The Methane We Breathe

QI stood here for a few minutes just watching.

Buses idling, crows picking through plastic, people walking past without even glancing down, like this pile has just become part of the scenery.It's easy to see this as just an unpleasant smell or an ugly sight.

But uncollected waste like this is a direct contributor to air pollution, in ways most of us never think about. When organic waste, food scraps, leaves, and biodegradable material breaks down without proper management, it releases methane, a gas far more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat and degrading air quality.

Left out in the open like this, exposed to sun and rain, decomposition speeds up, and so does the gas it releases. Worse, this kind of mixed waste, plastic, food, and everything in between, often ends up burned.

Open burning of garbage is one of the most overlooked sources of urban air pollution in Nepal, releasing fine particulate matter and toxic fumes that travel far beyond the pile itself, settling into the lungs of anyone nearby, including the workers, vendors, and commuters who have no choice but to be here daily. Add to that the buses idling just meters away, releasing their own exhaust into the same stretch of air, and this small patch of ground becomes a concentrated pocket of multiple pollution sources layered on top of each other. Proper waste management isn't just about cleanliness.

It's about cutting off pollution at its source, before it becomes airborne, before it becomes something we're all forced to breathe in, whether we notice it or not. A bus park should move people forward.

Right now, this one is quietly making the air around it heavier with every passing day the waste sits uncollected.