Our shit is literally everywhere.
The world’s highest mountain has, in the last few decades, turned into the world’s highest-altitude rubbish dump, thanks to wealthy tourists who mindlessly leave a trail of disgusting refuse in their wake. When tourists pack up their relatively easily accessible camps, they leave behind tents, broken climbing equipment, empty gas canisters, and a whole lot of excrement. Both Tibet and Nepal have implemented systems to try to encourage climbers to bring down their waste. Tibet fines climbers US$100 per kilogram they leave behind, and Nepal charges a $4,000 deposit per team that’s refunded if each member brings down at least 8 kilograms (18 pounds) of rubbish. On the Nepal side, that resulted in climbers returning 25 tonnes of trash and 15 tonnes of excrement, but that’s just a small portion of the litter on the slopes – the problem is that many tourists, who are already spending up to $100,000 for the trek, simply don’t care about the deposit. Credit: AFPForum
