Nepal is set to abolish a long-standing waste deposit scheme for Mount Everest climbers, conceding the policy has failed to curb the alarming accumulation of rubbish on the world's highest peak.
A Decade-Long Policy Deemed a Failure
Introduced over ten years ago, the scheme required each mountaineer to pay a refundable deposit of $4,000 (approximately £2,960). Climbers could reclaim this money only if they brought back at least 8kg of waste from their expedition. However, officials from Nepal's tourism ministry told the BBC the initiative had "failed to show a tangible result" and had become an administrative burden.
Despite most climbers successfully claiming their deposits back, the policy did not meaningfully address the core problem. Tshering Sherpa, chief executive of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), explained that while oxygen cylinders are often retrieved, vast quantities of other debris are abandoned at high altitude.
The Persistent Problem of High-Altitude Waste
The critical flaw lay in where the waste was collected. Climbers routinely brought rubbish down from lower camps, but significant trash—including food containers, abandoned tents, oxygen bottles, and human excrement—remained at the higher camps, where removal is most dangerous and difficult.
An average climber generates up to 12kg of waste during a multi-week Everest expedition. With around 400 climbers attempting the summit annually, plus hundreds of support staff, the scale of the issue is immense. Limited monitoring beyond a checkpoint above the Khumbu Icefall meant enforcement at the most critical areas was virtually non-existent.
A New Strategy: Non-Refundable Fees and Rangers
Authorities now plan to replace the refundable deposit with a non-refundable clean-up fee, expected to be set at $4,000, subject to parliamentary approval. This fund will be used to establish additional checkpoints and deploy mountain rangers specifically to monitor and enforce waste removal at the higher camps.
Tourism officials stated this new system would create a dedicated funding pool for enforcement, moving away from a behavioural incentive that proved ineffective. The fee will form part of a recently introduced five-year mountain clean-up action plan targeting waste across Nepal's major climbing peaks.
While no comprehensive study has quantified the total waste on Everest, estimates run into tens of tonnes. Environmental groups warn that without sustained, high-altitude monitoring, any clean-up effort risks being ineffective as the world's highest rubbish dump continues to grow.
