Pokharel, S., & Hollingsworth, J. (2019, August 22). Nepal is banning single-use plastic in the Everest region. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/22/asia/nepal-mount-
everest-plastics-intl-hnk-trnds/index.html
Nepalese authorities passed a law banning single-use plastic on and around Mount Everest. The rules come into effect in January of next year and ban hikers from bringing single-use plastics in and stops shops from selling them. The mountain has around 150,000 visitors per year and with that a number of trash is left behind. In May of this year, a volunteer group recovered over three metric tons of trash from the mountain which included a lot of single-use plastic. The ban does not apply to water bottles, but they are looking into different solutions for that issue.
This article is another great example of a region banning single-use plastic in order to protect the environment from more and more trash and plastic building up. I agree that this is a start to the problem, but plastic water bottles are probably the worst problem as they are the most abundant out of all the plastics. I think that the government needs to ban them as well in order to really send a message. I think that this sets a precedent for other countries to follow and overall it is very important. With the increasing number of people going to everest, it continues to get more and more trashed and we need to protect this natural treasure. The government still needs to come up with a punishment or repercussions for violating the ban and it will be interesting to see how harsh they make it and how they enforce it as it is really difficult to enforce laws in such a treacherous place. If they don’t enforce it, there is no point to the ban as people will just continue to bring plastic on the mountain.
It is great that regions are beginning to ban plastic water bottles. I think that the idea of banning all plastic water bottles is important but i believe that it would be very difficult to implement into society. How do you think would be the most effective way to carry this out? What about multiple use water bottles?
I agree with you that this does set a precent for other countries to follow. I think that tourism around Everest is good for the locals but the tourist need to respect the environment and not leave so much trash around, and maybe even have ore volunteer groups go around and pick up trash. What do you think an appropriate
punishment is for violating the ban?
I agree with your stance on plastic water bottles, as they are the worst of the plastic waste. Certain repercussions must be met to combat this influx of waste as well as tourists, as they are both damaging the area. For plastic though, a ban and fine on shops that sell plastic water bottles should be created.
I agree with you when you say that a ban on plastic water bottles should occur. Plastic water bottle’s are one of the largest sources of plastic on our planet. While this is the case, I do have one question for you.
How would you go about banning the use of plastic water bottles given how many are produced every single day?