Sustainability in the Great Outdoors
Summer time and holiday weekends are commonly filled with camping trips and outdoor adventures. As more of us venture into the great outdoors, it is important to pause to make sure you are being aware and considerate to your impact on these beautiful places. Check out a few of our favorite tips and camping-hacks to make sure your next trip outdoors is sustainable for all!
- Get scrappy – Composting isn’t just for the home! Bringing a bag, jar, or cup with you that you can use to save your compostable food scraps/napkins in for composting when you get back home. In addition to preventing resources from becoming trash, sorting your waste also protects the local wildlife. While it may seem harmless to toss fruit and veggie ends or cores on the ground since they natural materials, don’t do it! Food scraps actually take a long time to break down and can make wildlife sick and/or lead to them to start associating humans with food.
- Leave the plastic on the shelf – Bringing a 5 gallon refillable water jug with you instead of buying smaller single-use bottles is a simple and cost-effective way to prevent unnecessary plastic use and ensures you’ll be prepared with plenty of water!
- Pack it in, pack it out – If you come across trash while on your hike or at your campsite, try to make an effort to pick it up and toss it out at the nearest trash bin, even if it isn’t your trash.
- Leave it better than you found it – When camping, be sure to use biodegradable products that breakdown naturally and don’t hurt the environment. Keep in mind the water from brushing your teeth or washing your hands may end up running off into the nearby bushes and you don’t want to leave any foreign substances that could harm the ecosystem you’re enjoying time in.
Time spent outdoors is a gift and it is up to us to protect these wild places! What are your sustainable habits that make you a happy camper?