Local teen hopes to rid Kilimanjaro of single-use battery waste – San Diego Union-Tribune

A San Diego teenager has high hopes of making a difference on a mountain around the world.

With his new initiative, “Clean Kili,” Canyon Crest Academy senior Ryan Shah is committed to protecting the beauty of Kilimanjaro from the “careless waste” of battery pollution. Its ambitious mission is to ban single-use batteries from Africa’s highest peak and replace them with environmentally friendly alternatives.

Ryan is a young but experienced mountaineer who climbed Mt Whitney when he was just nine years old. He felt moved to action after climbing Kilimanjaro for the first time last July, a proud moment at 19,341 feet with his sister Sara and father Sanjay.

“When I was climbing it was an incredible mountain and very beautiful, but on the last day of the climb I saw a very disturbing spot, discarded batteries and trash on the way to the summit and around one of the camps,” Ryan said. “I started thinking, ‘How can I help people experience Kilimanjaro without destroying it?'”

After coming down from the mountain, he started researching more about it and decided to use his creativity to tackle the problem.

Ryan is an Eagle Scout and founder of For Our Planet Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the environment by reducing single-use waste. Ryan founded the organization in 2020, inspired by his active and environmentally conscious family, the work of the Sierra Club, and his participation in organizations such as Boy Scouts and Teen Volunteers in Action.

While he has conducted small cleanups throughout San Diego, Clean Kili is his most ambitious project to date.

The entrance signs to Kilimanjaro National Park provide information about the rules and tips for climbing the peak – single-use plastics such as water bottles and bags are prohibited and Ryan would like to add batteries to that list. He learned that the discarded batteries risk leaking chemicals into the river that supplies drinking water to most of Tanzania. He shared this fact when he proposed his idea and a handful of batteries he had collected from the mountain to Kilimanjaro Park Ranger Ernest Goshi. “He realized very quickly how big the problem was and that it was flying under the radar,” Ryan said.

With Goshi’s help, Ryan brainstormed how to get rid of the mountain of batteries and eventually find a sustainable replacement.

First, Ryan planned to share educational posters with the local climbing community and speak to guide companies and porters. On summit days, porters tend to use batteries for their headlamps as climbers leave early in the morning to reach the summit. For his summit, Ryan used a Black Diamond rechargeable headlamp, which most wearers don’t have. He developed an incentive for porters to exchange battery waste from the mountain for a free rechargeable headlamp: If a porter brings down a pound of waste, they can receive a free rechargeable headlamp. For two pounds you get both a free headlamp and a battery.

With his pilot program launched in November and February 2025, Ryan aims to offer 100 rechargeable headlamps and hopes to expand the number to 500. He reached out to the CEO of Black Diamond for funding and received support from the Sierra Club.

The ultimate goal would be a ban and possibly the installation of solar panels to enable charging of rechargeable headlamps and batteries.

“Ryan’s project is really important and a very creative way to address a big problem,” said Dan Ritzman, director of the Sierra Club’s conservation campaign. “Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro provides climbers with much-needed outdoor time and vital income for local communities, but the use of disposable batteries created a pollution problem. Ryan’s plan to work with local authorities, local businesses and tourists is a win for people and a huge win for the environment.”

The Sierra Club even offered Ryan an internship. He is currently in the process of applying to colleges in hopes of pursuing a degree in environmental science or science. He spends most of his weekends outdoors – hiking, biking and going to the beach. His mountaineering goal is to climb the Seven Summits, the highest mountain on all continents. He has one hit, there are six left.

Joining the Clean Kili Project was an enlightening and rewarding experience.

“It was just incredible to me that just from San Diego, I was able to work with people all over the world just to protect this one mountain,” Ryan said. “It’s really cool to see this project come together.”

Learn more about Ryan’s Clean Kili initiative at forourplanet.us/portfoliogridbasicpr/cleankili

Originally published: December 3, 2024 at 7:29 am PST