A climber from Nepal is trying to popularize a portable toilet – plastic bucket with a lid, to make climbing Mount Everest greener. To the highest mountain in the world – 8850 m n.p.m. – several hundred climbers set off every year. But base camp, from which they move up, there are hardly any amenities. Szerpa Dawa Steven Sherpa, who led an eco-expedition to Everest in May, to pick up the rubbish left on the slopes of a mountain sacred to Hindus, Nepalese and Tibetans, he said, that his team also used a plastic bucket and a special sealed plastic bag, to collect and neutralize the feces. “Portable and very safe – 25-year-old Sherpa praised her. – I will promote everything, to take care of these things”. During the month-long expedition, the Sherpa's expedition gathered on Everest 965 kg of empty cans, gas cylinders, kitchen waste, tents, parts of an Italian helicopter, that crashed there 35 years ago, and the remains of a British climber, who died in 1972 year. Besides, the ecological team took it down 65 kg of manure after 18 own participants. Speaking of a US-designed bucket, Sherpa added, that no other container of this type has been designed so far. It has approx 27 cm in height, weighs 1,2 Kg. Tourism and alpine expeditions are an important source of income for poor Nepal, acting 4 percentage of annual GDP.
From the feat of Edmund Hillary with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953 year, Mount Everest has already climbed approx 3000 people and the relentless climbs are starting to raise concerns about their impact on the environment. According to data from the Nepalese ministry of sport, it follows, that he climbed Mount Everest this year until summer, from Nepal, 220 climbers, the oldest one is a 76-year-old Nepalese.
