Nepali artists turn Everest garbage 'into gold'

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Laurence Tan / Reuters, fileA basket of garbage sits at Everest Base Camp, with the Himalayan range seen in the background, in May 2011.By ReutersKATHMANDU, Nepal -- Fifteen Nepali artists were closeted for a month with a heap of 1.5 tons of trash picked up from Mount Everest. When they emerged, they had transformed the litter into art.

Follow @NBCNewsWorld The 75 sculptures, including one of a yak and another of wind chimes, were made from empty oxygen bottles, gas canisters, food cans, torn tents, ropes, crampons, boots, plates, twisted aluminium ladders and torn plastic bags dumped by climbers over decades on the slopes of the world's highest mountain.

Kripa Rana Shahi, director of art group Da Mind Tree, said the sculpting -- and a resulting recent exhibition in the Nepali capital of Kathmandu -- was aimed at spreading awareness about keeping Mount Everest clean.

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