Leave-no-trace-exception for tissues?
I'm absolutely harsh when it comes to littering in the woods. After a break I take an extra turn to check if everything was picked up. Someone accidentally left a tissue on the last tour and I put it in my pocket. As we randomly chatted about this "incident", he told me not to care so much about handkerchiefs cause they are perfectly biodegradable. Is this true?
Extra kudos: What about cotton handkerchiefs?
2 answers
It's true that paper tissues biodegrade relatively quickly: this U.S. Bureau of Land Management page estimates 2-4 weeks. However, as the same page notes,
Though most trash and litter in the backcountry is not significant in terms of the long term ecological health of an area, it does rank high as a problem in the minds of many backcountry visitors. Trash and litter are primarily social impacts which can greatly detract from the naturalness of an area.
In other words: the "Leave No Trace" philosophy is not just about ecosystem impacts. It's about, well, leaving no trace :).
Even if someone doesn't subscribe to the tenets of "Leave No Trace", taking the tissue can be motivated by a more fundamental principle, the Golden Rule: I prefer not to see used tissues when walking in the woods, and I assume that most other people feel the same way, so I myself will not leave used tissues behind in the woods.
This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/11199. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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There are no exceptions to leave no trace. Either you leave a trace, or you do not, the whole point of leave no trace ethics is to make as small an impact on the environment as possible, this means visually as well as ecologically.
Tissues break down, but the proper method of disposing them would be to bury them in a fox hole. however, if you're digging a fox hole just to bury a tissue, then you're unnecessarily disrupting the outdoor landscape. It would be best for you to at least keep your tissues until you need to dig a foxhole, and bury it beneath your stool. Otherwise, carry it out.
Only lazy or inconsiderate people would drop a tissue on the trail and justify themselves by saying it's acceptable because it's decomposable.
This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/11209. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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