Please pack toilet paper out

[Anna Machial]

I cannot say enough about the beauty and cleanliness of the Primitivo. We took a garbage bag and gloves to pick up litter for a day but that wasn't needed until the Francis.
But - a number of times we would go off trail in isolated areas to 'use the facilities' and the chosen spot would be full of used toilet paper. Future pilgrims, please pack that out.
We each had a ziplock bag labelled 'dirty' in the outside pocket of our bags. We picked up after ourselves and emptied the bag at the first available garbage can. This is not hard to do.
In one place where we stopped for a break there was feces. There is no excuse for that. Waste can be dug in, covered with rocks, or picked up. We took doggy bags and a shovel for that purpose but never had to use them.
As a rule bars are close enough for washroom breaks but please go prepared just in case.

 

[VNwalking]

Anna I hope I am correct in saying you are preaching to the choir here.
And I want to bump this thread up so that 'people who just don't know' get the message: TP (not to mention 'other things') is more disgusting to others than it even is to you, so don't leave it around for the rest of us, OK!?!?
I wrote and erased a small diatribe...no need...suffice it to say I've seen places on the Camino (usually behind bushes immediately after a long stretch in the open) that are not much different from the open toilet areas in rural Indian village.
And I'm ashamed to say (as a woman myself) that it seems women are the worst offenders. So please...can we clean up our act?

 

[Anniesantiago]

There are several veeeeeery long threads on this topic if you search

 

[VNwalking]

There are several veeeeeery long threads on this topic if you search

Sorry, Annie...I'm a relative newbie reading the forum and so was very happy to see the concern raised.
Here's one, for others in the same boat as I; though it's distasteful, it can't hurt to raise the issue every once in a while.
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...e-matter-of-toilet-paper-on-the-camino.18575/

 

[Patch]

Take a plastic trowel and dig it in. If you cant do that then like you say - ship it out.

 

[MTtoCamino]

I don't want to get the discution going again, if you carry a trowel to dig a hole I burn mine. No mess but you better dig the hole away from brush. Yes I know you don't want to burn down the place.... No I am not a pyro...
LOL! I know the poop/paper disposal question will simply not go away..

Funny thing is I just did my business before I left & never did have to use my burn method. There are plenty of public places if you don't get the squirts along the way...

 

[cher99840]

Not only is this subject cussed and discussed frequently, but no one is going to change unless there are consequences, and consequences are nigh on impossible on the Camino. There are responsible potty goers and there are irresponsible ones, and I don't foresee that changing.

 

[Ian Afloat]

Please don't bury your TP. Animals will just dig it up. Take it with you and dispose of properly.

 

[Anna Machial]

Most people are responsible or things would be a lot worse but educating and awareness doesn't hurt. I'm guessing that most people that left their TP thought it would biodegrade and no one would notice due to the isolation. I used to think that. It does but takes a long time and meanwhile 100s of people pass by in a year. Considering all the people there was very little TP but still unpleasant to see any. The more the word to 'pack out' gets around the better.

 

[Patch]

I don't want to get the discution going again, if you carry a trowel to dig a hole I burn mine. No mess but you better dig the hole away from brush. Yes I know you don't want to burn down the place.... No I am not a pyro...
LOL! I know the poop/paper disposal question will simply not go away..

Funny thing is I just did my business before I left & never did have to use my burn method. There are plenty of public places if you don't get the squirts along the way...

I completely agree with doing it before ye go but..... after flying into Northern Spain in 95 and seeing the fire damage during a bad drought I personally would never contemplate setting fire to anything out in the open again. If you dig it in deep enough then most of the time its going to be ok.... to do nothing at all is the worst.

 

[Ribeirasacra]

Please do not burn your waste unless you really know what you are doing. The vegetation can get very dry and the law(s) for starting fires and damaging the countryside is severe here in Spain.
When I was in the army we dug holes and buried our waste. Yes it has to be reasonably deep. Sometimes rocky/stony subsoil makes this difficult to do.

 

[svegress]

I am picking up all kinds of rubbish as I walk the Camino Francés. As a rough guide I am getting a shopping bag of rubbish between villages or, about five bags full a day. Probably more than half is discarded tissues. It is a misconception that such waste used in the open will quickly decay. Here is a study that shows that it needs the right environment to breakdown http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15572078
If the.numbers travelling on the Camino continues th increase some serious response will have to be made rather than telling on do-gooders like myself. But what and by whom?