00:00Another load of garbage brought back from the roof of the world thanks to drone technology.
00:11Mount Everest's fame as the world's highest peak has bought hordes of trekkers seeking its summit,
00:16and leaving tons of garbage behind.
00:18So bad is the trash problem on the slopes of Everest
00:21that some have taken to calling the mountain the highest dumpster in the world.
00:25But not for long, if this team has anything to say about it.
00:29Helping lead the cleanup is Raj Bikram Maharjan, CEO of Airlift Technology.
00:35From his office in Kathmandu, he's starting to bring the Himalayas' sky-high peaks back to their pristine state.
00:41And he's able to do it thanks to Chinese-built drones,
00:44able to carry heavy loads and get back and forth to remote piles of garbage far faster than people could.
00:50Every year in the mountains, huge amounts of trash pile up, but there is no possibility of bringing it down.
00:57The only options are helicopters and human manpower, with no option in between.
01:03As a solution for this problem, we came up with a concept of using our heavy-lift drone to carry garbage from Camp 1 down to base camp.
01:13This spring climbing season, roughly April to early June, a pair of the drones cleared 300 kilograms of trash from the mountainside.
01:21At US$20,000 each, these drones are a pricey investment.
01:25But the manufacturer provided them to the project, both to help the environment and for publicity.
01:31And it's not just Everest.
01:33In September, the drones will go to Mount Manaslu, the world's 8th highest peak, to clear garbage there.
01:39Drones may soon become a fixture of Nepal's Himalayan trekking routes, and for reasons besides the environment.
01:47They've also proven useful carrying bulky supplies, making climbing lighter and safer.
01:53Nima Rinji Sherpa, the youngest person to climb all of the world's 14 peaks over 8,000 meters,
01:59is among the mountaineers excited about the possibilities.
02:02I've seen a team, the people in the fixing thing, they were very happy, because now they don't have to carry ladders or oxygen bottles or ropes while, you know, fixing the route.
02:11They can simply just go by themselves, and then the drones will, you know, carry the ladders and the oxygen and the ropes for them.
02:17They were very happy, because for them, it's also like, you know, as I told you, saving a lot of time, a lot of energy.
02:23There's a lot of talk about drones these days, especially their military use.
02:27But Airlift Technologies' boss says his company is focused on showing the peaceful uses drones have, from cleanup work to helping mountaineers in need.
02:36It is not just wars where the drones are used, it is also used to save lives and also protect the environment.
02:44So we have to see drone technology as a future where the climate, the environment aspect, and also from the humanitarian aspect, this is going to be a game changer.
02:56And he's starting it in the highest places humans can tread.
03:01Klein Wang and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.
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