Rubbish on the Camino

Anyone who has walked the Camino has unfortunately seen it - places where bottles or can have been dumped, rest areas under trees where chocolate wrappers have been left lying and yes those disgusting areas where toilet paper lays strewn around ..... bottles can take 450 to many thousands of years to break down, a can about 500 years before it oxidises and toilet paper a couple of months, not only harmful to the environment but a blight on the Camino.

I know that pilgrims wish to carry as little as possible but if you can carry that food/drink receptacle when it is full it can be carried when it is empty to the nearest bin even if that is in your albergue at night.

When I first walked the Camino the South African Confraternity of Saint James was issuing bags in some places to pilgrims so that they could litter pick as they went and on a few Caminos I have met the odd person who has litter-picked of their own accord - I have never met them but Rochelle and Mike from Canadian non-profit environmental start up A Greener Future walked the Portuguese in 2014 from Lisbon (a distance of 650km) and picked up 5,904 pieces of litter including 1,484 food wrappers, 1,402 paper items, and 1,067 plastic pieces.

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Rochelle and Mike with one of their bags of litter (taken from http://caminoways.com/about-us/responsible-travel#symple-tab-a-greener-future-2015)

There are also groups who organise people to clean the Camino, one of these is Rebekah Scott from the Peacable Kingdom in Moratinos - she organises the 'Ditch Pigs' (this year from the 28th November for 4-5 days) over 80kms of the Camino from San Nicolas de Puente Fitero to Sahagun. You can read more about their work at the Peaceable blog at www.moratinoslife.blogspot.com .

A litter-picker on the Camino (from http://amawalker.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-camino-is-full-of-crap-so-what-can.html)

So as you walk just be mindful of what you leave behind you.

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