Nepal to turn Mt Everest trash into art

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Nepal to turn Mt Everest trash into art Kathmandu Nepal is turning the trash — collected at Mount Everest — into art. The art would be displayed in a nearby gallery, to highlight the need to save the world’s tallest mountain from turning into a dumping site. Used oxygen bottles, plastic bottles, torn tents, ropes, broken ladders, cans and plastic wrappers discarded by climbers and trekkers litter the world’s tallest mountain and the surrounding areas. Trash brought down from the mountain or collected from households and tea houses along the trail is handled and segregated by a local environmental group, the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, but the task in a remote region that has no roads is a huge challenge. Garbage is dumped or burned in open pits, causing air and water pollution as well as contamination of soil. The Sagarmatha Next Centre, a visitors’ information centre and waste-upcycling facility located on the trail to the Everest Base Camp, is taking charge of the creative initiative. Local as well as foreign artists will then work on creating artwork from these discarded items, to be showcased in a nearby gallery. In 2019, more than 60,000 trekkers, climbers and guides visited the area. The photo of the crowded mountain went viral with many people protesting against the environmental hazards the number of climbers would create. Fun fact Everest was first climbed by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Nearly 4,000 people have since made 6,553 ascents from the Nepali side of the mountain, which can also be climbed from the Tibetan side in China.

Nepal is turning the trash — collected at Mount Everest — into art. The art would be displayed in a nearby gallery, to highlight the need to save the world’s tallest mountain from turning into a dumping site.

Used oxygen bottles, plastic bottles, torn tents, ropes, broken ladders, cans and plastic wrappers discarded by climbers and trekkers litter the world’s tallest mountain and the surrounding areas.

Trash brought down from the mountain or collected from households and tea houses along the trail is handled and segregated by a local environmental group, the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, but the task in a remote region that has no roads is a huge challenge. Garbage is dumped or burned in open pits, causing air and water pollution as well as contamination of soil.

The Sagarmatha Next Centre, a visitors’ information centre and waste-upcycling facility located on the trail to the Everest Base Camp, is taking charge of the creative initiative. Local as well as foreign artists will then work on creating artwork from these discarded items, to be showcased in a nearby gallery.

In 2019, more than 60,000 trekkers, climbers and guides visited the area. The photo of the crowded mountain went viral with many people protesting against the environmental hazards the number of climbers would create. 

Fun fact

Everest was first climbed by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Nearly 4,000 people have since made 6,553 ascents from the Nepali side of the mountain, which can also be climbed from the Tibetan side in China.

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