As a part of its ongoing annual Mountain Clean Up Campaign, Nepal is set to clear tonnes of waste from Mount Everest that is increasingly becoming a garbage dump for human waste.

Nepal plans to remove tonnes of waste from Mount Everest ahead of the Himalayan mountaineering window opening in 2024. As more people ascend Mount Everest, the impact on the environment, including the accumulation of human waste, has raised challenges for waste management.

According to the Nepalese Army, they have started a high-altitude project to remove human waste from the world’s highest mountain range. The Mountain Clean Up Campaign collected 110 tonnes of waste from its launch in 2019 till 2023. From April 14 onwards, the army will spearhead the clean-up effort in collaboration with the British FMCG giant Unilever. 

The army has announced that it intends to remove five dead bodies off the mountain in addition to an estimated 10 tonnes of trash. These climbers’ bodies were lost while attempting to summit the world’s highest mountain. Deaths of 12 climbers were officially confirmed in 2023, while five more remain still unaccounted for. Currently, the majority of those who try to climb the 8,849-metre high Himalayan peak do so via Nepal. Last year, the Nepalese government gave out a record-high 478 Everest hiking permits. 

That is not, however, the entire population that is on the mountain because climbing groups are accompanied by Sherpa guides, support personnel, and other individuals. As a result, overcrowding and trash have been two of the biggest problems plaguing Everest in recent years, out of which the biggest environmental issues has been human waste.

The statement adds that for the first time, all climbers will be required to use poop bags provided by the government and carry their faeces back down from the higher mountain camps during the 2024 climbing season. In addition, tracking chips, which can help with search and rescue operations, will be given to all Everest climbers for the first time this year.