A new gallery in Nepal will highlight works of art crafted from trash left behind by the hundreds who come each year to attempt a climb on Mount Everest, hoping to highlight the problem and solutions.
The gallery is at Sagarmatha Next Center, a visitor center on the trail to the Mount Everest base camp. Artists have used “oxygen bottles, torn tents, ropes, broken ladders, cans and plastic wrappers” to create the art pieces. The gallery’s founder/director, Tommy Gustafsson, told Reuters that “We want to showcase how you can transform solid waste to precious pieces of art…and generate employment and income. We hope to change the people’s perceptions about the garbage and manage it.”
There’s plenty of raw material: More than 600 would-be climbers try to reach the summit each year, leaving behind about 18 pounds apiece of rubbish, a total of nearly five tonnes, including oxygen canisters, tent, food containers and human waste.
