NEPALESE authorities have decided to scrap the waste management rule that required Mount Everest climbers to pay a $4,000 deposit refundable only if they returned from the summit with at least eight kilograms of waste, as they admit the scheme has failed to clear garbage from the world’s highest peak.

Officials told the BBC that the refundable deposit system, introduced 11 years ago, has become an “administrative burden” yielding no tangible results. Instead, the government plans to implement a mandatory, non-refundable clean-up fee to fund tighter monitoring and waste removal at higher altitudes.

Officials said the old system had failed to account for the actual logistics of high-altitude mountaineering.

While most deposit money has been refunded over the years, officials say that the garbage issue has “not gone away”.

Climbers frequently exploited the rule by collecting refuse from lower, easier-to-access camps while abandoning heavier stuff near the summit.

Under the proposed changes, the government will replace the deposit with a non-refundable fee — expected to remain at $4,000 per climber — once the measure is approved by parliament. The revenue will establish a dedicated fund to deploy mountain rangers and set up a new monitoring station at Camp Two to ensure trash is brought down from the peak’s upper reaches.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2025