Carry Me Back: How campaigners are making Everest cleaner again

Returning from a trek in Kumbu in November 2019, Raj Manandhar came across a crowded camp at Namche Bazar. First, he thought it was an awareness drive conducted by the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) . But when he approached the crowd, he was pleasantly surprised.

“They were distributing bags with waste that would be recycled. These were small bags, smaller than a kilogram,” says Manandhar. “They wanted us to take the bags to Lukla from where it would be flown to Kathmandu–an idea to involve trekkers in this initiative. I carried two bags down to Lukla myself.”