Nepal wants climbers of Mount Everest to pick up their trash.
In response to increasing amounts of rubbish left on top of the world's highest peak, Nepal's government announced Monday that anyone climbing the mountain must come back down with an extra 18 pounds of garbage, The New York Times reported.
"We are not asking climbers to search and pick up trash left by someone else," said Madhusudhan Burlakoti, joint secretary of Nepal's tourism ministry which implemented the rule, according to the Associated Press. "We just want them to bring back what they took up."
There is around 60 years' worth of trash currently on Mount Everest. The amount is estimated to be around 50 tons of garbage left by past climbers, including ruined tents, discarded oxygen bottles, food containers- and the bodies of climbers who died, The Times reported.
"From now on, a climber is required to bring down eight kilograms of waste, and that excludes their own empty oxygen bottles and human dung," Burlakoti told The Times.
"We will not compromise on it," Burlakoti said. "Defaulters will face serious legal action."
Before the rule, there was no other way for the government to check what climbers brought down. In the past the government tried withholding climbers' $4,000 deposit if they did not pick up their trash. However those threats were rarely carried out, the AP reported. Mount Everest is the highlight of Nepal's tourism industry, bringing in $3.3 million a year in climbing fees, the AP reported.
On top of that, the trash on Mount Everest does not naturally degrade because it is so cold, The Times reported. Most of the people who climb the 29,035-foot-tall mountain are inexperienced and are led by guides. They leave the trash as a way to save energy in order to reach the top and stay alive, The Times reported. There is so much garbage that the mountain has been nicknamed "the world's highest garbage dump."
Nepal's tourism authority anticipates climbers will clear eight tons of garbage this year.
"This is a rule that should have been introduced a long time back," Ang Tshering, president of Nepal Mountaineering Association, told the AP. "It is going to make sure that climbers obey the rules."
