About Clean Up Treks
Every year, more than 350,000 tourists visit Nepal. Over 90,000 go trekking in the hills and mountain regions of Nepal. The result of this ever-increasing number of trekkers is the ever-increasing amount of garbage and litter, both seen and unseen. The most often highlighted example of this is the huge amount of waste and litter left behind at the infamous Everest Base Camp. However this problem is not just restricted to this one well-known location.

The main problem is that as tourism has grown, litter and everyday waste has increased, but the disposal of mainly non-biodegradable waste has not been addressed. Many local Nepalese have built more lodges and houses, and transported huge amount of provisions to support the every increasing numbers of visitors. During the course of time, small villages such as Namche, Dhunche, Jomsom, and Ghandrung, have expanded greatly and have now been transformed into sizeable towns, which are still growing with the prospects of more lucrative tourists and visitors coming every year.

The growth of tourism has not only brought in money directly to these rural areas, but at the same time has brought in huge amounts of litter. This has resulted in toilet paper, empty oxygen cylinders, beer and soft drinks bottles, plastic bags and containers appearing on the main trekking trails, along with big piles of non-biodegradable rubbish in the back yards of the many 'tea house lodges'.

 

 

By participating in these clean up treks with other local trekking companies in Nepal, we aim to discourage tourism from damaging the culture, heritage and environment of Nepal. In doing so we hope to generate awareness amongst the thousands of tourists who climb and trek in the Himalayas, and to discourage trekkers from leaving a trail of garbage, toilet paper, plastic bags and blunt tree stumps.

We also hope to educate locals in the environmental practices needed for the new challenges they face now and in the future and in so doing, enable them to act now. There are several pieces of advice that when followed will reduce the amount of rubbish and pollution in the hills:

Over the last two years "Eco-Clean Up Treks" have been organised within the Langtang, Everest and Annapurna regions, which are the most heavily trekked by tourists. During the course of each trek around 90 local porters, 20 Sherpas and others are employed directly from the region to bring 3500 - 4000 kg of non biodegradable waste back to Kathmandu where it is then recycled or disposed of in an environmentally sustainable method. These treks can be joined by anyone from any community in Nepal or from abroad on a voluntary basis.

The trip cost has been kept to a minimum in order to encourage more participation and establish greater awareness. On the trek itself, the porters have the opportunity to learn about the environment, pollution, deforestation, health and sanitation from the trek staff and other participants. These important lessons can be taken back to their villages and the practices learned can then be immediately adopted. The group itself acts as a 'mobile seminar' where porters carry placards on top of their loads, each with a message aimed at trying to bring awareness to the maximum number of settlements and villages that are exposed to large numbers of tourists.