Want to climb Everest? Only if you return with 8 kg of rubbish

"The government has decided, in order to clean up Mount Everest, each member of an expedition must bring back at least 8kg of garbage, apart from their own trash" explained tourism ministry official Madhusudan Burlakoti. Those who do not comply to this rule will be fined or receive legal action.

At present expeditions must leave a $4,000 deposit upon their arrival at Everest and this will only be refunded once the waste has been brought back. Last month Nepal reduced the cost of permits for individual and small expeditions in an effort to control the boom of large commercial expeditions.

Gas cylinders, oxygen bottles, abandoned gear and even bodies do dead climbers (that due to the cold do not decompose) litter the flanks of the highest mountain in the world. In 2012 an exhibition at Kathmandu concentrated on the environmental disaster caused by half a century of mountaineering exhibitions.

by Francesca Colesanti

>> Mount Everest litter targeted by Nepalese authorities - The Guardian