Trash Strikes Kathmandu
When we arrived in Thamel this time around, we weren’t greeted by the oh-so-common smell of incense, but rather by the stench of rotting garbage.
There are mountains of trash 100 meters (100 yards) long and 4 meters (12 ft) wide along the congested road leading to Thamel. Kids are playing in it, and beggars are digging through it fighting dogs for anything edible. It’s quite shocking!
But trash strikes are not out of the ordinary. When we were in Nepal last time, a strike ended the day we flew to Lukla to start our Everest trek. To get rid of it all, people set the heaps of garbage on fire, and from the air, it looked like Kathmandu was burning.
For the sake of my lungs, let’s just hope for rain this time.
(HELLO,)
I am seeing lots of plastic in this pile of trash.
It is time to outlaw plastic bags and also time to recycle anything that can be recycled.
GO GREEN
Actually, Nepal has done a lot to reduce plastic trash – just not in Kathmandu. Many of the trekking areas banned mineral water to reduce plastic bottles from piling up.
Yes, they’ve banned plastic bottles, but that doesn’t mean you have to go thirsty. At the many clean water stations around Annapurna you can refill your ONE water bottle quite cheaply.