Emma Kemp reports from Kathmandu:

Plastic bags were introduced into Nepal in the 1980s and have been used in shops and markets ever since.

Kathmandu has one European-style supermarket chain, the Blue Bird Department Store. It has 50 outlets throughout the city, the largest of which are in the districts of Tripureshwor and Lazimpat. According to the Himalayan Times, one Blue Bird store estimates it gives away about 300 plastic bags a day. Although the company introduced paper bags four years ago, it says these were found to be unsuitable, especially during Nepal’s heavy monsoon season: wet paper bags fall apart easily.

I walked into the Lazimpat Blue Bird store three times during my visit, and each time was confronted by a specially assigned person who bagged bought goods for customers. Even my one lone packet of Mentos lollies was packed into a plastic bag until I made it clear I didn’t want one. Plastic bags are also handed out free at almost every shop in Thamel, Nepal’s largest tourist district.

The use of plastic bags could be largely attributed to the industrialisation of Nepal. But political turmoil and a heavy reliance on tourism make the government unwilling to put its foot down and introduce the changes that parts of neighbouring India have. To the people of Nepal (or at least their government) the health of the environment seems to run second to the survival of the economy, which has been struggling for decades.

Kathmandu’s lack of infrastructure coupled with an ineffective waste management system has accentuated what is already an environmental problem. Plastic bags often block pipes and occasionally cause them to burst, further damaging the city’s already diminished water supply system and hindering crop growth in the surrounding areas.

One Kathmandu local, Ang Tshering Lama, said: “We have a lot of garbage problems right now in Kathmandu. Where do you throw all the waste? Our government needs to ban plastic bags but they don’t because the big people, the factory people, they bribe them, so the leaders don’t do anything.

“People protest near the dumping sites, and there are times when there would be no garbage collection for two to three weeks.”

Nevertheless, 10% of the 90-100 tonnes of garbage produced daily by the central district of Kathmandu, Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City, is made up of plastics. Ninety-six per cent of these plastics are thrown into landfill sites, and there is little or no segregation of rubbish from what is recyclable.

Outside the capital there are also concerns. There is also much ground pollution in the Himalaya, be it plastic bags or other non-biodegradable waste products. As trekking becomes ever more popular and commercialised, the Khumbu subregion (the site of Mount Everest) is suffering. Ill-prepared Westerners often travel to the region and show no environmental integrity, as is evident from the litter scattered at various locations along the track to Everest. Gorak Shep – the village just below Everest base camp – was the most polluted place I came across, strewn with plastic bottles, bags, empty cans and oxygen cylinders.

The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee has been working to reduce pollution in the Khumbu region since 1991, but its program officer, Kapindra Rai, said this is difficult, especially at high altitude. The committee burns what non-biodegradable items it can, and buries the rest, although there is sometimes not enough land on which to do this.

Since 1999, the city of Hetauda in central Nepal has run programs, largely supported by local people, that strongly discourage the use of plastic bags; eventually non-biodegradable items were banned. Hetauda is now dubbed the clean city of Nepal, evidenced by its gleaming, litter-free streets.