The subject of litter has come up a couple of times recently. I'll air my thoughts here as they're fresh in my mind after returning from Reb's Camino clearup last night. That was an incredibly encouraging experience, as after 3 years of taking part we have seen the amount of litter we collect reduce each year despite the pilgrim numbers continuing to rise. The relatively clean environment we've helped to create and no doubt increased awareness and effort from other pilgrims appear to be paying dividends already.
There have been suggestions about more coordinated approaches across the whole Camino to complement local efforts such as the one I join in Palencia. This would be great, but very difficult to organise given the lack of coordination at any level across the Camino (local govt, albergues etc). Even if successful it could end up as a one-off purge that would be difficult to sustain in the longer term. An annual 'Litter free Camino Week' or similar could work if albergues were all sent posters to raise awareness and plastic bags to give out to willing pilgs, but this would require some funding and coordination from somewhere. A pilot scheme in one area would be interesting (if anyone has any spare cash and someone would organise it) to see what the take-up rate in albergues was, identify any unforeseen hitches, and most importantly see how much trash was left afterwards.
My favoured approach is a bit more low-key and really is about continuing to increase awareness among people about how to incorporate a bit of clearing into their Camino. That would just be through forums such as this one and its other language equivalents, possibly a leaflet at the Pilgrim Office in SJPP etc. The original post here suggests we should aim to clear every day, but it needn't even be that. On my last CF I collected litter for about 5-6kms on about 7 days. As the areas I cleared were only moderately littered I was able to leave most of them totally clear (i.e. I didn't have to exclude larger items such as plastic bottles or be otherwise selective about what I collected). So that's about 40kms, or 5% of the total route cleared just by me picking up stuff for an hour or two every few days. So, with 19 more people like me (or one in every 10,000 of the pilgrims who walk/cycle the route) we could have the whole route totally clear, right? Not quite, as some hotspots would need more 'intensive care' but this is indicative of how just relatively few people can make a difference over significant distances. This week in Palencia I walked several 5km sections with just half a medium sized trash bag to show for it (and I was actively looking for trash!).
I accept that there will always be a few who think it's fine to dump their Coke can along the Way and that we will always see that kind of thoughtlessness, but wouldn't it be nice to think that there were enough aware and willing pilgs coming along behind who can easily deal with it before it gets kicked into the long grass?
A final point, but an important one is that clearing the Camino can actually be fun and very rewarding! This year my girlfriend joined us for the clearup in Palencia and had a great time (or so she says!) despite never having been a pilgrim herself or having any other 'stake' in the Camino. OK, that's largely due to the beautiful crisp December weather on the gorgeous Meseta and Reb and Paddy's wonderful hospitality, but it really can be enjoyable if you make it so. I'm writing a short booklet with ideas on how to do your bit while on Camino, which will appear in the Resources section once I've incorporated a few photos from this week.
