Organizing a function this morning at Lukla Airport, the Airline flagged off its first flight for the clean up campaign and shared information about the quantity of collected waste in various collection centers in the Everest region along with a time-bound plan to airlift them.

Yeti Airlines set the ambitious target of flying out 100 tons of waste from the Everest region in 2018 as part of its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly relating to responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), climate change (SDG13), biodiversity consumption (SDG 15) and partnership (SDG 17). The wastes will be taken to Kathmandu for recycling.

While the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), a local environmental conservation organization and the Himalaya Club Lukla, coordinates the collection of wastes in the Everest region, Blue waste to value, a recycling social enterprise in Kathmandu recycles the wastes, as part of its agreement with SPCC. The wastes consist of mostly empty beer bottles and cans, empty food tins, and discarded mountaineering and trekking equipment.

UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Valerie Julliand, UNDP Country Director Renaud Meyer, Yeti Airlines CEO, Umesh Chandra Rai, SPCC Chair Ang Dorjee Sherpa, Chairman Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality, Nim Dorjee Sherpa jointly inaugurated the campaign in the presence of local community people.