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Training Techniques - Dispose of Waste Properly

The following techniques focus on the disposal of human waste, ‘gray water’, litter, and food waste.

Have a Sip

Objective: To illustrate the impacts of common camping items on water sources.
Materials: Soap, bug spray, sunscreen (any items that are liquid form will work), a clear cup and clean water.
Audience: All ages. Groups of any size.
Duration: 15 to 20 min.

Directions:
Take a clean glass of water, show it to the group and tell them what the glass contains. Ask the group, or a few individuals within the group, if they would drink the water and discuss their answer. Now, take out the soap - mention that it is biodegradable and that many people use it in the outdoors to clean themselves and their dishes. Add a small amount of soap to the water and stir it. Ask the group if they would still drink the water. Discuss that biodegradable soap can still have an impact on water quality. Then, take some bug spray and add it
to the water and ask the group again if they would drink it. Continue this trend with as many common camping items that you see fit. Discuss how easily it is for people to impact water quality with common items they use while outside. Finish with a discussion about water source contamination and how we can prevent or minimise our contributions to water source contamination.

How Far is 30 Metres?

Objective: To show participants how far 30 metres is, so that disposal of waste can be accomplished properly.
Materials: N/A.
Audience: All ages. Groups of any size (less than 15 is ideal).
Duration: 5 to 10 min.

Directions:
Prior to starting this activity, find a location and measure out 30 metres. You should not physically mark where 30 metres is, rather make a “mental marker” (e.g. a tree, rock or other natural feature). Have all of your participants form a line and ask them to walk a distance that they feel is 30 metres After all of the participants have picked their final location, reveal to them where 30 metres actually is from their starting point. Discuss why it is recommended to travel 30 metres away from a given location (i.e. water source, trail, other campsite, etc.).
To wrap up you can explain how to pace this distance, or use a rope to illustrate the exact measurement.

Toss the Chalk

Objective: To convince beginners to climbing that they should not use climbing chalk, and should respect the land that surrounds their favourite climbing spots.
Materials: N/A.
Audience: Climbers. Groups of any size.
Duration: Varies.

Directions:
At the beginning of the presentation, stand up in front of the group and unwrap a piece of gum. Before you begin speaking, throw the wrapper on the floor…use the audience’s reaction as a springboard for the rest of the talk. Thoughts for discussion: Leaving a wrapper behind ‘Leaves a Trace’, just like climbing with chalk. Explain to the audience how difficult it is to remove chalk once it is embedded in rock. Following this introduction, take the group rock climbing: on approaches and descents, arm each climber with a garbage bag for collecting litter. Bring the group to a popular climbing spot and first have them survey the ground below the route for chalk crumbs and trash. Next, ask them how they can identify the most popular routes (look for chalk trails). Tell them that many people find this chalk accumulation offensive; mention time and labour-intensive chalk cleanups. Also discuss the pros and cons of being able to see handholds because of chalk accumulation. On one hand, it makes it easier to see where the next handhold is…on the other hand, it may take away from the challenge of finding one’s own way along the rock. Finally, have the participants each do one climb with chalk and one climb without. Talk about and compare the two “feels”, and encourage them to not use chalk on their next climb.

Objective: To give participants a greater understanding of what to do with their human waste in different environments.
Materials: Multiple photos of different natural environments (e.g. deserts, coastal, meadows, alpine, limestone, bog, etc.), White board and markers.
Audience: 12yrs and over. Groups of any size.
Duration: 20 to 45 mins.

Directions:
Write the following three different options for solid human waste disposal on a white board - cat hole, pack it out and finally leave it on the ground. Discuss each of the options with the group. Then, take the photos of the different natural environments and pass them out around the group. If there is not enough for everyone, pair up some participants. Tell the group they will have to decide which is the best method (from the 3 options) for waste disposal in the given environment. Have the participants share their ideas with the rest of the group and then discuss further. Through the discussions the participants should have a good understanding of the different options as well as knowing that it is never ideal to leave human waste uncovered on the ground. Some points of discussion to cover are: if you are unsure contact the local land manager; potential health issues with exposed human waste; rates of decomposition; social impacts; etc.

Connect Four

Objective: To introduce the four objectives of human waste disposal.
Materials: Pre-made cards with the four objectives of human waste disposal (see next page), pen and paper for each group. www.leavenotraceireland.
Audience: 12yrs and over. Groups of 4 or more.
Duration: 15 to 30 mins.

Directions:
Discuss the four objectives of human waste disposal with the group. Split the group up into four smaller groups. Give each group a card with 1 of the objectives on it. Have them brainstorm ways that they can accomplish each of the objectives. Some examples of answers are below:
1. Minimise contamination of water sources
• 30 metres from water.
• Do not leave waste in obvious drainage.
• Pack it out.
2. Maximise decomposition
• Use a cat hole, organic soil.
• Stir dirt in cat hole with waste (the phrase “poop soup”. helps make light of the idea).
• Don’t put a rock on top of it.
3. Minimise social impacts
• Dig a cat hole.
• Dispose not within eye-sight of trails and campsites.
• Urinating in rivers with high water flow (cubic feet per second), only as recommended by the land manager.
• Pack it out.
4. Minimise contact with insects or wildlife
• Dig a cat hole.
• Pack it out.

Use their responses as an outline for discussion. Make sure to discuss that if you are not sure what the recommended method is for disposing of human waste properly in a given environment, the best thing to do is to try to accomplish as many of the four objectives as possible. Consult the Leave No Trace Skills & Ethics series for discussion ideas.

Cat Hole Olympics

Objective: To teach participants how to dig a cat hole through a fun activity.
Materials: Trowels for the whole group, a ruler, stop watch, pen, piece of paper, 3 prizes (eg.chocolate bars) and survey flags.
Audience: 10yrs and over. Smaller group sizes work well. (Very good for a competitive group).
Duration: 30 to 45 min.

Directions:
Prior to meeting the participants, find a place for this activity and dig a cat hole. When participants arrive or it is time for this particular lesson, bring them over to the cat hole, describe the procedure and talk about why we use cat holes. Be sure to mention that they should be 6 to 8 inches deep and discuss the proper location for a cat hole. Tell the participants they will be digging their own cat holes. You will be judging them on time, depth and location. Have all participants line up. Tell them that when you say “dig” they have to look for a place to dig a cat hole and then dig one. When the participants begin, start your stopwatch. Have the participants raise their hands when they have finished. Record their time. Have the participants put a flag by their cat hole and then gather together as a group. Then, take the whole group around to each hole and record their depth and location on the score sheet. As you visit each cat hole talk about the aspects of that particular one and add any other information about proper human waste disposal as you go. There are three categories to win: proper depth, proper location and quickest time. (The last category is just for fun). After all of the information is recorded award the prizes to the participants with the best location, the best depth and time.

Pack It In — Pack It Out

Objective: To teach participants the Leave No Trace methods of waste disposal, to be able to identify biodegradable and non-biodegradable rubbish, to describe the social impacts of litter and methods of reducing waste in landfills.
Materials: Bag of litter - empty can, styrofoam cup, aluminum foil, chewing gum wrappers, plastic six-pack holder, cardboard
box, screw tops, etc. Blindfolds. Smelly foods - BBQ sauce, oranges, onions. Odourless foods - celery, carrots, lettuce and samples of partially burned rubbish.
Audience: All ages. Groups of any size.
Duration: 45 to 60 min.

Directions:
This activity works well in a busy countryside campsite. Before participants arrive for the activity, spread the rubbish all over the site. Ask the participants to visualise that they have walked 10 miles into the countryside and have just arrived at their first night’s campsite. Your group will be at the campsite for two nights. Previous campers have left rubbish at the site. Send the group on a litter hunt to clean up the site. Give the group 5-10 minutes to locate as much litter as they can. Ask the group what they should do with the rubbish.
Possible answers might be: burn it, bury it, pack it out. Have the participants vote on which option they think would be the best. Have them give reasons for their choices. Ask the group how they found the litter. Most will reply that  they saw it. Ask the group how animals find food. Explain that animals have a much better sense of smell and often better sight than humans. Their sense of smell attracts them to food and rubbish left out. Tell the participants that they are going to have a smell test and have them close their eyes. Hold the various food items, one at a time, under the participant’s noses get them them to identify each food item. Repeat until all participants have had a chance to smell each item. Lead a discussion about an animal’s use of smell to find food. Use the analogy of a dog burying a bone and using its sense of smell to find it later. The same thing occurs when animals find food that is buried near campsites and fire rings, it is the smell of food that attracts animals to campsites. Discuss the dangers of having wildlife in your camp. Also, discuss the dangers to wildlife that become dependant on human food. (Animals that become dependant on human food often raid campsites or populated areas in search of food and must often are killed). These are just a few reasons why it is important to clean up your campsite. Next, discuss the issue of rubbish in campfires. Have participants divide the litter that they found into 2 piles. One pile is litter that will burn and the other is litter that will not burn. Ask the group what happens when you put the items in the fire. Do they all burn to ash? Show examples of items that do not burn to ash (i.e. foil lining, cans and glass). Show the group the partially burned items you collected before the activity and explain that not everything burns to ash. These items will remain as litter in the campsite. Burning rubbish also emits odours into the air that attract wildlife to your camp.

Team Work

Objective: To clean up litter on a trail or in a natural area that is over used.
Materials: Black bin bags, litter pickers, gloves.
Audience: 12yrs and over. Groups of any size.
Duration: Varies.

Directions:
Simply organise to meet at an area that needs some cleaning, best examples would be natural areas that receive high recreational use. Explain to your group that you will spend some time cleaning up the area. While they are collecting the rubbish and litter, make some mental notes of what is the most common litter item they found and what is the strangest and rarest. Arrange some tea and coffee, or lunch for after the clean up and discuss what they found. Lead a discussion on how long they believe that rubbish would have stayed there if it hadn’t been collected. If all the people who visited this place were aware of the Principles of Leave No Trace could most of this rubbish been avoided?

Unnature Trail

Objective: To identify and differentiate between rubbish and natural items.
Materials: A range of litter (glass bottle, cardboard, plastic cup, some tiny pieces too, beads, bottle tops), organic material
(banana skin, apple core, tea bag) and some natural items (animal bones, animal fur, nest etc). Some string (use a bright colour). Pens and pieces of paper for all the participants.
Audience: Any age. Groups of any size.
Duration: 15 to 40 min.

Directions:
Mark off a small area (roughly 5m x 5m) with the string, you can use some trees or other natural objects to tie the string around. Now you should have a small area that you cannot enter without passing underneath the string. In the area you have marked off, place the items so that they can be seen but not easily seen. Make sure you remember how many items you put out as that will help when you have to collect them again. Bring the participants around the string and explain to them that this is the unnature trail; here they will see natural and unnatural objects. Their challenge is to spot as many of the unnatural or man-made objects as they can. (You can give them a time limit if you wish to make it more difficult) They can write down all the ones they see, and at the end you can see if anyone got them all correct. Usually 20 – 25 is enough to keep people guessing. We are so used to seeing litter everyday that our brain starts to ‘not see it’. Afterwards, discuss what people saw, if any of them were not seen show them the ones they didn’t find. Ask them what will happen to these items if left here? Finish with a discussion about proper disposal of waste in the outdoors.

Toilet Ice Breaker

Objective: Have participants talk comfortable about waste disposal.
Materials: Toilet paper items, good and bad (leaves, nettles, rough stone, smooth stone, paper, cloth etc).
Audience: 16yrs and over. Groups of any size.
Duration: 30 to 40mins.

Directions:
Gather everyone in a group, and to begin establish a vocabulary – go around the group and ask everyone to give a different word for poo. At the end agree with everyone in your group what word they are most comfortable with and be sure to use that for the remainder of the session. Discuss the various options for toilet paper in the outdoors, (you can be inventive and have a stuffed rubber glove or a picture of a hand), using the items around you, or some you brought with you i.e. smooth stone, piece of bark, big leaf, nettle, soil, get the group to order them into the best and perhaps nicest to use. For example left of the glove, is bad and right is good, discuss what would be best for breakdown rates of the poo and for the environment.

Some questions:
People who scrunch toilet paper and wipe please go to the left and people who fold and wipe please go to the right. People who have had a ‘poo’ in the outdoors please go to the left and people who have never please go to the right. Finish up by saying it might not be the nicest topic but we all do it, and we should care about what happens to it, especially in the outdoors.

Demonstrate how to dig a cathole if possible:
To dig a cat hole – Using a very good trowel, cut the sod on top, (a pen knife is very handy to cut the top so it stays intact), it should be 15 - 20cm deep - not always possible in stony ground. If you have a very comfortable group you can ask for suggestions on the best way to use it. Then return the sod to the ground showing how this ‘plug’ can make it look as though nothing happened there. Talk about decomposition rates, how to increase them and how different soils will affect them. Also the other options available instead of a cat hole i.e. wag bag, poop tube, and go before you leave the house.

Grey Water Demonstration

Objective: Drain grey water, strain & broadcast. Try this one after dinner or lunch if having it outdoors.
Materials: Small strainer/muslim cloth, small sponge, a pot or basin, cooking implements. A collapsible water carrier, some biodegradable soap and a ziploc bag.
Audience: Any age, anyone who cooks in the outdoors.
Duration: 10 to 15 min.

Directions:
This is best carried out at a campsite after dinner so that it is clearly realistic and you can show people it’s not a huge effort and can be easily incorporated into a camping regime. Take the dirty pots pans and anything else together in one spot, if possible place a plastic sheet under the work area so you can catch any stray food particles. Earlier in the night you should have taken water from the river in the collapsible container, even better if you have left over water from cooking (like pasta water) and you can use this. Heat up the water with the stove. Add some of the biodegradable soap, but first discuss if this is necessary, is elbow grease enough, do you really need to wash them here, are they ok to take home if you are just out for one night, and wash them at home?With this covered, begin cleaning with or without the soap whatever you have decided as a group is best. When all the pots are clean, take a clean pot and use this to pour the water into as you pass it through the strainer. Show everyone the food bits in the strainer, and then tip them in to your rubbish bag or a separate ziploc bag, take the left over grey water and making sure you are 30 metres from a water source and your camp, scatter or broadcast the water around the area.