A broken system continues to push disposable plastic into one of the world’s most fragile mountain ecosystems. In 2025, volunteers cleaned 59 sites across Ladakh and documented 22,582 waste items, with more than 21,000 of which were plastic. Across 19 cleanup sites, 1,050 volunteers from 23 schools and organizations collected 19,521 waste items, of which 18,709 (95.8 percent) were plastic. Consumers also have a role to play by choosing reusable products, segregating waste, and demanding sustainable packaging from the brands they support. Ladakh did not create this plastic problem, and it should not be expected to solve it alone.