Bhutan Swallowtail Observes Zero Waste Hour

The tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan is the only Carbon Negative country in the world and its Constitution mandates to have 60% of her area under forest cover for all times. Located in the interior part of the Himalayas Bhutan has five national parks, four wild life sanctuaries, one national reserve and nine biological corridors covering around 20,000 sq km which comes to about 51 percent of the country’s total area.

On 2 June 2019 to commemorate the coronation of the 4th King of Bhutan, Her Majesty Gyaltsuen Ashi Jetsun Pema Wangchuck graced the event with an environmental theme, “My Waste My Responsibility.”

On this auspicious day, four programs were launched.

The Prime Minister’s office launched a Waste Management Flagship Program that targets to reduce waste at every point with a conscientious monitoring system.

The Thimphu Thromde/Municipality also launched the Household Compost Product; the initiative involves composting food waste.

The National Environment commission (NEC) launched the National Waste Management Strategy, which aims to prevent waste generation at the source.

The NEC also launched the Zero Waste Hour, an awareness program to attain Zero Waste Society by 2030. This program calls for all the institutions, offices and Bhutanese citizens to take at least one hour on the second day of every month to clean their surroundings.

A team from Bhutan Swallowtail comprising of 13, three women and 10 men, young and energetic volunteered to mass clean one of the most popular cycling/hiking trail – the Wangditse - Sangaygang Hiking/Biking Trail. The trail covers a distance of 4 kms and takes approximately 2 hours easy hike. The trail is a little above 2,700 m above the sea level and offers one of the most beautiful and a complete aerial view of Thimphu City. It goes on a well-maintained trail through untouched blue pine forest giving abundant cool shade perfect for cyclist as well as hikers.

Our team started at 7 in the morning from the Dechenphodrang Lhakhang/temple and collected around 14 sacks of trash, plastics, bottles and sanitary waste. After a satisfied cleaning works and enjoying the awesome view of the beautiful Thimphu city under a perfect weather, the team also enjoyed a sumptuous brunch at Fu Lu Shou, a popular Chinese restaurant in the heart of Thimphu City.

Bhutan Swallowtail is also responsible for cleaning the most popular 3/4 nights Druk Path Trek since 2017 and to maintain the trekking trail trash free indefinitely. With the ‘volunteer’ spirit of our team, guidance and support from the Tourism Council of Bhutan, Bhutan Swallowtail successfully completed 3 mass cleaning campaigns since the signing of the MoU with the Tourism Council collecting more than 60 sack full of trash from each cleaning.