3 Simple Steps To Decrease Littering
This blog post is made from underneath the walls of Sababurg Castle, The castle from the story of the Sleeping Beauty. After a mistake had been made with our package delivery of dog food, we had to wait a day by the castle, however they thought it was perfectly fine for us to pitch our tent outside the castle walls and use their bathrooms. They have the most wonderful and helpful personnel. We can only say thanks for everything.
Here’s 3 simple steps how you can help decrease littering:
#1. Stop throwing your waste on the ground and out in the nature.
There is an easy way to change this habit; put it in a pocket or bring a small bag with you where you can store your waste until you reach a trashbin. Some of your waste can also be used as a “waste holder”. When you have the possibility to dispose your waste in a responsible way, do it.
#2. Reuse, Recycle and sort your waste.
Some things you have and don’t want anymore you can change into something else, give it a makeover, you just have to be creative. A lot of waste you don’t want or cannot use can be recycled and sorted in different trashcans. In that way we can decrease the consumption of those materials in the nature and reuse what we already have harvested.
#3. Contribute in decreasing the littering.
Pick up trash you see on the ground, even if it was not yours to begin with. If you walk by a plastic bag, a chocolate wrapping or a newspaper, pick it up and show your fellow people how it is done. If you look around you will most certainly find a trashcan nearby or you can store it with your own trash and dispose of it when you have the chance.
Reduce your own waste consumption; by actively choose products with none or with the least wrapping and packages. Reuse as much as you can, for example use food packages as lunchboxes, make an inner pot for your flowers or redecorate them and use them as containers in your bathroom.
Enlighten people of the problem with littering and how we together can make a difference. Don’t be afraid to talk to others about this common problem, talk to friends and family and even with strangers. Help people with the first steps and paying it forward.
What are we doing to reduce our waste when we are hiking?
Already by changing our lifestyle with this project and everything within we have managed to decrease our waste consumption a lot. But in some areas we seem to have increased our wastes. One thing we have thought about is the waste that comes with the food like packages and wrappings. Before we had the possibility to buy big packs of food and cook a lot of food at the same time to make lunchboxes etc. but now we have to buy portions of food and a lot of power bars. So we do what we can and choose as big pack portions as we can with the least wrappings. If any of what we buy has some sort of wrapping we use that to cover up some of our belongings. And if that is all covered up we use the wrappings to dispose of other trash or for example as a “poop bag” for our dogs poop.
If you want to do more for the nature there are a lot of things you can do. Think about something that bothers you that affect badly on nature and think of a solution. A new trend is to challenge people you know. For example: the “No waste - challenge” and “no plastic - challenge”.
Other things you can challenge family and friends with;
No food waste!
Eat ecological, local produced and/or after season.
No chemicals in everyday life products.
Bike instead of using the car.
If you feel like you need some inspiration and other peoples guiding there are a lot of groups on the internet and you can easily find webpages and magazines, you just have to search.
Here are some things you can look at:
Magazines:
Miljö och utveckling (Swedish)
Greenup (German)
Nature conservancy magazine (English)
Miljövänligare vardagsliv, Håll Sverige rent (Swedish)
World economic forum (English)
For those interested in a sportsmagazine with the more environment in mind, check this out: http://www.houdinisportswear.com/en/houdini-paper
Ironically we found the German Greenup Magazine in the castle yesterday and it’s a really cool paper with lots of healthy thinking and new ways of upgrading your everyday life into a more greener and sustainable way of living.
That's all for this week, only two more days left on our trail to Hann. Münden. Looking forward to hiking next trail!
Viel Spaβ!