cash for trash

Now you can finally get paid to get your shit together. This year’s Eco Everest expedition is upping the ante. The 2008 Eco Everest Expedition was geared toward raising awareness of climate change and melting glaciers in the Himalaya. This year’s trip is along the same lines, but Eco Everest will also be adopting Restop’s Wilderness Waste Containment Pouches to pack out all human waste. Moreover, the expedition will pay climbers for the old, non-biodegradable trash they collect.
Eco Everest’s system to reduce trash this year is twofold: the expedition members will set an example by packing out all of their trash, both natural and artificial, as well as providing cash incentives to other climbers to do the same. Restop’s pouches are essentially bags of enzymes into which you do your business, then seal them and carry them out.
The cash reward for all trash collected by climbers will be on the order of 100 rupees per kilo collected, or about a dollar a pound.
Everest is notoriously cluttered from climbers jettisoning oxygen canisters and gear they didn’t feel like schlepping down, abandoning tents, ropes and food packaging, and leaving human waste. According to 8000ers.com, there have been over 4100 ascents to the summit to date, and each has left its mark. According to some studies, more than 50 tons of non-biodegradable garbage was left on the mountain from the 1950s to the 1990s. In one cleanup trip alone, 33 volunteers collected 10 tons of garbage. In the past few years, the Nepalese government has enacted a penalty for climbers who cannot prove that they brought the same amount of metal and plastic down as they had brought up. Climbers who leave trash on the mountain lose their $4,000 trash deposit, motivating many to clean up more thoroughly, but trash from previous expeditions is still widespread.