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Toilet tissue littering Camino Portugués

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Barbara2

New Member
Time of past OR future Camino
September 2024
I have been walking the Camino Portugès starting in Porto. I am now in Caldas de Reis. One thing that disturbs me greatly as I walk the Camino is the amount of toilet trash littering the sides of the path. Out of respect for fellow pilgrims, everyone should carry a plastic bag in their pocket in which to carry used toilet paper until they can dispose of it in a proper container. Yes, toilet facilities are few and far between on the Camino. At some time or another, one will have to go in the bushes. But that does not mean you can leave you toilet paper along the Camino for everyone else to see. Sometimes, I felt like I was walking through a giant outdoor toilet. Disgusting.
 
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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Education, education, education. We have to keep repeating the message: do not leave toilet trash — or any other trash — on the Camino. Backpackers’ trash motto “Pack it in, pack it out” also pertains to the Camino. Pilgrims will eventually get the message and learn to behave responsibly and respectfully.
 
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It's a good bet that most of those tissues are discarded late at night when all good peregrinos are sleeping like babes. In many parts of the world your own property is spotless but everywhere else is a tip. What can you do when the world has already exceeded its annual environmental limits? Richard (cup still half full).
 
Dani7 said:
I agree with everything said here. Leave no trace. However I would bet good money that the majority of folks in this forum community get it and is mindful of their trash.
Click to expand...
I would also bet that the people doing it know quite well it is wrong but don’t care, or have a wealth of excuses, and “educating them” also isn’t going to make a difference.
 
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ShoshTrvls said:
I would also bet that the people doing know quite well it is wrong but don’t care, or have a wealth of excuses, and “educating them” also isn’t going to make a difference.
Click to expand...
…but I can and will continue to do… although it makes me sad that some people don’t care.

I’m with Richard, my cup is always half full and when I really want to kick it up a notch I ask for a bigger cup.
 
I don’t understand why people do it, truly I don’t. In the UK where I walk, we often have to go in the bush cos there are no facilities anywhere but no-one, ever, would leave loo paper behind
It’s a mystery.
 
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domigee said:
I don’t understand why people do it, truly I don’t. In the UK where I walk, we often have to go in the bush cos there are no facilities anywhere but no-one, ever, would leave loo paper behind
It’s a mystery.
Click to expand...
At a guess?
Whenever a phenomenon concentrates and proliferates in one setting (the caminos being 'one kind of thing')... there has to be a common driving feature.
So what distinguishes caminos from the other walking holiday routes, or hiking routes?
It is "safe" for inexperienced people to pursue. Many won't have so much as walked to a corner store in decades, and (demographics being what they are on camino) many will have grown up at a time when peeing at the side of the road on a long car journey was pretty ordinary and someone tossed you a napkin from the glove compartment or a tissue from a purse and nobody wanted that thing brought back in the car.
Tissue does tend to be something only the women use for a trail-side stop and they just aren't thinking.
Not at all unlike the "nature lovers" who drive to the woods or a lake and toss their beer cans, soda cans, empty bait containers...
Ignorance, opportunity, and an aversion to holding onto what they find disgusting or inconvenient.
Solution? stop encouraging all the walkers to think that it's "their camino" --- too many take that to mean "to do whatever they want", instead of understanding "individual lessons will be uniquely yours."
 
There is a motto for Australian National Parks that goes something like this :
Take only photographs; leave only footprints.
Maybe my fellow pilgrims could join me and adopting this message. Buen Camino.
 
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In a typical 'subtle' manner, here is an Australian advert about littering.
Maybe a Camino version would be good

I love the last one!

 
Lot of people agreeing that using the side of the road as a latrine is abhorrent we need practical solutions.
Note that on a recent visit to Copenhagen and other European cities free dog litter bags beside bins maybe a campaign in all Albergues on Caminos giving out biodegradable bags and discouraging defecating along the trail may help.
Together with a signage placement at entrance of trail seen one on way to Samos very effective.
 
Camino Way markers in Bronze
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Just a thought.

As a relative 'newbie' having only walked 4 different routes so far......

The only one where the tissue was noticeable for me, was the Frances.

The others were 1. VdlP, 2. Invierno, 3. Fisterra/Muxia.

Is this because of the volume of people on the Frances?
Or because many other routes tend to be walked by 'repeat' Pilgrims?
(and therefore to a degree perhaps, more trail savvy?)
 
Yes, carrying out your own personal hygiene trash is a basic tenet of the "Leave No Trace" philosophy. There are many simple systems available for this.

If you are preparing for your Camino, please make yourself familiar with them, pick one, pack it in your emergency kit, and use it if necessary.
 
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