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Trashing the El Camino

jdickson

Member
Time of past OR future Camino
Camino Francis 2014, Camino Portugues 2016
I just completed the El Camino in October. It was wonderful and beautiful and difficult. At the time I thought how can anyone want to do this several times. Now that I am home and reflecting, I would go back and walk again without question. I loved every minute of it. I have one issue though that nags at me still and was with me almost the entire walk from SJPP...the trash. I was saddened and disgusted by all the trash, bottles, toilet paper, human waste and garbage left by pilgrims along the entire way. I was also saddened by the graffitti on the El Camino posts and signs. It seemed such an insult to everyone, but especially the people of Spain who were so welcoming and kind and helpful along the way. How could people be so inconsiderate and thoughtless in such a beautiful country. We picked up what trash we could and certainly didn't contribute, but there was little we could do as we walked. What right do we as pilgrims have to deface the "way," trash the environment, and insult the hosts of such a historic and sacred path. Frankly, in many areas, the signs were not necessarry, one just needed to follow the trash. The entire walk I told myself I would comment on this when I got home so that, hopefully, others will not contribute to it as they walk in the future.
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
@jdickson, welcome to the forum and thanks for this post. It is good to keep this topic in the foreground. A search or two will re-assure you that the issue is one that forum members are well aware of. There are many who do what they can, either as they walk - every scrap removed is less crap remaining - or by dedicated action such as the current Palencia Camino Clean-up.
Thanks for your efforts to make the Camino even better.
 
Well said jdickson, I too was saddened by the trash all along the Way. People laughingly referred to the toilet paper as Camino flowers - horrible. Like you I made sure to not add to the mess, though unlike you I didn't pick any of the trash... :-( Here in South Africa we have organised 'clean up days', what if, each person who walked dedicated one day (or more) as a clean up day? I hope to be able to save up and walk the Camino again...and when I do, I will have a dedicated 'clean up day'. Maybe those of you who a planning your Pilgrimage will include in your pack some disposable gloves and a big black bag for your 'clean up day'. Let us all respect The Way and the people of Spain - our hosts.
 
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I really like the Idea of a "clean up day" on camino surely it isn't too much to ask for what we receive on the Way it's a way we can show our gratitude as we walk our pilgrimage!
 
This topic has been addressed in many threads. I believe that most pilgrims respect the environment and clean up after themselves. Granted not all pilgrims/people are immune to trashing their environment, i.e I watched a lady throw a banana peel from her car window the other day in a gated Florida community. I guess she assumed it was biodegradable. I think you will find the greatest abundance of trash is near villages where locals use the Camino to picnic and young people hang out. It's as inexcusable as the graffiti but that has become a universal issue.
 
I just completed the El Camino in October. It was wonderful and beautiful and difficult. At the time I thought how can anyone want to do this several times. Now that I am home and reflecting, I would go back and walk again without question. I loved every minute of it. I have one issue though that nags at me still and was with me almost the entire walk from SJPP...the trash. I was saddened and disgusted by all the trash, bottles, toilet paper, human waste and garbage left by pilgrims along the entire way. I was also saddened by the graffitti on the El Camino posts and signs. It seemed such an insult to everyone, but especially the people of Spain who were so welcoming and kind and helpful along the way. How could people be so inconsiderate and thoughtless in such a beautiful country. We picked up what trash we could and certainly didn't contribute, but there was little we could do as we walked. What right do we as pilgrims have to deface the "way," trash the environment, and insult the hosts of such a historic and sacred path. Frankly, in many areas, the signs were not necessarry, one just needed to follow the trash. The entire walk I told myself I would comment on this when I got home so that, hopefully, others will not contribute to it as they walk in the future.

Jdickson:

May I suggest that next time you walk bring a plastic bag and rubber gloves. You can pick up on one of your days of walking.

Each December Rebekah puts together a group of Pilgrims and picks up trash on the Meseta. My wife and I joined her and several others for three days last year. If you can not take the time, maybe send her a check to pay for someones lunch who can participate.

The best example in life is one of doing.

Ultreya,
Joe
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
I agree with Annie, it is a sore spot with me too. However, I would wager that most of the members on this forum wouldn't dream of leaving anything behind, so it is kind of like preaching to the choir.

When I see that a new member has joined this forum asking the typical, "what to bring and leave behind questions?" I try to remember to suggest that they bring some lightweight plastic bags to use to carry any of their used toilet paper until it can be disposed of properly.

I also like the idea of devoting time to clean up the trail. Spain is so beautiful and we need to keep it that way.

Buen Camino !
 
I just completed the El Camino in October. It was wonderful and beautiful and difficult. At the time I thought how can anyone want to do this several times. Now that I am home and reflecting, I would go back and walk again without question. I loved every minute of it. I have one issue though that nags at me still and was with me almost the entire walk from SJPP...the trash. I was saddened and disgusted by all the trash, bottles, toilet paper, human waste and garbage left by pilgrims along the entire way. I was also saddened by the graffitti on the El Camino posts and signs. It seemed such an insult to everyone, but especially the people of Spain who were so welcoming and kind and helpful along the way. How could people be so inconsiderate and thoughtless in such a beautiful country. We picked up what trash we could and certainly didn't contribute, but there was little we could do as we walked. What right do we as pilgrims have to deface the "way," trash the environment, and insult the hosts of such a historic and sacred path. Frankly, in many areas, the signs were not necessarry, one just needed to follow the trash. The entire walk I told myself I would comment on this when I got home so that, hopefully, others will not contribute to it as they walk in the future.[/QUOTE

It would be great if we could get a group together specifically to pick up trash along the Camino Francis. We would walk the Camino but be picking up trash along the way to Santiago. If this could not be done we should encourage all pilgrims to pick up a bag trash along the way, no matter how small the bag. Maybe it could be like coastal clean up. We should clean up the Camino we love.
 
A selection of Camino Jewellery
Now that I am home and reflecting, I would go back and walk again without question.
Welcome to the club.

Yes, the garbage is discusting. I try to pick up some by bringing one of the plastic bags from last day's shopping, but it is a drop in the ocean. But more than nothing, I suppose...

I have many times wondered: Why throw away f.ex. a plastic bottle? Put it in your sack: It weighs nothing, and can be disposed of in the next village. But, no...
 
I think it is a sore spot for many of us @Anniesantiago and @Dennis D but all the more reason to keep repeating previous advice. Don't leave general trash anywhere on the trail (carry it in, carry it out). Every pilgrim should take a ziplock plastic bag for transporting waste, toilet paper is simply revolting and should not be left anywhere. Women in particular can easily use a washable handkerchief or something similar, carried in a ziplock bag.

In albergues, talk about the problem, don't accept "the Spanish authorities should clean it" - instead suggest the simple solutions above, that every pilgrim can be part of. If every pilgrim did not add to the trash but instead removed a bit, the problem would be solved.
 
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I didn't see much trash along the camino. I did see rest stops equipped with waste baskets that were overflowing and obviously were not being emptied on a regular basis.
 
The camino is not an organized route. It's not a tour. There is no front-to-back oversight, even though there are plenty of conventions and seminars and congresses that talk endlessly about this or that aspect. It is amazing it works as well as it does, seeing as it is held together by promises and bandages, legends and hokum.
No reasonable person can expect "the authorities" to pick up after them. There are no "authorities."
The camino is a path through hundreds of counties, towns, municipalities, states, provinces, and cities, and most of them don't talk to each other. It is the nature of the beast. No one is going to take on more work or expense than he has to, especially as half the pilgrims are foreigners!
But as pilgrims are fond of saying, "the Way is made by walking."
Pilgrims make most of the mess. Pilgrims ought to police one another. And pilgrims ought to pick up after one another, and not leave the job to nameless, faceless, non-existent Parent Figures who "ought to do it."
 
Well said jdickson, I too was saddened by the trash all along the Way. People laughingly referred to the toilet paper as Camino flowers - horrible. Like you I made sure to not add to the mess, though unlike you I didn't pick any of the trash... :-( Here in South Africa we have organised 'clean up days', what if, each person who walked dedicated one day (or more) as a clean up day? I hope to be able to save up and walk the Camino again...and when I do, I will have a dedicated 'clean up day'. Maybe those of you who a planning your Pilgrimage will include in your pack some disposable gloves and a big black bag for your 'clean up day'. Let us all respect The Way and the people of Spain - our hosts.
Huh, great idea!!! I'm already planing my (hopefully) 2015 Camino de Levante/Sanabres/Fisterra and have few short days in between. Now I know how to fill that time gap while walking short distance.
Thanks :)
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
After decades of backpacking it still does bother me to find trash on trails. When I lead trips I ask folks to try and leave places better than we found them. You don't have to pick-up all the trash you find, start with just a couple of pieces a day. The good thing about the Camino is that you will hit a town where you can dump your day's haul as opposed to the more isolated hikes in the Rockies where you might be carrying trash for days. It is better to light a candle than to curse the dark...although I think it is still okay to curse litterbugs.
 
... The camino is a path through hundreds of counties, towns, municipalities, states, provinces, and cities, and most of them don't talk to each other. It is the nature of the beast. No one is going to take on more work or expense than he has to...

Sort of microcosm of what's happening on a global scale, the environmental destruction we're inflicted upon this planet. Nations hold occasional meetings every few years, but mostly don't talk to each other, the issues get shuffled aside, swept under the rug via political smoke and mirrors and NIMBYism.

I'm a big proponent of the think globally, act locally approach, but if we can't even clean up our act in the microcosms, like the Camino, what chance does the earth stand?

The glass half full version: it's still not too late to clean up and set a better example for future pilgrims and earthlings alike!
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
I think I'm just suprised by all of the trash in the World in general. I couldn't beleive how littered beautiful Rome and the forum was with plastic water bottles...
While on the Norte this past April I picked up a HUGE liquid container , held gallons...I think it was atleast 1/3 rd of my size height wise. I walked for several miles
with that container thru the woods in the stretch from Gernika to Bilboa. I was walking with a forum member here that day, we had just met in Gernika (planned meeting)
and I told him I just could not leave that huge plastic bottle in the woods far from where anyone would attempt to carry it out.
While that was the largest thing I have ever carried there were many days I would walk with some huge piece of plastic for long periods just because I
knew few if any would ever remove the items.
I honestly thought how that bottle could sit there for 100 years if I didn't take it with me for a few hours, it was the burden I was willing to carry (literally)
to prevent that.
Edited to add that most of the trash I was picking up was not a pilgrims trash. It was huge plastic things like that container, or even big sheets of plastic...off in the middle of the woods(???)
 
The above photo shows a public "long drop" toilet on the Cape to Cape track in Western Australia. I was there last week. The only litter I saw was a red bikini top (seriously). On the first 8 Kms of this track, there were 3 toilets. Surely it's time for Spain to install some public toilets, if only for the sanity of local residents. Picking up litter in an annual clean up is one thing; collecting toilet waste is something else.
 
A selection of Camino Jewellery
Surely it's time for Spain to install some public toilets
If every foreign pilgrim were to chip in, say, $1,000, the Spanish authorities might consider it. It is unlikely that the government will ask its 20%-unemployed citizens to pay. Half the pilgrims are Spanish. When they collectively demand toilets, it might happen. As it is, I suspect they are happy with toilets in bars and restaurants for the price of a cup of coffee. The contrast between public toilets in France and in Spain is quite stark. That said, the footprint-in-the-floor toilets common in France in the villages are pretty much avoided. They are there, but no one uses them. I also suspect that the Spanish leave more than their share of litter, and virtually all of the graffiti. The Spanish do not like the graffiti any more than the foreigners, but it only takes one or two vandals to cover an entire city, given fairly unlimited nights to do it. The 99.99% can only decry the activity, and occasionally pay to have it cleaned up.

Picking up after oneself, and occasionally others, is about all that will work. For impossible challenges, feeding the starving in Africa is higher on my list than removing water bottles in Spain.;)
 
I'm TRULY not picking on you, just thought it worth saying, there is no need for "the el Camino" El provides the the.

Again, not picking. I rarely proofread internet postings so I have lots of grammar mistakes (funny since I'm an english professor). So I certainly have no room to talk lol. I just thought I'd throw it out there, since it is a common misuse in peregrino circles.
 
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I used to think that "long drop" toilets would go a long way (no pun intended) in solving the problems re bodily waste on the Camino. Now, I am not so sure. Given the propensity of pilgrims (not pilgrims from this forum) to leave any type of garbage along the Camino, how handy would it be to discard this same garbage into a "long drop"? In very short order the long drop will be filled with plastic bottles and every other sort of debris. Not that that would dissuade anyone from using the long drop, as the structure alone, along with the door, will provide privacy which can be so sorely lacking along the open Camino when one needs to conduct one's business. In the end, the eventual condition of the long drop enclosure is too awful to contemplate ... and who is going to clean that? At least plastic bottles and other debris along the Camino will more than likely eventually get picked up, and bodily waste will, in time, wash away. I'm not saying that the latter is preferable ... I'm just saying that the long drop might create more problems than it solves.
 
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Well said jdickson, I too was saddened by the trash all along the Way. People laughingly referred to the toilet paper as Camino flowers - horrible. Like you I made sure to not add to the mess, though unlike you I didn't pick any of the trash... :-( Here in South Africa we have organised 'clean up days', what if, each person who walked dedicated one day (or more) as a clean up day? I hope to be able to save up and walk the Camino again...and when I do, I will have a dedicated 'clean up day'. Maybe those of you who a planning your Pilgrimage will include in your pack some disposable gloves and a big black bag for your 'clean up day'. Let us all respect The Way and the people of Spain - our hosts.

This is a great idea! I'm walking in January and I pledge to bring a big garbage day and do a clean up day at least once over the five weeks I'll be walking.
 
@Icacos is right. Long drop toilets only work if they are used properly @Margaret Butterworth. The ones in your photograph are in a National Park, on a track that is only 135km long, built and maintained by the Department of Environment, funded by the State of WA and the Australian Government. Those toilets are used by how many people? Less than 1,000 a year?
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
The first edition came out in 2003 and has become the go-to-guide for many pilgrims over the years. It is shipping with a Pilgrim Passport (Credential) from the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
Huh, great idea!!! I'm already planing my (hopefully) 2015 Camino de Levante/Sanabres/Fisterra and have few short days in between. Now I know how to fill that time gap while walking short distance.
Thanks :)
I couldn't agree more with the comments about the trash. I was shocked and certainly saddened by the amount of trash. I went in August at the height of the season and it was really awful. I challenge all those to send your pack ahead one day and take a trash bag for the day and just pick up trash. It would be cleaned up in no time! Send ahead your pack, and take a sack! I did spend one morning picking up trash right in front of a group on teen students from Brazil. I hoped the example was seen??? One of the tour leaders I inquired with about the problem, said that sadly the Spanish are the most contributing. I just felt the need to share on this subject. I had an amazing time on my Camino and still am enjoying the after glow! Buen Camino and take a sack!
 
Send ahead your pack, and take a sack!
This is an excellent idea. I was wondering how long I would last if, with pack on my back, I were to be constantly bending over to pick up trash. Now, here you have provided a way to get around that. Thank you. :)
 
[QUOTE="miriamlea, post: 256523, member: 39025"... the Spanish are the most contributing [/QUOTE]
I can speak with some authority here having just spent the last 7 days on a clean-up in Palencia. We have harvested detritus decorated in just about every European, Asian and Pan-global-english that is imaginable. If you can carry a carton of juice from Munich or Macademia nuts from Melbourne why the hell can't you carry the empty carton to the next trash-can? Spaniards may well be the major contributors of litter on the Camino but they are also the majority, by far, of pilgrims and I don't believe for a moment that they buy all their camino gear in London or Paris or their snack foods in Holland.

Pilgrim trash is dropped, tucked into bushes, wedged under benches and thrown over walls by pilgrims. Sure, we've picked up some local litter while we've been about our business but the bulk has been water-bottles, bocadillo wraps, juice cartons and drink cans. Busted boots and broken sandals, camera batteries and socks, crisp packets and musli-bar wraps. Lets not get into the un-wanted clothing, soiled under-wear and endless, endless tissue wads. (By the gods, pilgrims are a snivelling lot (I hope it was just snivel))

I am fully aware that no one on this forum is a contributor to the problem; therefore I live, as always, in hope that we are all part of the solution.
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
Since it is the pilgrims who create the garbage, and these very same pilgrims stay in the albergues, hostels, casas rurales, monasteries - what have you - and eat in the bars and restaurants along the way, it is beyond my comprehension that discrete signs (or maybe not so discrete) are not put up in these establishments drawing to pilgrims' minds the problem of garbage on the Camino, and gently suggesting to one and all that everyone would benefit if each of us were to look after his own garbage. In other words, "Pack out what you pack in .... Leave only footprints." That way, the concept just may register and pilgrims will, hopefully, begin to be aware of the issue. To continue to lament the problem after the fact is - pardon me - ridiculous. Treat the problem at its source .... IMHO.

(Edit/Retraction: I no longer suggest that signs, discrete or otherwise, be posted in bars or eating establishments along the Way. I am now in favour of a gentle anti-littering reminder being included along with the issuance of the credential.)
 
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I'd like to say I think the wind is to blame. The dirty parts for me were the most windy as well. People could have done the right thing only to have it blow away , it is a beautiful and very special place . I was careful of my trash however I loved the times I stomp on a can and have my daughter place it in my pack like an other one bites the dust..
 

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