Waste Manage Res 2005: 23: 182–198 Copyright © ISWA 2005

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Waste Management & Research
ISSN 0734–242X

Solid waste management techniques for the waste

generated and brought down from campsites in
the hill spots, trails and expedition tops

The increasing self-generated solid waste from the visitors in Jagdish C. Kuniyal
the hill towns, trails and expedition tops is one of the most G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and
Development, Himachal Unit, Mohal-Kullu (H.P.), India
adverse forms of human impacts in mountain environments.
The direct managing authorities, such as municipalities in Keywords: Readily biodegradable waste, biodegradable waste,
the hill spots, have no proper places to dispose of municipal non-biodegradable waste, solid waste management techniques,
waste nor the other infrastructure required nor adequate hill spots, trails, expedition areas, Himalaya, wmr 790–3
funds. The trekking and expedition areas are entirely
dependent on the moral responsibilities of the local people,
as well as visitors, because these locations are in remote
areas, outside municipal boundaries. Based on five major case
studies representing the Himalayas, the status of solid waste
generation, its physical composition and management
options in tourist [Kullu: 1219 metres above average sea level
(m), Rewalsar: 1300 m, Manali: 2050 m], trekking (in and
around the Valley of Flowers: 1830–4330 m) and expedition
areas (Pindari valley: 2300–5500 m) were studied. The
inflow of visitors ranged from 150 000 to 1 140 251 in the
hill spots, and from 25 000 to 116 392 in the expedition and
trekking areas, respectively. The capita–1 day–1 waste genera-
tion varied from 200–300 g in hill spots and from 200–288 g
in expedition and trekking areas, respectively. Biodegradable
waste varied from 65.2 to 83.1% of the total waste generated
and was of greater quantity than non-biodegradable waste in
expedition areas. Non-biodegradable waste was the predomi- Corresponding author: Jagdish C. Kuniyal, G.B. Pant Institute
of Himalayan Environment and Development, Himachal Unit,
nant form in the expedition (66.4%) and trekking areas Mohal-Kullu (H.P.), India.
(84.5%). The ultimate aim of the study is to make the con- Tel: +91 1902 225329*25; fax: +91 1902 222720;
cerned local people, visitors and government aware of the e-mail: kuniyaljc@yahoo.com/jckuniyal@rediffmail.com
need to harness energy from waste. This can be done in vari-
DOI: 10.1177/0734242X05054668
ous ways including biocomposting, and the reuse and recy-
cling of waste otherwise considered valueless and useless. Received 18 August 2004; accepted in revised form 17 March 2005

Introduction

Most of the world’s mountain regions have great potential for due to their aesthetic beauty, lack of pollution and rich biodi-
promoting human peace, health, and economic opportunity versity. However, the indiscriminate discarding of solid waste

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by visitors in mountain tourist spots, trekking and expedition
areas is causing a major environmental problem. In the name
of mountain tourism, eco-tourism or adventure tourism, the
number of tourists, trekkers and mountaineers (henceforth in
the text these will be referred to as ‘visitors’) is increasing rap-
idly. Consequently, the load of human-induced pollution –
solid waste – in these ecologically sensitive and topographi-
cally fragile mountain areas is also increasing continuously.
Given the inadequate infrastructure services in tourist spots
falling within municipal limits, including the absence of any
formal waste management agencies to deal with the waste,
and the lack of awareness among visitors in the trekking and
expedition locations, there is a need for integrated solid waste
management systems.
Hill spots served by some waste management authorities
have an acute problem of garbage. Estimating waste genera-
tion and its management in hill spots is a challenging task.
Today the waste problem is increasing so fast that certain
famous mountain tourist spots in the Indian Himalaya have
begun to be overloaded with growing stockpiles of garbage.
The sensitive tourist spots and high-altitude locations of the
world need to be conserved and protected from these waste
management problems. This should be a top priority and will
require the co-ordinated effort of many groups including
tourists, local communities, local government and non-gov-
ernmental organizations (NGOs). Otherwise, the impact of
solid waste pollution will not be limited to the immediate
surroundings where it is created but will also spread to other
locations such as down-slope regions.
Today, the trekking and expedition areas in almost every
sub-region of the Himalaya have become so famous that
adventure trekkers and expedition members from every part
of the world wish to come and conquer these gigantic moun-
tain peaks (Kuniyal 2002). Sir Edmund Hillary openly admits
that he left refuse on the slopes of Mt. Everest. At that time,
environmental conservation from biotic pressure was an alien
concept (Hillary & Lowe 1954). Every aspiring mountaineer
wants to conquer the famous Mt. Everest (8848 m) as well as
other peaks in the Himalaya. Thus, the estimation of waste
generation and planning its management in tourist spots,
trekking regions (Kuniyal et al. 1998, Kuniyal & Jain 1999,
2001, Kuniyal et al. 2003a), and expedition locations (Kuni-
yal 1999, 2001, 2002) are important preliminary steps for
finding feasible solid waste management solutions.
Briefly, multiple options for dealing with the diverse com-
position of solid waste are required for the management of
waste in hill spots and in trekking and expedition locations.
First, the need is to think about how to avoid the use of those
commodities which are more prone to create solid waste. Sec-
ond, whatever waste is going to be produced at the level of
households, shops, or stalls on the trails needs to be mini-
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Solid waste management techniques in a mountainous region
mized at its source of origin. Third, it is always preferable that
the maximum number of items be amenable to re-use prac-
tices. Fourth, the recycling of waste, either by composting or
by the re-manufacturing of new products using the waste as
raw materials, needs to be emphasized. Therefore, practices to
refuse, to reduce, to reuse, and to recycle need to be worked
out properly, and in depth, to manage waste problems in an
integrated way in all parts of the globe, irrespective of its alti-
tude, region or culture.
To understand the general status of the present biotic
pressure from visitors and to estimate the total waste genera-
tion and its composition, five detailed case studies were
undertaken across the Himalaya – three hill spots, one trek-
king area and one expedition location.
Study area
The present hill spots under study – Kullu (1192 m), Rewalsar
(1300 m) and Manali (2050 m) – were selected from the north-
western part of the Himalaya in the Indian state of Himachal
Pradesh (Figure 1). The trekking and expedition areas are in and
around the Valley of Flowers – up to Hemkund Sahib (1830–
4330 m) and the Pindari valley (2300–5500 m) both in the
state of Uttaranchal, a hill state adjoining Himachal Pradesh.
The local population in Kullu municipal council is 18 306,
Rewalsar Nagar Panchayat is 1 369 and Manali Nagar Pancha-
yat is 6 265 (Census of India 2001, pp. 19–20). In and around
the Valley of Flowers, the selected treks for the study were
trek 1 from Govind Ghat (1828 m) to Ghangariya (3048 m)
a trek of 13 km, trek 2 from Ghangariya to Hemkund Sahib
(4329 m) a trek of 6 km and trek 3 from Ghangariya to Valley of
Flowers (3300–3600 m) a trek of 4 km. The local population
on trek 1 at the time of the study was 300 individuals in the
winter village of Bhyundhar and the summer village of Pulna.
As the summer starts, the villagers residing in Bhyundhar prac-
tice a seasonal migration to the upslope village – Pulna. This
upslope village is located towards Ghangariya – a last over-
night stop in the trekking region. This seasonal migration to
Pulna therefore enables the villagers to generate income both
from tourism and from grazing their livestock in the surround-
ing forestland. Khati (2300 m) is the last inhabitable village
in the trekking/expedition area of the Pindari valley. At the
time of the study in 1998, the local population was 350. This
village was the starting point for our waste-sampling study.
Materials and methods
Estimation of the inflow of visitors
The methodology for each case study with a few exceptions
was generally the same. In the case of visitors’ estimation,
the methodology adopted used a variety of information from
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J.C. Kuniyal

Fig. 1: Location map of the study sites in the Indian Himalaya.

primary and secondary sources depending on the study
region, the site situation, feasibility, data availability and the
allotted time to conduct a particular study (Table 1). Visi-
tors’ inflow in a hill spot, trek (a stretch covered by walking
between two or more places) or expedition area is an impor-
tant preliminary tool to estimate waste generation in waste
management studies. Due to the varying number of visitors
to a place, it is desirable to conduct a continuous primary
survey at a study site for a considerable period of time to
obtain accurate numbers. Depending on the situation of a

Table 1: General characteristics of study sites, design of waste samples and bulk density of the segregated waste in the Indian Himalaya.

Details Study locations

Hill spots Trekking region Trekking cum

expedition region

Study areas Kullu Rewalsar Manali Valley of Flowers Pindari Valley

Altitude (m) 1192 1300 2050 1830–4330 2300–5500

Sampling dates 18–21 June, 9 March– 8–12 June and 22–24 June 17 July–30 September 25 August–
17–19 September, 1 April 2002 1996, 1–4 September 1995 (or 76 days) and 29 September 1998
20-23 December 1996, 9–11 and 1 June–7 July 1996
1997 19–20 December 1996 (or 37 days)
Sampling days 11 13 17 113 36
Number of samples 62 61 115 33 40
(1 ft3)a
Frequency of samples 3 1 3 2 1
Weight of samples (kg) 379 300 1050 72 191
Bulk density (kg m–3) 218 176 326 78 171
a
1 ft3 = 0.028 m3 or 1 m3 = 35.315 ft3

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town or place, the methodologies may need to be different.
In Kullu and Manali, the visitors were estimated from trans-
port data: bus, taxi or air travellers entering Kullu and Man-
ali (Kuniyal et al. 2003b). Based on the accommodation
capacity of each particular transportation mode and the fre-
quency of their services, the number of tourists was esti-
mated. At Rewalsar, the techniques to estimate the visitors’
inflow were different and involved a combination of primary
as well as, secondary records available concerning different
accommodation types such as hotel, temple and monastery.
For the trekking region of the Valley of Flowers and Hem-
kund Sahib, the visitors inflow was continuously monitored
at a district council office – Govind Ghat, the main entry
point to the region. A thorough census survey of the visitors
after completing their trek and coming down to Govind
Ghat from the Hemkund Sahib and the Valley of Flowers
was carried out in the 1996 season to derive the actual
number of visitors. This survey was conducted continuously
for 129 days (19 May to 24 September 1996). This survey
work was equivalent to one tourist season (Kuniyal & Jain
2001, p. 113).
The estimation of numbers of tourists, trekkers and expe-
dition members for the Pindari valley was based on the
records available at Phurkiya with the rest houses – Kumaon
Mandal Vikas Nigam Limited (KMVN) and the Public
Works Department (PWD), which are located at a distance
of 7 km from the ‘zero point’ of the Pindari glacier.
Estimation of waste generation
Based on the size of the local population, the floating popu-
lation (or visitors) and the daily collection and disposal of
garbage from each municipal town, waste generation was
estimated for Kullu, Rewalsar and Manali hill spots. Each
sample of waste was represented by the waste collected in a
1 foot3 container.
For the trekking regions in and around the Valley of Flow-
ers, waste generation was estimated (1993–1996) in two
ways. First, whatever supply of commodities was being trans-
ported to stalls in the trekking region (between Govind
Ghat to Ghangariya, and Ghangariya and Hemkund Sahib)
by the shopkeepers, or by visitors for their own use, was
unloaded, unpacked, counted and weighed at the entry gate
of the district council office at Govind Ghat. This also
allowed the exact brand of the commodities to be noted,
including the source factory of a particular commodity. This
survey was carried out continuously for 76 days in 1995 and
37 in 1996 (see Table 1). During the starting days of summer
season in the following year, all the commodities in trek 1
and 2 were recorded at the stalls themselves. Just after the
onset of the season, these items would have been supplied
previously from Govind Ghat and other major market cen-
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Solid waste management techniques in a mountainous region
tres (Joshimath and Rishikesh) to the trekking region by the
stall keepers. The survey of the stalls was conducted over 13
days in 1996 (1–13 June). Overall, the survey for estimating
solid waste generation in both years was continued for 113
days during two consecutive years – 1995 and 1996, which
was equivalent to a summer season of almost 4 months (last
week of May–September) in a year. None of the sampling
days during these 2 years overlapped. The weight of the
waste was determined by weighing the various containers
without the products to be directly consumed by the users.
For example, a oil tin (15 kg) was weighed after removing
the oil from it. The three treks, namely, Govind Ghat to
Ghangariya or trek 1, Ghangariya to Hemkund Sahib or trek
2 and Ghangariya to the Valley of Flowers or trek 3 were pri-
marily selected to pinpoint the role of stalls and visitors in
contributing to the total waste generation in the study
region. Approximately 25% of the stalls along each trek,
except trek 3, were randomly selected and observed for 48 h
to derive the contribution of the stalls to total waste genera-
tion in the region. Trek 3 was excluded because this trek,
which falls within the Valley of Flowers National Park
boundary, is not permitted to have such stalls. Because of the
continuously diminishing number, and even extinction, of
flowers in the valley, the Department of Forest, following a
declaration by the then Uttar Pradesh Government in 1987,
has prohibited such activities.
Estimating waste generation from the trekking, as well as,
the expedition areas within the Pindari valley was conducted
from 25 August to 29 September, 1998, although the official
date of the expedition was from 23 August to 30 September.
The additional days included the bus service to and from the
trek. The collection of waste samples within the Pindari val-
ley was done in two ways. First, the self-generated waste from
the 20 expedition members during the period of the expedi-
tion was analysed with 10 samples, each collected in a con-
tainer of 1 ft3. Before beginning the expedition, all the expe-
dition members including porters were trained by the author
to keep their own rubbish in a separate red-coloured kit bag
provided to them for use during the course of each trekking
day. The red colour of the bags symbolized a sign of danger
due to unattended waste that is hazardous and risky to both
humans and nature if left behind. The other purpose of the
red colour was to alert all those individuals we might
encounter during trekking about the negative impacts of
waste if not resolved at the source of generation, particularly
in these ecologically sensitive regions. At the end of each
day, the expedition members deposited their self-generated
waste with the author to be weighed and identified as to its
composition. Similarly, the waste generated from breakfast
and dinner or any other cooking activities were handed over
to the author by the porters deputed for kitchen work. In this
Waste Management & Research 185
J.C. Kuniyal
way, the total waste created by the expedition members was
weighed and used to calculate the waste generation per expe-
dition member. Waste was collected starting from the last
inhabited village, Khati (2300 m) up to Camp 2 (5500 m),
to the summit of Mt. Panwali Dwar, as well as, Mt. Baljuri. In
addition, 30 samples of old waste left behind by past visitors
was recovered and weighed.
Waste characterization
The total number of waste samples collected and segregated
at Kullu from 18 June to 23 December 1997 to identify the
waste composition was 62 (namely 52 from the refuse collec-
tion points and 10 from the disposal sites). The seasonal dis-
tribution of samples was 20 in the summer, 23 in the rainy
season and 19 in the winter. In total, about 380 kg of waste
was segregated at Kullu. Similarly, the characterized samples
from 8 June to 20 December in 1996 at Manali were 115
(namely 64 from the refuse collection points and 51 from the
disposal sites). There were 54 samples in the summer, 31 in
monsoon season and 30 in winter. The total segregated waste
during three seasons was about 1050 kg at Manali. The bulk
density of the waste per m3 was also derived for each hill
spot, trekking region (the Valley of Flowers), and expedition
location (the Pindari valley).
The waste characterization in the mid-altitude tourist
spots is the outcome of a long exercise used to accurately rep-
resent the composition pattern of the waste. The objective of
this composition analysis is to accurately identify the differ-
ent components of the waste and thus identify the viability
of management options for reduction, reuse and recycling. In
addition to the temporal distribution of the samples at Kullu
and Manali, representing the summer, monsoon and winter
seasons, spatial representation was achieved by including
every municipal ward of each town and selecting various
existing open refuse collection or dustbin points designated
by the municipal bodies for collecting and disposing the
waste deposited by the public. Sometimes, the local commu-
nities themselves also developed these common open refuse
collection points by depositing their waste at convenient
spots. Such refuse collection points were also taken into
account for waste characterization. The informal refuse col-
lection points usually develop when the managing authori-
ties lack adequate funds or dustbins to install at desired loca-
tions. In addition, samples were also taken from disposal sites
that remain outside the municipal limit of the town.
Waste characterization at Rewalsar was conducted from 9
March to 1 April, 2002. A total of 61 samples were charac-
terized. Door-to-door, waste collection from households was
done in seven wards of Nagar Panchayat until a sample con-
tainer of 1 ft3 was obtained. The households within a ward
were selected randomly. The sample container was then
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unloaded on a plastic sheet (3 m × 3 m) and the composition
characterized manually.
Indirect and direct methods of waste characterization
were used in and around the Valley of Flowers. In the indirect
method, the waste-prone commodities estimated for waste
generation were grouped into biodegradable waste (BW) and
non-biodegradable waste (NBW), based upon the ingredi-
ents’ likely period of decomposition. Materials were labelled
BW if they would decompose naturally within a couple of
months, given the appropriate temperature conditions
(25 ± 5°C). Items included in this category were mainly
paper packaging items used for milk, biscuits, chips, tea and
bread. The NBW was that which remains intact for years
and hardly decomposes in natural conditions. Containers
such as soft drink glass bottles, oil tins and pickle tins were
included in this category. The direct method included the
waste stored for 48 h by the stall keepers in the gunnysacks
provided to them by the author. This survey was conducted
during the period of 23–25 September 1996. Nine samples
(1 ft3) were characterized. The collected waste from treks 1
and 2 were loaded on a horse and brought back to the Forest
Rest House at Govind Ghat for manual separation. The sep-
arated materials were grouped into three broad categories:
readily biodegradable waste (RBW), BW and NBW. The cri-
teria for BW were the same as discussed above. RBW refers
to that waste that could easily decompose naturally within a
couple of weeks under appropriate temperature conditions.
RBW is normally produced from items for human consump-
tion and includes mostly vegetable rinds, leftover food, and
fine materials, either organic or unidentifiable. As noted pre-
viously, trek 3, in the Valley of Flowers National Park’s
boundary, has no stalls due to the regulations of the Govern-
ment of Uttaranchal. The waste thrown or left behind by the
visitors along the sides of the trek 3, continuing up to one of
the gravesites in the heart of the valley, were collected for
separation. Since the collected waste mostly belonged to past
visitors, BW and NBW were dominant in comparison with
RBW, which had already decomposed.
To examine the differences in waste composition in the
expedition and trekking areas of the Pindari, the waste sam-
ples from old and current waste were collected and segre-
gated. The samples of old waste largely belonged to members
of the preceding expedition and/or trekkers who left behind
these mostly non-biodegradable materials in the open or
sometimes in covered ditches around the sites of their camps
(Figure 2a and b). The samples used for characterization pur-
poses were collected from Khati village (2300 m) up to
Camp 2 (5500 m). There were 30 samples (or 140 kg) of past
waste collected. The collection of these waste samples dif-
fered from one place to another depending on the availabil-
ity of old waste left behind by the visitors. The samples were
 Solid waste management techniques in a mountainous region

Fig. 2: A sorting analysis of solid waste near (a) the ‘zero point’ and (b) the base camp during expedition in the Pindari valley.

collected from Khati (two samples), Dwali (four samples),
Phurkiya (five samples), Baba Ki Kutiya (a hermitage hut) or
near zero point (eight samples), base camp (six samples), and
camps 1 and 2 (four samples). An additional 10 samples were
made up of the waste collected from the expedition in which
the author participated.
The criteria used to characterize all the waste samples
were the same in all five case studies in the central and
northwestern Himalaya.
Results and discussion
Visitors’ inflow
The annual visitors coming to various hill spots were esti-
mated as follows; about 256 854 at Kullu, 150 000 at Rewal-
sar and 1 140 251 at Manali (Table 2). The trekkers or Sikh
pilgrims in and around the Valley of Flowers were recorded as
116 392 for the 3-month period from the last week of May to
September. In the Pindari valley, the tourists, trekkers and

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J.C. Kuniyal
Table 2: Inflow of visitors and waste generation capita–1 day–1 in the Indian Himalaya.
Details
Study areas Kullu
(1192 m)
Visitors 256 854
Permanent population 18 306
Amount of waste produced (t day–1) 57
Waste produced capita–1 day–1 (g) 300
expedition members together were estimated to be 25 000
for the combined seasons of May–June and September–
October. The variation in the number of visitors from one
location to another in the Himalaya is mainly governed by
the distance of the locations from roads, the purpose of the
visits, the availability of existing recreational resources, the
nature of prevalent resources for recreational and/or adven-
ture activities, the availability of accommodation facilities
and other amenities and the overall status of popularity of a
location, based on all these factors in the eyes of the visitors.
The hill spots located at mid-altitudes are more accessible in
comparison with the trekking/expedition locations. There is
also little physical effort or risk involved in visiting these
spots as they are generally connected by roads. These facts
influence the increasing or decreasing number of visitors
going to a particular location. As the distance and altitude of
a trek or a recreational place increase, physical effort and risk
also increase and the number of visitors reduces accordingly.
That is why there is much greater visitor pressure at each of
the three hill spots than at the trekking and/or expedition
locations of the Himalaya.
In general, the pressure of visitors is greater in the hill
tourist towns and trekking regions than the expedition loca-
tions because the element of adventure risk is higher in expe-
dition activities than in the other two recreational and trek-
king locations. However, the length of stay of mountaineers
in expedition locations is longer than the recreational tour-
ists in the hill towns and trekking regions. The length of stay
of the visitors varies from 1 to 3 days at hill spots, 3 to 15
days in trekking regions and a couple of months in expedi-
tion locations. So the pressure of adventure tourism activi-
ties in expedition locations may not be less than the hill
spots because of the relatively longer length of stay, the
higher biotic activities, the ecological sensitivities and the
fewer available local resources.
Solid waste generation
Depending upon the number of visitors, as well as, the
number of permanent residents at a location, solid waste
generation is greatly affected by their routine activities. The
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Study locations
Hill spots Trekking region Trekking cum expedition region
Rewalsar Manali Valley of Flowers Pindari Valley
(1300 m) (2050 m) (1830–4330 m) (2300–5500 m)
150 000 1 140 251 116 392 25 000
1 369 6 265 300 350
4 28 0.26 0.004
200 300 288 200
average annual solid waste generation during a peak summer
season when the number of visitors was highest was esti-
mated to be around 57, 4 and 28 t day–1 for Kullu, Rewalsar
and Manali, respectively. Of the total waste generated at
Kullu and Manali, about 2 and 9 t day–1, respectively, was
generated directly by the visitors (Kuniyal et al. 1998, p. 222).
The seasonal waste generation in these two locations seems
to be greatly influenced by the large number of permanent
residents in comparison with visitors. According to the 2001
census, the local residents in Kullu municipal council were
18 306 persons in comparison with 6 265 at Manali (Census
of India, 2001, pp. 19–20). They generated about 54.9 t day–1
of waste at Kullu, and 18.8 t day–1 at Manali.
In and around the Valley of Flowers, 0.3 t day–1 of waste
was generated. In the trekking/expedition areas of the
Pindari valley, the visitors under an alpine environment pro-
duce 0.004 t day–1.
The per capita waste generation is important for a clear-
cut picture of waste pollution status at the different locations
under study. Based on the number of visitors per day and the
local population at Kullu, namely 704 and 18 306, respec-
tively (Census of India, 2001), waste generation was esti-
mated to be 300 g capita–1 day–1. At Rewalsar, waste genera-
tion was estimated to be 200 g capita–1 day–1. In Manali, the
visitors’ inflow is 3 288 day–1. Combining local residents and
visitors results in a total waste-generating population of
5 897 persons day–1. Thus, waste generation for Manali also
was calculated at 300 g capita–1 day–1. The per capita waste
generation at Kullu and Manali was the highest ever noted
throughout the other Himalayan tourist spots during the
present study.
In the trekking areas in and around the Valley of Flowers,
288 g visitor–1 day–1 waste was generated, but in the trekking
and/or expedition areas of the Pindari valley, the amount of
waste generated was slightly lower than at the other study
locations, namely 200 g visitor–1 day–1. So it can be seen that
the waste generation in certain hill spots such as Kullu and
Manali as well as trekking areas in and around the Valley of
Flowers are regions that are generating a relatively high
amount of waste in comparison with the expedition locations.
 Solid waste management techniques in a mountainous region

Fig. 3: Segregated glass solid waste (a) in front of melting snout of the Pindari glacier, and (b) on the way to the Valley of Flowers.

Solid waste characterization Readily biodegradable waste

The waste characterization in different locations enables one
to understand the different composition and categories of the
waste (Figure 3a and b; Table 3). This ultimately helps to
identify the management options appropriate for the waste,
including solutions to minimize and mitigate the problem.
Based on management considerations, this study of five cases
in the central and northwestern part of the Himalaya shows
that the waste categories could broadly be grouped into the
following three types.
The portion of the waste that quickly decomposes in nature,
within approximately 2 weeks at temperature conditions sim-
ilar to the summer season is here termed as RBW. The major
items found in this category in the selected locations were;
leftover food, vegetables, fruit, beverages (tea powder and tea
leaves) and plant residues (grass, leaves and flowers) (Figure 4).
In the hill spots this category of waste comprised from
47.6 to 65.5% of the total waste generated in Kullu and
Manali, respectively (Table 4). In the trekking and/or expe-

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J.C. Kuniyal

Table 3: Waste composition identified in the high-level waste (2300–5500 m) in the Himalaya

Waste category Physical composition

RBW
Food waste Apple jam, lemon, cabbage, lady’s finger, beef spice powder, chilly, pepper, left over mixed food,
rice, mango pickle, tea waste and shell’s of cucumber, garlic, onion, potato, potato chips, tomato
Fine organic matter Fine soils, soil dominating particles mixed with pieces of paper and grass
BW
Almond Seeds
Cloth-cotton Banners, caps
Cloth-woolen Torn pieces
Grass Grass
Paper Cartons for packaging, eggs’ tray, office writing paper, news papers, paper sheets for packing,
match boxes and film roll covers
Jute-bag/rope Sacks, small bags, ropes
Medical wastes
(i) Cotton Torn cotton
(ii) Medicines Tablets, capsules
Wood Half burnt wooden pieces
Miscellaneous Pieces of paper, half burnt paper
NBW
Aluminium Aluminium pieces of tents and pots
Battery:
(i) Small Pencil size batteries for radio and small torches
(ii) Medium Medium size batteries for radio and torches
Bones Animal bones
Candles Pieces of candles
Crockery China bones, clay pots
Clothes-nylon Clothes nylon, socks
Glass:
(i) Reusable directly Soft drink glass, wine bottles, rose water bottles, sauce, coffee bottle, scent bottles
(ii) Broken Pieces of broken glasses
Egg shells Egg shells
Frooti Synthetic plastic containers for soft drinks
Hair Hairs
Iron Pans, tea net
Leather Shoe and its pieces, cloth pieces
Mattress-raged pieces Mattress, foam
Paper in shining Foils for wrapping edibles
Plastic:
(i) Polythene reusable Polyethylene sheets
(ii) Polythene unusable directly Polyethylene ruptured bags, polyethylene sheets, umbrella handles
(iii) Bags Polyethylene bags
(iv) Containers Small bottles, jerry cans, plastic milk bottles, milk bottles
(v) Slippers Slippers, shoes
(vi) Scent bottles Small and medium perfume bottles
(vii) Toothpaste (toilet/sanitary) Toothpaste tubes, cleaning brushes
(viii) Disposables-cup etc. Tea cups, mineral water
(ix) Plastic solid/others Broken pieces of jugs, buckets
Rubber: Rubber shoes
(i) Sleepers/shoes Torn shoes, slippers
(ii) Others Pieces of pipes
Tin:
(i) Reusable directly Fruit-jam container, juice, butter, beef/ mutton container, pea pod containers, egg powder containers,
milk containers, lids of soft drink bottles, chimneys, gas cylinder (MSR ISO Butane), shaving box
(table contd. on page 191)

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 Solid waste management techniques in a mountainous region

Table 3: Waste composition identified in the high-level waste (2300–5500 m) in the Himalaya (table contd. from page 190)

Waste category Physical composition

(ii) Unusable directly Deformed canisters of oil, small containers for milk, meat and soft drinks, toothpaste tubes
Wrappers:
(i) Small Wrappers of tobacco, Gutka-Surti (direct intake tobacco), toffee
(ii) Large Wrapper of ready made edibles tea, butter, oil, Maggie, biscuits, soup, potato chips
Medical wastes:
(i) Wrappers Medicines wrappers
(ii) Viles/glass Small glass containers for dry powder and liquid, vials
(iii) Plastic: Liv 52 Small medicine containers, plastic lids
Miscellaneous Mixed items with hair, synthetic plastic paper
Stone Pebbles identified from the separated and sampled waste

shells, paper (newspaper, office paper, cartons and napkins), torn

or old clothes (woollen and cotton), rags and firewood residue.
BW proportions of the total generated waste varied from
12.3% in Rewalsar to 17.6% in Kullu. The share of this cate-
gory of waste varied from 3.4% in and around the Valley of
Flowers to 15.9% in the Pindari valley. On average, the pro-
portion of BW waste was lower in the trekking and/or expe-
dition locations in comparison with the hill spots located in
the lower parts of the Himalaya. The reasons for BW being a
smaller proportion in the trekking and expedition locations
could be that most of the items of solid waste come from
packaging. Furthermore, these items decompose over time
and hence the amount found from past visitors was small in
comparison with the non-biodegradables.

Fig. 4: Solid waste characterization results in hill spots, trekking and
expedition areas of the Himalaya (components included under the
RBW, BW and NBW groups).
dition locations in and around the Valley of Flowers and the
Pindari valley, this category of waste comprised only 12.2
and 17.7% respectively. These results make clear that RBW
items from the total waste are a larger proportion in the hill
spots in comparison with the higher trekking and expedition
locations of the Himalaya. One reason is simply that the old
waste at the time of sampling was either partially or com-
pletely decomposed. Thus, it was not possible to identify
RBW separately from the biodegradable waste. Moreover,
most of the commodities, which are supplied to the expedi-
tion areas, come packed in containers and others, are rarely
cooked. The ready-made food items carried by expedition
members to the summits generate very little RBW.
Biodegradable waste
Biodegradable waste can be defined as that which takes rela-
tively more time to decompose naturally than RBW under
appropriate temperature conditions – perhaps a few months. The
major identified items in the BW category were; fruit seeds/
Non-biodegradable waste (NBW)
Non-biodegradables are those waste items which even after a
long period of time do not decompose in nature. This waste is
considered a real enemy of nature since it is continually accu-
mulating on the Earth’s surface and can adversely affect
human life, livestock, vegetation, temperature and glacier
conditions in the sub-alpine and alpine environment of the
Himalaya. The major identified NBW items were; polythene
bags (polyethylene), plastic, glass, metal, bone, egg shells,
coal residue, broken crockery, nylon cloth, hair, frooti wrap-
per, processed leather, stone and brick, and ash and fine earth.
NBW waste was 16.9% of total waste in Manali and
34.8% in Kullu. In and around the Valley of Flowers and the
Pindari valley NBW comprised 84.5 and 66.4% of the total
generated waste, respectively. Thus, these results show that
NBW is much higher in the trekking and expedition loca-
tions than the down-slope hill spots of the Himalaya.
The major reason for this waste composition pattern is that
much of the NBW is found in the form of take-away soft drink
glass bottles (200 ml) and tin containers (1 kg) in the trek-
king and expedition locations, respectively. Non-biodegrada-
bles in the hill spots often are collected by waste pickers
either for reuse by themselves or to send as raw materials to

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J.C. Kuniyal

Table 4: Waste characterization results (weight % of the total segregated waste on a wet weight basis) in different study locations of the Himalaya.

Waste characterization in different study locations

Hill spots Trekking region Trekking cum expedition region

Waste groups/composition
Kullu Rewalsar Manali Valley of Flowers Pindari Valley
(1192 m) (1300 m) (2050 m) (1830–4330 m) (2300–5500 m)
(n = 62)a (n = 61) (n = 115) (n = 33) (n = 40)
1. RBW 47.62 58.03 65.54 12.17 17.71
Food 2.71 10.47 2.03 2.40 3.87
Vegetables 15.29 23.50 22.55 7.87 7.40
Fruit 6.77 5.54 5.12 – 0.49
Beverages – 0.52 – – 1.95
Plant residues 2.88 3.90 2.18 – 0.04
Organic matterb – 14.10 17.59 – –
Fine organic matterc 19.97 – 16.07 1.90 3.96
2. BW 17.62 12.24 17.56 3.36 15.91
Fruit seeds/shell 1.86 0.14 1.30 0.06 2.94
Paper 11.41 7.87 11.87 2.31 10.85
Cloths/rags 3.01 2.20 3.66 0.30 1.95
Wooden matter 1.34 2.03 0.73 0.69 0.08
Miscellaneous – – – – 0.09
3. NBW 34.76 29.73 16.89 84.47 66.37
a. Directly reusable 10.38 7.04 4.29 61.29 39.60
Polyethylene 7.72 1.57 0.93 2.56 5.08
Tin 0.05 0.38 – 0.00 9.46
Glass (bottle) 2.61 5.09 3.36 58.73 24.96
Candle – – – 0.00 0.04
Nylon cloth – – – – 0.06
b. Decorative reuse 21.00 17.09 5.38 7.80 10.09
Battery – 0.21 0.06 0.18 1.40
Bones/eggs shells 2.28 1.15 0.71 – 1.77
Coal 0.07 0.91 0.36 – –
Crockery 0.52 – 0.34 – 0.05
Paints – – 0.02 – 5.51
Hairs 0.01 – 0.05 – 0.03
Frooti wrappers 0.00 1.26 – 1.93 0.63
Processed leather 0.38 – 0.17 – 0.49
Mattress – – 0.00 0.00 0.18
Stone and bricks 17.51 2.41 2.91 – 0.03
Ash and fine earth 0.23 11.15 0.76 5.69 –
c. Recyclable 3.36 5.59 7.19 15.38 15.95
Plastic 2.76 2.81 6.36 4.71 8.00
Rubber 0.33 0.08 0.38 1.68 2.39
Metal 0.27 0.39 0.45 8.99 0.32
Glass (broken) – 2.31 – – 5.24
d. Needs safe disposal 0.02 0.01 0.03 0.0 0.73
Detergents 0.02 – 0.03 – –
Medical waste – 0.01 – – 0.73
Grand total 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00
(378.89) (300.30) (1023.67) (72.20) (190.89)
a
n indicates total number of samples (1 ft3) segregated.
b
Easily identifiable during segregation from other composition due to its coarse size nature.
c
Not clearly identifiable during segregation from other composition due to its fine grain sizes.
Values in parentheses are in kilograms indicating the total segregated waste at a study site.
– Indicates ‘nil’.

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factories for recycling thus reducing the proportion of NBW
in these locations.
Discussion on high altitude waste (2300–5500 m)
The absolute quantity of the waste generated at high alti-
tudes is small if calculated with reference to the total area of
a mountain region. However, when only the area close to the
trails is considered any waste that is visible both spoils the
view and becomes hazardous to visitors, the local population
and flora and fauna. The high-altitude waste considered to
be most dangerous, hygienically and ecologically, is the
NBW. Thus, management of NBW composition needs to be
given high priority in the expedition areas (see Figure 2a
and b). The high altitude NBW, as found in the Pindari valley,
was mainly glass (reusable and broken), plastic, tin, wrappers
and rubber (see Figure 3a and b). Collectively these contrib-
ute about 51% of the total of other non-biodegradable and
biodegradable waste indiscriminately thrown in these areas.
This waste composition is the result of both earlier and cur-
rent visitors to these areas (see Table 3). Reusable glass con-
tainers constitute the highest share of the total segregated
waste (25%). Many of these glass bottles, used for soft drinks,
wine, sauce, coffee, rose water and scent, could be directly
reused if brought back by the visitors. Broken glass, which
was identified as 5.3% of the total is also fit for recycling.
The plastic waste (5.1%), included mainly polyethylene
sheets used to cover and protect the expedition materials,
clothes and edibles from rain and snowfall during expedition,
ranks next in percentage at 5.1%. Visitors often also use these
light-weight polyethylene sheets as raincoats; umbrellas are
less preferred because high winds can easily damage them.
The plastic waste that cannot be directly reused, but can
be recycled, included polyethylene bags and other plastic
containers. Plastic jerry cans, small bottles and milk powder
containers can also be recycled.
Tin containers used for gas cylinders (MSR, ISO Butane),
fruit juice, jam, milk and butter made up 4.1% of the waste.
These materials are considered valueless and left behind.
The deformed tin, containers left behind by the earlier expe-
dition members, could also be recycled.
Moderate-size wrappers remain scattered over the trek in
large amounts and were about 3.1% of the total waste. These
were mainly from tea, butter, oil, biscuits and soup. Small-
size wrappers, used mainly for toffee and tobacco are also
important (1.1%). Another NBW found in a significant
amount that also requires attention is rubber (1.6%), mainly
old slippers and shoes.
There was also some medical waste. Small glass containers
of dry powder and liquid, vials, disposable syringes, tablets
and their wrappers were found and needed to be handled
with special care.
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Solid waste management techniques in a mountainous region
Abandoned waste that can destroy the major economic
value of the country
Considering the ecological sensitivities and fragilities of
these regions of the Indian Himalaya, solid waste manage-
ment should be a top priority among the environmental prob-
lems. The abandoned waste will destroy the major economic
values not only in the region concerned but also widely
throughout the country. The indiscriminate disposal of solid
waste can be a cause of fading aesthetic values, injuries, dis-
eases, and otherwise harm people and the environment by
contaminating water sources, increasing the local tempera-
ture, hampering the growth of grass and herbs and melting
glaciers at a faster rate.
Poor solid waste management can result in the diversion
of visitors to other places due to loss in aesthetic values and
cleanliness of a region. As a result, the earnings of the local
people and the local and state government of the area from
these recreational and adventure tourism activities will suffer
if there is a reduction in the number of visitors.
There could be a direct adverse impact in these areas on
scarce water resources as a consequence of abandoned waste
and its impact on the melting rate of glaciers. The change in
water resources, due to the rapid rate of glacier melting, will
result in either surplus in one season or a shortfall in another
season. This could cause a water crisis in the down-slope areas
in terms of both drinking and irrigation water, which collec-
tively would hamper the overall economy of the country.
Solid waste, particularly non-biodegradables (tin, glass,
plastic, polyethylene), even in small amounts, may also ham-
per the growth of small herbs, grasses and plants. Indiscrimi-
nate throwing and improper placing of solid waste can harm
the plants that normally grow freely in the already harsh cli-
matic conditions of the sub-alpine and alpine environments.
Delicate medicinal herbs, which are economically important
but now very rare in numbers, could be destroyed or hin-
dered in their growth. Brahma Kamal (Sausurea obvalata),
Attis (Aconitum heterophyllum), Chippi (Angelica glauca) and
Dolu (Rheum australe) are under a severe threat from waste
pollution and other human activities in the Pindari valley
(Kuniyal 2002, p. 570).
Ultimately, the waste itself, if managed properly at its
source of generation, could add economic value for each
individual expedition member. This would happen if the
waste was sold to waste pickers at road heads from which
they would transport the waste to the recycling factories.
Economics of recyclable and re-usable BWs and NBWs
The practice of visitors discarding used commodities imme-
diately turns these commodities into waste at different loca-
tions, including town streets, trekking paths or snow-capped
mountains. This makes it difficult for anyone to realize its
Waste Management & Research 193
J.C. Kuniyal
potential economic value for reuse or recycling. Waste does
not seem to be so important in the eyes of most of the resi-
dents in the towns, tourists in the hill spots, trekkers on the
trekking routes, or mountaineers on the expedition peaks.
However, the monetary value of this NBW is potentially
quite significant. It could be a ‘money earner’ if it were trans-
ported from expedition and trekking areas to towns that
have municipal facilities or sold to waste pickers or recycling
parties. For example, a survey conducted at Kullu on 21
November 2002 revealed that tin and iron could be sold at
the rate of Rs 2 and Rs 4 kg–1, respectively, to the waste pick-
ers (at that time about 48 rupees (Rs) = 1 US$). Soft drink
glass bottles (300 ml) could be sold at the rate of Rs 4 kg–1.
The deformed plastics, originally used to make plastic prod-
ucts such as buckets, dustbins and other items could be sold
at the rate of Rs 4 kg–1. These selling prices can be increased
by about 22% if the waste is brought to the road heads and
sold directly to recyclers (Kabariwalas). Waste pickers usually
visit door-to-door within the municipal limit of the towns
and make the process of waste collection easy and economi-
cal for the households. These households have been the
prime sources of waste generation and the major contributors
to total municipal solid waste in those hill spots of the Hima-
laya with a significant number of residents.
Similar to the NBW, some of the biodegradable items can
also be sold to the recycling parties and reused in making
products such as recycled paper. Biodegradable paper waste,
including newspaper (Rs 4 kg–1), office paper (Rs 3 kg–1),
writing printing, and old magazine paper (Rs 3 kg–1) can also
be sold. Nowadays this recycled paper is seen as ecofriendly
and used for business cards, greeting cards, envelopes and
other purposes.
In and around the trekking region of the Valley of Flow-
ers, soft drink glass bottles (200 ml) remain lying on the
paths and resting places, in part, due the high transportation
cost for moving them from the trekking region to the road
heads. Thus, the waste pickers have not been interested in
collecting these bottles for transport back to the factories.
Likewise, the shopkeepers in the hill spots see little eco-
nomic profit in collecting soft drink bottles. The larger glass
bottles (300 ml) are only numerous in the hill spots but not
beyond these regions. As a result, many more of the 300 ml
bottles are collected for re-use and recycling due to low
transportation costs. To test the feasibility of transporting
the 200 ml bottles from the trekking areas, a pony was loaded
with 250 glass soft drink bottles, roughly packed in gunny
bags without any sophisticated packing at Ghangariya.
When the pony was unloaded at the road head – Govind
Ghat (a trek of 13 km), only a single bottle was found to be
cracked. Thus after deducting transportation costs (i.e.,
Rs 100 pony–1) and collection charges (i.e., Rs 25 worker–1),
194 Waste Management & Research
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a net profit of Rs 62 pony–1 or 25 paise bottle–1 was earned at
the selling rate of 75 paise bottle–1 (Rs 1 = paise 100).
In another experiment conducted to find the resale value
of the predominate NBW – tin – in the Pindari region, a
horse was loaded with 80 kg of tin waste from the base camp.
After completing a trek of 68 km, the tin waste was unloaded
at Selling near Bharari where the return trek and/or expedi-
tion from Pindari ends and the road head begins. As this
road head had no recycling party or waste pickers because of
its distance from any towns, the tin waste was taken to
Bageshwar. The tin waste was sold to a recycling party for a
total of Rs 400, or Rs 5 kg–1. Excluding horse transportation
charges of Rs 350 for a distance of 68 km and a bus fare of
Rs 30, from Selling to Bageshwar, the net earning was Rs 20.
To bring the self-generated waste from the trail to the
road head and then from the road head to recycling units
requires extra attention on the part of the visitors. This step
needs to be further strengthened and fully supported by the
local government in order to manage the waste in the trek-
king and expedition areas. The most effective means to
implement the solid waste management option is first to
develop efficient self-transportation for use by the visitors
from the expedition locations and trails to the towns. If the
trekkers and expedition members become aware of the prob-
lem and bring, at least, their self-generated waste to the road
heads, collection, particularly for non-biodegradables, could
be made possible by the municipal bodies. In the towns,
waste pickers and recycling parties do not collect the LDPE
plastic and polyethylene simply because of the high transpor-
tation costs of delivering them to distant recycling centres.
For example, if a truck were hired for the journey from Kullu
to Chandigarh (232 km), the transportation charges would
be about Rs 10 000. This makes transporting the used plastic
and polyethylene unprofitable. As a result, this plastic waste
remains lying around the region. In the eyes of many envi-
ronmentalists, social activists, local people and non-govern-
mental organizations, the solution is to ban these plastics
and similar waste. In response to the continuing outcry by
these organizations, the Himachal Pradesh Nonbiodegrada-
ble Garbage Control Act- 1995, enacted on 15 June 2004
banned polyethylene with the size of 12 inches × 18 inches
and less than 70 microns in thickness. Initially, this ban was
on all polyethylene bags of a size 8 inches × 12 inches and
less than 20 microns in thickness throughout the State
beginning in September 2003 (Anonymous 2003). However,
in other hill states of the Himalaya this problem continues.
Solid waste management techniques
Considering the different waste categories and the nature of
the waste composition, there is unlikely to be a single option
for solid waste management at a location. Rather, a combina-

tion of different options will have to be planned and imple-
mented to manage a variety of waste in an integrated way in
different hill spots and trekking/expedition regions.
These options are listed here.
1. The first and foremost step in solid waste management is
to refuse, reduce, and reuse the waste at its origin. The
next step to manage waste is recycling. Recycling recog-
nizes that waste can become a resource. It is waste only
due to its misplacement by the users and the absence of
collection and recycling procedures. In hill spots, the pri-
mary sources of waste are usually considered to be house-
holds and hotels where waste is thrown either in dustbins
or in open refuse collection points. It then is mixed with
commercial waste from market places and is ultimately
known as municipal solid waste (MSW). The disposal of
garbage in the towns is the responsibility of direct manag-
ing authorities such as the municipal bodies. In the
absence of adequate or efficient conditions of infrastruc-
tural services, the municipal bodies can only partially deal
with the waste problem. The disposal of waste by the
municipal bodies is generally done in a low-lying location
on the outskirts of the town. The waste load from both
households and commercial areas continues to increase
and ultimately requires more infrastructure and staff for its
collection, transportation and disposal. Thus, the primary
need is to refuse or discourage the practices that help
increase the heaps of garbage so as to reduce it at the pri-
mary stages of origin (households, community level dust-
bins or refuse collection points). The use of items that
meet our day-to-day requirements but also are less prone
to waste generation needs to be promoted widely. For
example, the use of jute bags in place of low-density poly-
ethylene (LDPE) bags to bring vegetables and other edi-
bles from the market is a good alternative. There is a simi-
lar need to minimize the use of makeshift items prone to
waste generation in the trekking/expedition areas. These
steps if taken at the primary stages of waste creation could
cultivate a habit among the public, tourists, trekkers or
expedition members of using those items or commodities,
which would not be turned into waste after single use.
2. The next important way to reduce waste at its source of
generation is to segregate the waste into two categories –
biodegradable (RBW + BW) and non-biodegradable
(NBW). The proportion of RBW and BW waste through-
out the selected locations collectively ranged from 65.2%
in Kullu to 83.1% in Manali. This significant proportion
of the total waste could easily be decomposed by biocom-
posting under natural aerobic conditions through bacterial
activity. The author has established demonstration bio-
composting pits (3 m × 1 m × 1 m) on his institute’s cam-
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Solid waste management techniques in a mountainous region
pus. On average, 28% of the fresh weight of the total
municipal solid waste resulted in biocompost. The waste
piled in the pits varied in amount in fresh weight from
221 kg in winter to 232 kg in summer. The decomposition
took 35 ± 5 days in summer (April–June) and 55 ± 5 days
in winter (January–March). These pits can retain a maxi-
mum of about 500 kg of waste at a time. However, the
author heaped the waste in the pits up to only half of their
total capacity (i.e., 250 kg). This allowed good aeration
without using any ventilated polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
pipe. If filled with biocomposting material up to full capac-
ity, these pits would require one or two PVC pipes posi-
tioned at an angle across the compost pit for aeration –
one end buried within the compost material and the other
one out of the pit. The waste in the pits requires turning at
intervas of 15 days until complete decomposition. The
turning process helps to distribute the microbes through-
out the surface area of the waste and speeds decomposi-
tion. Such pits require an ultra-violet light and a multilay-
ered cross-laminated polyethylene sheet (PE) to cover the
waste inside the pit. This regulates temperature condi-
tions, and protects the composting material from rainfall
and other external environmental conditions. The bio-
compost pit environment should be completely free from
water logging. The moisture of the composting material
should be maintained at 40% to provide a conducive envi-
ronment for the microbes. The size of the pit can be
reduced if the raw waste material is less at some locations.
Thus, a large share of the waste problem in the hill spots
could be resolved through practising biocomposting in such
pits. This method of producing compost in the sub-tem-
perate climate region where many hill tourist spots of the
Himalaya are located is a sustainable option to deal with
small to large amounts of the waste. The only requirement
is that the visitors and local residents bring their self-gen-
erated waste to the dustbin points set up by the managing
authorities. The collection and transport to compost pits,
or biocompost plant, can be made possible by the legal
managing authority. This practice, like others, requires an
integrated effort by the tourists, local people, concerned
authorities, research institutions and local government.
3. Biocomposting can reduce the ever-increasing load of
waste pollution in the hill towns and can also help supple-
ment the age-old traditional farmyard manure prepara-
tion, usually requiring 6 to 8 months, by the villagers sur-
rounding these tourist towns. Support for the agricultural
sector – orchard activities and crops grown in terraces –
can add to the maintenance of an attractive and healthy
landscape in the areas surrounding the hill spots. The hill
spots included in this study are good examples. The
energy and nutrients produced by biocomposting the
Waste Management & Research 195
J.C. Kuniyal
municipal solid waste can be supplied at economical
prices. The demand for this compost is high in these vil-
lages because the livestock population continues to
decrease as a result of several factors, including the reduc-
tion in forest areas and the consequent scarcity of fodder
and grass. The increasing demand for timber for hotel
construction, continuous increasing encroachment on to
third-class forestland for agro-pastoral activities and for
fuel wood and the use of timber distribution rights by the
surrounding villagers have collectively contributed to a
reduction in forest areas. Consequently, biocomposting of
MSW can help to reduce the waste pollution load in the
towns and increase soil fertility, improve crop productivity
and reduce pressure on forest resources in the rural vil-
lages of the Himalaya.
As far as the trekking and/or expedition areas are con-
cerned, the trekkers and expedition members, with the
help of local communities in the host region, can adopt
micro-level biocomposting practices. Pits of small size
(1 m × 1 m × 1 m) can be dug in down slope snowline
zones and away from the immediate sources of river water
for micro-level biocomposting. Even waste sludge can be
decomposed in extremely alpine environments with a low
risk to human health (Rauch & Becker 2000). The size of
the pits for biocomposting should be fixed only after the
amount of biodegradable waste being generated by the
visitors in the region during their trek and/or expedition is
known. Such micro-level biocomposting pits need to be
dug out below the snowline to minimize damage or loss to
already receding glaciers of the Himalaya or other similar
mountains of the world. The products of this high-altitude
biocomposting can be applied back to the denuded pas-
tures, areas with medicinal herbs or even to existing dwarf
varieties of plants such as Rhododendron campanulatum.
The grasses and dwarf varieties of tree species in these
areas with inhospitable conditions of soil and climate and
a limited growth period remain under high biotic pressure
due to transhumance practices, tourism, trekking and/or
expedition activities throughout the central and the
northwestern Himalaya. Along with the severe climatic
conditions and short growing season, the shortage in
nutrient supply for the natural vegetation in these areas is
another limiting ecological factor. By supplying the nutri-
ents from micro-level biocomposting practices, vegetation
growth can be improved and these areas could be main-
tained ecologically to support livestock and human popu-
lations during transhumance, tourism, trekking and expe-
dition activities. Moreover, such innovative solutions can
establish a balance between people and nature in these
highly sensitive areas that could be continued for the
future generations.
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Fig. 5: Solid waste management options for non-biodegradable waste
in the Himalaya.
4. The NBW in the hill spots needs to be reused as much as
possible, and when these cannot be reused, such items can
be sold directly to waste pickers. NBW has potential eco-
nomic value through reuse and recycling. This waste can
be reused and recycled in many ways. The waste pickers
usually visit door-to-door in the hill spots to collect the
non-biodegradables. The situation becomes more difficult
in the trekking and expedition areas where there is an
absence of waste pickers or waste management authorities
to cope with the waste problem. Furthermore, in the trek-
king and expedition areas there is the problem of transpor-
tation costs to move the garbage back to the road head. To
maintain the beauty and cleanliness of nature in this frag-
ile environment, valued for its natural beauty and grandeur
by tourists and trekkers, this NBW must be controlled.
There seems no option except to say that visitors should
transport their self-generated waste out of the visited areas.
Every trekker or expedition member should bring back the
self-generated waste from trekking and expedition areas to
the road heads. There the waste could easily be sold to waste
pickers and then transported to recycling centres. In return,
the visitors could receive a token amount of money from
the waste pickers in exchange for the non-biodegradables.
A combination of one or more solid waste management
options are required to deal with the different subgroups of
waste among which non-biodegradables are the most impor-
tant ones to discuss in reference to tourist towns, trekking
and expedition locations (Figure 5). These options could be
of the following form.
1. The important action for non-biodegradable solid waste is
to make the reuse of this waste as convenient as possible

for the users. In the present study, NBW was 3.4% of the
problem at Kullu, 5.6% at Rewalsar and 7.2% at Manali
hill spots and could be reduced directly by reuse. Reuse
here means to modify the item for another use or for reuse
in its original form. For example, oil tins cannot be reused
directly for holding oil but can be used as flowerpots. On
the other hand, in and around the Valley of Flowers as
well as in the Pindari expedition areas approximately 61.3
and 39.6%, respectively, of the total waste is NBW that
could be reused directly. For example, in and around the
Valley of Flowers, soft drink glass bottles (58.7% of the
total waste) and LDPE polyethylene (2.6% of the total
waste) could be directly reused. Similarly, in the Pindari
valley soft drink glass bottles (approximately 25% of the
total), tin (9.5% of the total) and polyethylene waste
(5.1% of the total) could be directly reused. In the hill
spots, however, the directly reusable non-biodegradables
are a relatively small proportion of MSW because waste
pickers often do regular door-to-door collection of such
waste within the municipal limits of the towns. However,
in spite of this door-to-door collection of both reusable
and recyclable discarded commodities, the proportion in
the waste stream varied from 4.3% in and around the Val-
ley of Flowers to 10.4% at Kullu.
2. A second reusable subgroup of NBW includes items that
can be reused for various decorative purposes such as ‘rock
gardens’ in the large city of Chandigarh in the northern
India. Discarded, neglected, broken or deformed non-bio-
degradable waste, if collected in sufficient quantity, and if
architectural designers help with design, might be reused
for decorative purposes in the parks or gardens within the
towns or cities and other public places. Smaller amounts of
such waste could be reused on private premises such as
households and hotels. The items that might be reused in
this manner include; batteries, bone, egg shells, coal resi-
due, crockery, hair and paint. Waste that could be used for
decorative purposes were 5.4% of the total at Manali, 17.1%
at Rewalsar, and 21% at Kullu. In the trekking and expedi-
tion areas, such waste was 7.8% of the total in and around
the Valley of Flowers and 10.1% in the Pindari valley.
3. The third subgroup of NBW includes materials that could
be recycled in factories in nearby regions of the Himalaya.
Opening a new high-altitude waste recycling centre for
non-biodegradable waste would not be a viable option in
the absence of an adequate supply of raw materials. The
items appropriate for recycling through outside factories
near the study region are; metal, plastic and rubber,
which, in and around the Valley of Flowers, constituted 9,
4.7 and 1.7% of the total, respectively. If these non-biode-
gradables were recycled, 15.4% of the total waste in and
around the Valley of Flowers could be managed. In the
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Solid waste management techniques in a mountainous region
trekking/expedition areas of the Pindari valley 16% of the
total waste could be recycled in this manner: namely plas-
tic (8%), broken glass (5.2%), rubber (2.4%) and metal
(0.3%). As far as the hill spots are concerned, they have a
relatively small proportion of total waste considered suita-
ble for this manner of recycling.
4. Medical waste is another separate category of NBW and
requires separate treatment and safe disposal due to its con-
taminating nature. Unfortunately, medical waste usually is
mixed with other municipal and trekking and/or expedi-
tion waste. This makes management of the medical waste
hazardous, risky, unsafe, and impractical as a sustainable
management strategy. However, in the expedition areas,
this problem is much more serious and should be managed
through safe disposal practices including bringing it back
to the towns and applying disinfectants through leak
proof microwave ovens.
NBW waste has a promising potential for reuse and recy-
cling, particularly in the trekking and/or expedition areas. In
these areas, it is recommended that successful management of
solid waste initially will require mass level cleaning pro-
grammes. All the non-biodegradable waste from previous vis-
itors either lying along the treks or in ditches needs to be col-
lected and returned for reuse and recycling. A local
controlling body at the level of the district administration
concerned is required to examine and verify numbers, types
and brand of edibles and other commodities prone to waste
generation that are carried by visitors. The visitors, when return-
ing after completing their visits, should be asked to deposit
their waste at a designated place. This step of bringing back
the self-generated waste, particularly non-biodegradables, to
the road heads will further facilitate easy transportation of the
waste that is suitable for recycling to adjacent recycling facto-
ries. This could reduce the continuously increasing load of
waste now found in the trekking as well as expedition areas of
the Himalayas or other similar mountain parts of the world.
Conclusions
The bulk density of the waste ranged from 176 (Kullu) to
326 kg m–3 (Manali) within the hill spots, and 78 (Valley of
Flowers) to 171 kg m–3 (Pindari valley) within the trekking
and expedition areas. The per capita waste generation
ranged from 200 to 300 g day–1 in the hill spots and from 200
to 288 g day–1 in the trekking and expedition locations,
respectively. The high-altitude waste composition identified
was glass bottles of mainly soft drinks and wine, polyethylene
sheets and bags, plastic containers for milk and jerry cans, tin
containers for tinned food items, gas cylinders and wrappers
of ready-made food items (Maggie, biscuits). In terms of the
Waste Management & Research 197
J.C. Kuniyal
physical composition of waste, biodegradable waste
(RBW + BW) dominates in the hill spots. Biodegradable
waste ranged from 65.2% (Kullu) to 83.27% (Manali) of the
total waste generation. In the expedition cum trekking areas
NBW dominated – 66.4% of the total in the Pindari valley
and 84.5% in the Valley of Flowers.
Solid waste management (SWM) in the hill spots requires
the practice of biocomposting whereas waste management in
the trekking and expedition areas requires the visitors them-
selves bringing back their waste at least up to a road head
points. There they can sell these non-biodegradables to
waste pickers, who would later transport them to recycling
factories for production of new products. The SWM options
for MSW with a high proportion of readily biodegradable
waste and biodegradable waste, particularly in the hill spots,
give biocomposting a high potential. This practice lessens
the waste load in the hill spots on the one hand and, on the
other hand, can increase the nutrient status of the soils in
the crop and horticultural land of villages surrounding the
tourist spots by applying biocompost from MSW.
Medical waste urgently needs separate treatment both in
hill spots and in trekking and/or expedition locations. Meas-
ures should be taken to ensure that it cannot be mixed with
the common municipal/trekking/expedition waste, thus avoid-
ing health risks and disease. Highly infectious hospital waste
requires the use of leak-proof microwave ovens for disinfecting.
The implementation of SWM technical expertise and
policy options requires integrated and participatory efforts
that include both the authorities directly dealing with
SWM, such as municipalities, and other civic groups. This
joint participation to strengthen co-ordinated efforts to elim-
inate waste problems from the mountain areas should be the
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