How many bottle caps can you find in this picture?

The facts are, some of the most trashy areas in forests or wildlands are areas with dumpsters or disposal sites. Furthermore, most people are inclined to throw away their trash, but when the wind blows, it opens the tops of the container. The smells invite the curiosity of the critters, and the bags are torn open. Wind and wild life commence to distribute that garbage all over the place. At least thats the scenario we can come up with for most of it! The reality is bottle caps don’t blow in the wind.

There is a severe lack of education about the effects of micro-trash, in todays society. Point blank, nobody seems to care. Its somebody elses job. If we got a dollar for every cigarette butt, we would all be millionares. The wildlife of the forest seem to be the ones to do our jobs for us, thus creating all the negative effects. Imagine it was your offspring running around looking for bits of shiny things like plastic or aluminum, to eat! We have seen mice nest in a wad of fiberglass insulation, that had been scavenged from some old rv. The rest of it inevitably ends up breaking down into our soils or in our fresh water sources. The amount of toxins delivered to our natural resources is scary.

The list of Micro-trash items is extensive, but to give a vivid idea of the repeated items that get picked up, here it is:

Beer bottle cap, plastic water bottle cap, cigarette butt, aluminum can tab, shredded aluminum foil, shredded tarp, drinking straw, plastic shards, wrappers of all kinds, corners of plastic, diper wipes, shotgun shell, bullet cartriges, disposable vaporizer cartriges, fiberglass, broken glass, wine corks, shattered plastics of many types, fishing line, lead weights, fishing hooks, corks, styrofoam of all types, wires, tent stakes, broken tent poles, polystyrene fibers, q-tips, flossers, plastic sucker sticks, batteries, discarded underwear, broken flip-flops, broken eyewear, plastic flotation devises, plastic utensils, empty lighters, bread ties and Toliet Paper! Thats just the “micro” items.

We really don’t understand why some schools of thought say toliet paper is an approved item to be left in the forest. If you have seen the absoluty horrifying mess it can be, then you can understand why we say this. Toliet paper does not break down in a day! As a matter of fact, some of todays t-p can withstand seasons of abuse, and still be a consistant blob of white, everywhere you look! Again, the wild life seems to have a way of revealing our waste. Critters will turn up the soil in search of the goodies. The toilet paper is a lightweight item, usually on top of the goodies, upon removal it is left in plain view. We have arrived at some of our favorite camping locations, excited to breathe in all the fresh air. When to our disappointment, wads of butt-wipes were scatterd everywhere.

The solution to the micro-trash problem is simple. We must all do our part. No longer can we say “It is not my job”. It is definetly our “job” to clean up our garbage. We can spend countless hours hanging around a campfire, knocking back a couple of cold ones, standing right on top of it. Use that time to pick up all the trash, you walk by everytime you go hangout in the woods. It does make a big difference.