Here is a simple way to “Do a good turn daily.” Anytime you go on a hike, bring a plastic bag and pick up trash along the trail. Rather than “wasting” a new plastic bag, I suggest using one that is on it’s second life or perhaps ready to go to the recycling bin. I usually use a bag that brought some produce or other item home from the grocery store. This photo is most of the trash that I saw along the Mr. Umunhum trail on Father’s day weekend. I say most because I did not pick up everything I saw. The most common item I picked up, by far, was paper: tissue, toilet paper or paper towels. Unfortunately, I did not pick up all that I saw. I’ll explain later.
What do you see in the photos?
Water bottle, rubber gloves clothing tag(torn into two pieces), other plastic bags or wrappers, band-aid parts and wrappers, gum wrappers, aluminum foil, glass (brown, green and clear), the most common item other than paper products was a small part of a snack wrapper. Probably what happens is the wrapper is torn completely in two and put in a pocket. At a later point in time, the person reaches into their pocket and by sweat or static electricity, the little bit sticks to their hand long enough to escape the pocket. Interestingly, I saw none of the big wrappers. If you ever get the opportunity to go to Philmont, one of the things they teach you is that when opening a food package, don’t tear completely in two. Leave the top attach so that you only have one piece of trash to contend with rather than two. That is something we can all do now.
So what did I leave behind and why? I left behind a disposable coffee cup because it was in a large stand of poison oak. It was farther than my hiking pole would reach and I did not want to “wade” into the poison oak (sorry mother nature) I left behind a 5 gallon pail, well down the mountain and I left behind nine (9) locations where used toilet paper was on the side of the trail. When I can tell it has been used on feces, I leave it behind because I don’t want to risk disease.
Make sure to bring something to clean your hands with. It’s not one of the 10 essentials, but maybe it should be…
