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A scheme to encourage climbers to bring their waste down from Mount Everest is being scrapped - with Nepalese authorities telling the BBC it has been a failure.

Climbers had been required to pay a deposit of $4,000 (£2964), which they would only get back if they brought at least 8kg (18lbs) of waste back down with them.

It was hoped it would begin to tackle the rubbish problem on the world's highest peak, which is estimated to be covered in some 50 tonnes of waste.

But after 11 years - and with the rubbish still piling up - the scheme is being shelved because it "failed to show a tangible result".

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[-] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 105 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

As it essentially only caters to the wealthy, I am not shocked. Make it $50k, not like they won't want to climb Everest.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 40 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yes, I'm thinking this was the real issue.

Maybe put up a nice instagrammable leaderboard to gamify it, and so people will be driven to virtue signal, and anyone who can't looks as bad as they're being.

[-] Insekticus@aussie.zone 24 points 3 months ago

I like how these wealthy turds still think it's impressive they "climbed" mount Everest.

Like fuck, if you do it in a group of 100 people and you've got 10 guides carrying your bags who've done it a thousand times, and youre not even going to the highest or toughest part, im not even going to pretend to be impressed.

Anyone who says they climbed Everest is just a self-absored rich asshole.

[-] AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

Now, the dude who climbed it with no oxygen and then skied all the way back to base camp, THAT was impressive.

[-] Insekticus@aussie.zone 8 points 3 months ago

Absolutely. Explorers and risk-takers going where men hadn't before.

Now its a glorified amusement park for the rich

[-] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

More than very likely they are a self-absorbed ladder-climbing asshole or a trust fund baby asshole.

[-] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 4 points 3 months ago

they should make them climb K2 first.

[-] AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world 60 points 3 months ago

Close the mountain. If you can't take care of it, you don't deserve to get to climb it.

[-] Lembot_0006@programming.dev 18 points 3 months ago

Money. It's all about money. Nobody will "close" the mountains.

[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 55 points 3 months ago

hear me out.

only rich dumbasses climb Everest. $4000 is just the fee to climb on top of the regular fee to them.

instead of charging a fee, make it a requirement to return with x pounds of trash or face jail time.

[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

Didn't they make a rule that you have to climb one of the other large mountains before climbing Everest as well. So first you have to pay to fly to another country/continent and pay to climb there.

[-] SkyeLight@piefed.social 49 points 3 months ago

When you're paying over 50k to climb the mountain anyway, an additional 4k isn't very much.

[-] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 4 points 3 months ago

and its usually only rich westerners for the most part, or rich people from asia.

[-] Crylos@lemmy.world 46 points 3 months ago

Make the deposits higher, then pool the deposits of those that fail to meet the requirements. Then at the end of the year award the pooled money to the climbers who returned the most trash. As someone else said gamify it…

[-] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 17 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Wow, never been within many thousands of miles of Everest, but I'm quite frankly shocked by that "50 tonnes" estimate. Yikes!

I wonder at what altitude this is, like is it piled up near a bunch of camps towards the base, or higher up?

I always pictured it more akin to a much more vertical Antarctica or something.

That's really sad. :(

[-] DrSleepless@lemmy.world 17 points 3 months ago

Aren’t there a bunch of dead people up there too?

[-] AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world 19 points 3 months ago

There are. Of the 344 people who have died attempting the summit, at least 200 are still up there. You're literally in the process of slowly dying above the 8000 meter mark, which is why it's always deemed too dangerous to try and retrieve them.

[-] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 9 points 3 months ago

That's only 850m shy of the summit tho. How many people make it to 8km and can't make the last ~10%?

[-] AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world 17 points 3 months ago

A lot. The weather on Everest can turn on a dime, and if you don't turn around and start back at the first sign of inclement weather, it can blow up in an instant and murder you.

Tons of summit attempts end with having to be abandoned just short of the finish.

[-] Speculater@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago
[-] grue@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

344 plus a lot more who turn around and don't die.

[-] Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 3 months ago

The rich would never go near a municipal dump, much less climb a literal mountain of garbage... Unless it's located in the highest point in the world, then they'd happily pay for the privilege.

[-] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 7 points 3 months ago

How much waste they take up with them?

If it's more than 8kg, I'm guessing that the only missing requirement for the refund is to increase the number to make it that every climber brings down more than they take up.

In other words, put every climber on the scales before they go up and unless they weigh more when they come back, they don't get their money back.

Bonus reward for each extra kg.

[-] frongt@lemmy.zip 7 points 3 months ago

If you had read the article you wouldn't need to guess.

[-] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 1 points 3 months ago

You mean like the Nepalese government did?

[-] qupada@fedia.io 6 points 3 months ago

From The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

The fabulously beautiful planet Bethselamin is now so worried about the cumulative erosion by ten billion visiting tourists a year that any net imbalance between the amount you eat and the amount you excrete while on the planet is surgically removed from your body weight when you leave: so every time you go to the lavatory there it is vitally important to get a receipt.

Published in 1979, so nearly a half century old idea 😉

this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2025
171 points (99.4% liked)

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