Everest Waste: Nepal’s 8 kg Garbage Rule and the Khumbu Clean-Up

Mount Everest, 8,848.86 metres high, is the most sought-after summit on Earth, and for decades it has also carried a heavy load of rubbish. In 2014 Nepal tried a bold fix: every climber heading above base camp had to carry at least 8 kg of garbage back down. Here is how the rule worked, what happened next, and who actually keeps the Khumbu clean.

How Everest became a rubbish problem

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first reached the summit on 29 May 1953. Sixty years later the mountain was crowded. In the spring 2013 season alone, 658 people reached the top, 539 from the Nepal side and 119 from Tibet, according to Alan Arnette’s analysis of the Himalayan Database, and by then Everest had seen nearly 7,000 summits. On one day in 2012, 234 climbers stood on the peak.

Every expedition brings tents, oxygen bottles, ropes, food packaging and fuel, and not all of it comes down. In 2013 TIME reported that the Eco Everest Expedition had collected more than 13 tons of garbage between base camp and the summit since 2008, and that the Everest Summiteers Association estimated a further 10 tons might still be on the mountain. Writing in National Geographic, Mark Jenkins described the routes as “dangerously crowded but also disgustingly polluted”.

Nepal’s 2014 rule: 8 kg each and a $4,000 deposit

On 3 March 2014, AFP reported a new rule from Kathmandu. From April that year, every member of an expedition climbing beyond Everest base camp had to bring back at least 8 kg (17.6 lb) of garbage, on top of their own. Waste would be handed in at an office set up at base camp. Each expedition also paid a $4,000 deposit, refunded only when the team proved it had carried its rubbish down.

“If climbers don’t bring back garbage, we will take legal action and penalise them,” tourism ministry official Madhusudan Burlakoti said. More than a decade later, though, the BBC reported that Nepalese officials planned to scrap the deposit scheme, saying that after 11 years it had failed to show a tangible result.

Human waste and the 2024 poop-bag rule

The hardest waste to deal with is human. At extreme cold it barely breaks down: lower on the mountain climbers usually dig holes in the snow, while higher up, where snow cover is thin, they often have to go in the open. In 2024 Pasang Lhamu rural municipality, which covers most of the Everest region, ordered climbers to buy poop bags and carry their waste back down. “Our mountains have begun to stink,” municipal chairman Mingma Sherpa told the BBC.

Who cleans up: the SPCC and the Khumbu waste chain

Much of the daily work falls to the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), set up by local Sherpa communities in 1991. It manages waste across the Khumbu region, on trekking routes, high passes, villages and base camps, and on more than 60 peaks including Everest. Its Icefall Doctors set up the route that gives climbers safe passage through the Khumbu Icefall.

Collecting rubbish is only the first step. SPCC places bins along trails, runs environmental stations in villages where waste is sorted and stored, and operates a materials recovery facility that semi-processes recyclables. It has also tested drones to bring waste down from high camps.

How trekkers can help

You do not need to climb Everest to make a difference. Under SPCC’s Carry Me Back scheme, trekkers help by carrying a bag of collected waste down to lower elevations. Pack fewer single-use items, use refillable water bottles, and choose an operator that explains how it handles its rubbish.

Explore more: an emergency shelter on another high mountain and thinking beyond a summit when planning a hike.

Related reading

• Everest’s Mountain Workers: The Sherpa’s Story
• The Khumbu Icefall through Theodore Fairhurst’s Helmet Camera
• Rupee and Joanne Lefson’s Trek to Everest Base Camp
• Fifteen Great Himalayan and Karakoram Mountains
• Ten Hiking Destinations: Regions, Named Trails and How to Tell Them Apart

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