Waste Management Outlook for Mountain Regions

THE WASTE IMPLICATIONS OF CLIMBING & TREKKING ON MOUNT EVEREST

600

CHINA

Mount Everest Sagarmatha (8848m)

Mt. Everest

NEPAL

Mount Lhotse (8516m)

INDIA

Mount Nuptse (7861m)

500

Settlement Camp Dry sanitary facility

Base Camp (5360m) more than 3200 visitors in 2013

WC

Southern route Northern route

Human waste carried Human waste leaking into glacier

400

Gorak Shep (5160m) Waste collected from base camps is dumped in open pits A biogas project to treat collected waste is under development

Camp 4 (8000m)

Camp 3 (7200m)

CHINA

NEPAL

300

Camp 1 (5940m)

Camp 2 (6400m)

KHUMBU ICEFALL

WC

KHUMBU GLACIER

KHUMBU GLACIER

WC

E v e r y y e a r , 1 2 0 0 0 k g o f h u m a n w a s t e a r e c a r r i e d f r o m b a s e c a m p & d u m p e d i n G o r a k S h e p

200

The number of climbers attempting the summit of Mount Everest has risen drastically since its first ascent in 1953, especially from the early 1990s onwards as a result of commercialised guiding operations. Managing the increasing human and solid waste has become a major issue. The Everest Base Camp does have a waste management systems under operation, but at present there are no systems in place higher up the mountain, where climbers often dig holes in the snow to defecate or drop them in crevasses. Faeces from Camps 1 and 2 have reportedly made their way down further down the mountain along with the fast-moving Khumbu Glacier (Bishop, 2015.)

150

NUMBER OF ASCENTS OF MOUNT EVEREST BY YEAR

100

80

60

40

20

Sources: Bishop B. (2015) “Peak Poop: The Feces Problem on Everest Needs a Solution,” Outside ; The Himalayan Database,http://www.himalayandatabase.com/ ; GlaciersWorks, http://glacierworks.org/ ; Mt. Everest Biogas Project, http://mteverestbiogasproject.org

0

1973

1999

2013

1953

1955

1957

1959

1961

1963

1965

1967

1969

1971

1975

1977

1979

1981

1983

1985

1987

1989

1991

1993

1995

1997

2001

2003

2005

2007

2009

2011

55