First, let me start by saying that I do believe in the leave no trace concept and adhere to it religiously. I am in no way suggesting that we should stop doing it. Far from it.
However…
In my everyday life, I often think about our planet and the mess we, the ’’SMART’’ human beings are leaving for future generations and how in only a few years (since the early 19-hundreds – that’s short in planet years) we’ve almost managed to completely choke the life out of it. Some people think climate changes are a hoax, I personally think it’s real. Who’s right? Well, lets wait a few years, we should find out soon enough. And honestly, in this instance, I hope I’m wrong.
Every day, I try to teach my children to respect the environment and to avoid producing unnecessary waste. One of my biggest pet peeves is our addiction to plastic. Can you see me coming a mile away? You’ve guessed it… Ziploc bags.
Backpackers, myself included, are always looking for ways to decrease their pack weight. Even the ones who don’t adhere to the UL concept do it. In order to do that, not only do we repackage our belongings and food in lighter and more manageable Ziploc bags, a lot of us even eat out of them to avoid washing dishes in the woods so not to contaminate anything. Then we carry everything back home and throw it in the garbage because by that time we get there, they’re too yucky to wash.
When throwing away packaging deemed incompatible with efficient backpack organisation and repackaging everything in Ziploc bags, we’re creating a lot more waste. We may not be leaving a trace on the trail but we sure are leaving a big one at home. I’ve been pondering on this for a while now, trying to find a viable solution. Buying food in bulk and making our own dehydrated trail food helps lowering the amount of waste at the source but no matter how we look at it, it still needs to be packaged to fit in our backpacks. Cloth bags are an option but they won't work with everything and they're not waterproof, another issue backpackers need to deal with on a regular basis.
Am I the only one worrying about this? I’m curious to see what other Whiteblaze members are doing to lower the amount of waste they produce. Are Ziploc bags unavoidable?