Campers, hikers, and those who enjoy the great outdoors follow a rule that goes, “Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time.” Camping is a fun and enjoyable activity, but you don’t have to wreck the environment just because you enjoy the great outdoors.
Every year, campgrounds become littered and polluted with all sorts of garbage from litterbug campers. Here are five ways you can enjoy a camping trip without harming or damaging the environment.
Pocket Shower
Some campers waste a lot of valuable water by connecting a pump to a river, stream, or lake. While you should keep your body clean at all times, this doesn’t mean you should drain precious water sources just to take a bath.
Enjoying her bath
Many camping supply stores carry a device called the Pocket Shower, a compact water bag that doubles as a portable shower. The bag of the Pocket Shower can hold 10 liters of water, which is just enough for an eight-minute shower. To use the Pocket Shower, you simply fill the bag with water, and hang it up on a sturdy place, like a tree branch. You can adjust the flow of water coming from the shower using the adjustable shower head. The neat thing about the Pocket Shower is that it can also double as a water-storage bag, just in case you don’t have enough clean potable water to drink.
Shake Flashlight
Omega Shake Flashlight
Many park rangers and clean-up volunteers round up thousands of spent batteries at campsites, mostly D-cell batteries used for flashlights. Some people don’t know how to dispose these dry-cell batteries properly. An invention called a “shake flashlight” gets rid of the traditional battery, and instead uses mechanical and magnetic energy to emit light.
A shake flashlight uses a principle called electromagnetic induction to power a high-intensity light source, usually a light-emitting diode. A quick shake of the flashlight can power it up to five minutes. You can use shake flashlights instead of ordinary flashlights when you’re pitching a tent in the dark, or if you want to play a lively game of flashlight tag on the great outdoors.
Biodegradable Soap and Shampoo
Even simple things like soap and shampoo can be harmful to the environment. A Biodegradable soapSome soaps and shampoos contain dangerous chemicals that do not dissolve in water. While these hygienic products keep your body clean, they can pose a danger to wildlife, especially marine life if you choose to bathe in a river, creek, or lake near your campground. Suds and residue from soaps and shampoos can also seep into the soil and make their way to the underground water table.
Many pharmacies, supermarkets, and camping supply stores carry biodegradable soap and shampoo. Instead of harsh chemicals that can potentially harm the environment, these soaps and shampoos use all-natural ingredients like aloe vera, papaya, and citrus. Most of the metallic compounds found in some commercial shampoos are replaced with natural extracts like coconut cream, rose essence, and menthol.
Portable Fire Pit
You can easily avoid a flash The Portable Fire Pitfire or a serious forest fire by digging a fire pit, but most campers forget to replace the sods. Not only can a single ember spark a major forest fire, but the pit also does not look very appealing to the surrounding area. A better, greener way to light a campfire is to use a portable fire pit.
You can make your own portable fire pit by sawing off the bottom of a metal oil drum, but you can also buy special elevated fire pits from camping goods stores. The fire pit is usually propped up on a sawed-off drum or a bed of loose rocks. Instead of arranging tinder and kindling on a pit or soil surface, you simply arrange them on the elevated fire pit. The neat thing about these fire pits is that you can properly dispose of the used fuel afterwards, and you never have to dig a pit again.
Starch-Based Garbage Bags
One of the most common causes of environmental problems at campgrounds is the old reliable garbage bag. To bring along a garbage bag is a wise thing to do when you’re camping, but some bags can fly off with the wind and get stuck on tree branches, bushes, or even poison or suffocate wildlife. Tons of garbage bags filled with non-biodegradable wastes are picked up from campgrounds every year.
Biodegradable Bags
A recent discovery by scientists now makes it possible to make biodegradable plastics. The plastic material is made from long strands of starch molecules derived from corn. While today’s “green plastics” still take around six months to decompose into compost, they are still a better alternative than those big black plastic bags that take centuries to degrade.
There you have it, five interesting and environmentally friendly things you can take to camp. With these handy gadgets and solutions, you can leave the campgrounds with the thought that you did your part saving the Earth while enjoying the best of the great outdoors.