of the permafrost conditions, including any human waste. Anything that doesn’t stick gets blown or washed down to the few villages below.
Mt. Everest’s trash has become a threat to the local population as well as entire tourism industry. The only way to deliver supplies to some villages nearest the mountain is by foot over technical primitive trails or by airplane – when the weather allows for it. There are no roads. These villages depend on the land and water in the region for survival and the trash on the mountain is polluting both. It is these villagers who staff the businesses that host over 30,000 visitors arriving every year and without them the tourism industry would not be possible. This problem is not just aesthetic or localized, it threatens future of access to the mountain for everyone.
GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS
Saving Mount Everest is a big deal, like global big, because a program like it will show that there is hope for the most difficult places to save in the world. Think Amazon, Great Barrier Reef, Gulf of Mexico, etc. Mt. Everest is the perfect location for an eco-experiment of this size: the environment is one of the harshest on earth, the demand of tourism is at a constant high level, the local community is only starting to become environmentally educated, resources are scarce, environmental processes that break down waste are slowed due to elevation and temperature, and many other unique reasons. If Saving Mount Everest is a success, it means that other regions around the world in critical condition have a chance to recover.
So how did it do? We’ll have more on Saving Mount Everest and the incredible challenges they faced in next week’s installment.
In Part II: SAVING MOUNT EVEREST IS SAVING MOUNT EVEREST
Featured Image by Rupert Taylor-Price. Used by Creative Commons license.
Tags: Environmentalism, himalaya, mount everest, pollution, saving mount everest, trash
. ESA, lead by Wongchu Sherpa, conceptualized and started the cleanup campaign and Wongchu went on to be one of the founding fathers of SME. EcoHimal is an organization with over twenty years of experience. EcoHimal worked with the locals to bring electricity and clean water to the region and establish the Khumbu Mountain Center, contributing to the cultural development of the national park and creating permanent jobs. The local people know and trust EcoHImal and ESA, and more importantly, are keen to work together. Cooperation with the local population enabled Saving Mount Everest to begin an awareness campaign of monumental proportions. Most sucessful was cooperation with schools to teach awareness and bio-diversity conservation to children. Additionally, an Eco Club spread across 14 schools in the region organized street drama performances on waste management, workshops, and cleanup campaigns. Awareness trainings were held in multiple locations for full time and part time porters. Lodge owners and community leaders organized trainings that taught proper trash sorting, recycling, solid waste management, and biodiversity conservation. In the end, a photography exhibition called Restoring Dignity to the Mountain by Martin Edstrom that captured it all traveled the region and was attended by over 30,000 people. The result was installing into the next generation’s culture the tenets of waste management awareness and biodiversity conservation. Another challenge for Saving Mount Everest was navigating the permits and implementing operations in the region. Critical partners knowledgeable about the process were the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) and the Himlayan Club. Both had a history of being involved in environmental conservation as well as waste management operations and lead the hugely successful effort of eradicating the use of plastic bags and bottles by locals and tourists alike. The Himalayan Club was actively involved in religious and youth leadership development programs including training on producing environmentally friendly briquettes; segregated trash compacted into fuel for space heaters and stoves that produced income from the waste. The Himalayan Club also allowed its land to be used for segregating waste collected from Lukla. And an important practice that continues after the completion of the project was distribution of reusable cloth bags and bamboo bins during weekly markets, part of the permanent ban on plastics in the region. The permanent physical contributions of Saving Mount Everest were the most time and resource consuming, but also most representative of the permanent positive impact of the project. The SPCC was the major contributor responsible for construction, management, monitoring, and taking over operations at the completion of the project. As a critical foundation for the waste management process, stone and timber waste containers were installed up all along trekking routes, designed into compartments that segregate burnable materials (additional resources are necessary to complete construction at higher altitudes). Modern toilets were constructed with separate facilities for tourists and workers. Multiple waste plants and a waste management center are now staffed and operating efficiently. In addition, as a result of the efforts of the Himalayan Club and SPCC, plastic bags and bottles are no longer permitted or used in the entire region - a momentous policy change. Now that the project has concluded, the SPCC has inherited these operations according to guidelines established by the project and financed by a revolving fund set up by SME and the SPCC. Installed-Permanent-Infrastructure.JPG INFERNO Possibly the most meaningful permanent contribution by Saving Mount Everest is the construction and installation of a custom waste incinerator at Namche Bazar. At this extreme altitude, there is not enough oxygen in the atmosphere to produce a temperature high enough and burn waste efficiently. An incinerator has the ability to compensate for this as it forces air into a series of heavy duty stainless steel chambers that are then able to achieve a temperature of 1100°C and completely re-burn any smoke. For the unique conditions on Mount Everest, the Ev-K2-CNR Committee designed and tested a customized incinerator in Europe and then delivered it to Everest. This 1.5 ton machine was air-lifted to Syangboche via an M117 helicopter. From here, with no other options, over 20 people spent an entire day carrying the machine by foot over technical terrain using iron pipes, wooden poles, and ropes. Difficult as it was, the machine is now staffed by the SPCC and is protected in the Namche Bazar Police station, it is fully operational and burns up to 50 kg of waste per hour. MORE THAN JUST CLEANUP Beyond the infrastructure created in the region, Saving Mount Everest has had lasting impacts that continue to benefit the local population. One of the general objectives of the project was developing income generating purposes for recycled waste. The locals were taught how to melt aluminum and other soft metals and produce souvenirs for tourists. Using the collected burnable wastes, many locations continue to instruct on briquette making for use in house stoves and heaters in the cold winter months. The project involved youth in activities that trained them for many different types of jobs. And permanent positions were created at the Khumbu Media Center, continuing training, and staffing the remote infrastructure that continues to be constructed. Part of Saving Mount Everest’s agenda was a 5 year waste management plan that SME has handed over on a local level and the program is growing and evolving even today. [hr] It cannot be understated how successful Saving Mount Everest was and continues to be to this day. The project has made a lasting positive impact on the region and serves as an example to the international community that it is still very possible to preserve our planet’s most cherished resources. It is important to realize that the challenge is not over yet as there is still a lot of work to do on the mountain and towards establishing a lasting cultural impact. However, this project proves that it is worth continuing the efforts to preserve our environment.){kind=link}