Everest: The World’s Highest Garbage Dump

The world’s highest peak, Everest (8849m above sea level), a ‘dream mountain’ for mountaineers around the world, is now stigmatized as ‘the world’s highest garbage dump’. On the 30th (local time), foreign media such as Reuters reported that the Himalayas, such as Everest, were covered with garbage, borrowing the words of famous mountaineers.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of Everest being allowed to reach the summit by humans. Exactly 70 years ago, on May 29, 1953, New Zealand climbers Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first people in history to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Since then, the ‘Himalayan Expedition’ aimed at conquering Everest has not stopped in Nepal.

Recently, mountaineers, including famous Sherpas, are expressing their concerns about the Himalayas overflowing with garbage. Representatively, Sherpa Minga Tenji, who has climbed Everest 9 times, reported the situation on Everest full of trash with a video titled “The dirtiest camp I’ve ever seen” on her social media channel last week.

“In the process of climbing Everest, I saw a lot of trash, such as tents, oxygen bottles, bowls, spoons, and sanitary pads,” he lamented. In fact, the video he posted shows a mountain full of trash, so it’s hard to believe that this is the real Everest.

In addition, famous American mountaineer Gareth Madison told Reuters that “there are torn tents, food wrappers and empty oxygen cylinders abandoned on Everest.” requested

Nepalese authorities are also trying to solve the problem of garbage accumulated on Everest, but it is not enough. The Nepalese government, which designated May 29 every year as ‘World Everest Day’, has been carrying out a campaign to clean the Himalayas since 2019. In fact, 11 tons of garbage were collected in 2019 and 27.6 tons in 2021, and the amount of garbage collected for two months last year reached a whopping 33.8 tons. In addition, since 2014, the deposit system has been made mandatory, and after receiving a deposit of 4,000 dollars from the climbing team, the deposit is refunded when each person descends with 8kg of garbage, but it is known that the refund rate is only half.

Reporter Park Jong-ik pji@seoul.co.kr