Mountaineers on Mount Everest have collected over 70,000 pounds of waste from the world’s highest mountain. The waste was brought down primarily from Mount Everest Base Camp and Camp II, according to an official at Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee.
Of the 70,000 pounds of waste, 28,649 pounds of it was human turds.
Climbers have reported that the four sleeping areas on the route up Everest’s south side are a minefield of human excrement. Some of it is fresh, other piles have been sitting there for as much as seven or eight years.
According to the report, “Most of the garbage was collected in Base Camp and at Camp II, with 34,043 pounds of it being taken to Namche Bazaar for waste management. That trash falls under the “combustable” category, meaning that it can be burned after removable. A further 4,949 pounds of non-combustable materials was taken to Kathmandu for recycling. An additional 28,649 pounds of human waste and 8,840 pounds of kitchen waste were also removed from the mountain.”
In total nearly 1,000 climbs were made over two months to remove the waste. The goal is to eventually cleanse the entire mountain of waste left by hundreds of climbers over over the decades.
