Julie Maurer: Tips for having a low-waste camping trip this summer

Are you heading into the great outdoors this summer for a camping trip? Don’t forget to do your part to make the enjoyment of our beautiful state possible by keeping our environment clean. We’ve got some sustainable and low waste camping ideas for you.

Plan food ahead of time

Figuring out exactly what you are going to eat on your camping trip and packing accordingly not only helps you save money on your grocery budget and prevents food waste, but it can also help you reduce the amount of trash you generate while on your trip.

• Instead of packing individually bagged snacks or utilizing plastic baggies — bring your reusable food storage filled with your camping munchies.
• Pre-make your meals and freeze them to thaw and heat at the campsite. This serves as a double purpose — not only does it reduce the amount of packaging you will need for your ingredients, but the frozen food can be a replacement for ice in your cooler. This will prevent you from having to purchase a lot of those bags of ice wrapped in non-recyclable plastic.
• If you are bringing disposable drinks — make sure they are in recyclable containers. You can freeze some of these as well to replace ice bags.

Smart packing

Getting ready for a camping trip can be exhausting. Sometimes it feels like you are bringing your own house! One of the best tips I’ve ever seen is to keep pre-packed camping bins with all your supplies that you just have to pull out and restock a little for each trip.

With that in mind — instead of packing plastic cutlery, paper plates, disposable cups… why not keep dishes and silverware in your camping bins? This will significantly reduce the amount of waste you produce at your campsite. This will also save you money in not having to purchase all those disposable items!

And don’t forget — everyone should stay hydrated by bringing their reusable water bottles!

Think green when making camp

With some ingenuity, you can have a campsite that makes sustainability a priority. Some solutions may require advance planning and purchase, while others only require you to make use of the resources provided by Mother Earth.

• If you are bringing a foldable/portable trash can for your campsite — bring along a second in a different color to serve as a recycling bin!
• If you must get bagged ice — get the biggest bags and reuse the empty bag as your garbage bag for the trip.
• If you are still glued to your electrical devices while huddled in your tent at night… invest in some solar powered battery packs that you can lay out during the day. The sun has more than enough energy to meet your needs.
• It wouldn’t be a camping trip in the Great Lakes State without at least a little bit of rain. Put out all available containers and your reusable water bottles during the rainfall to capture some of that water for drinking and for washing dishes.

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Make it a challenge

Finally, you are not going to have a successful low-waste camping trip without buy-in from those going with you. One good way to help the whole family or friend group get involved is to make a challenge out of it.

• If you are going on several camping trips, make a log of how many bags of trash you toss and try to reduce it each time.
• At the same time, see how much recycling you can bring home with you each time.
• Give everyone a zero-waste assignment and then give out an award at the end for the biggest contributor to your efforts. There can be someone in charge of reusable dishes and assigning washing shifts. Another person can be in charge of reducing the amount of non-recyclable plastic food packaging that is brought on the trip. Someone else can be in charge of making sure there is a recycling bin, and it gets put in the recycling at home afterwards. If everyone has a role, sustainability will be much easier while on your trip.

With just a little extra time in planning, and keeping sustainability on the forefront of your mind, it is not difficult to have a low-waste camping trip this summer.

— Julie Maurer is the coordinator of the Solid Waste and Materials Management Program for the Lenawee County Health Department. She can be contacted at 517-264-5263 or via email at julie.maurer@lenawee.mi.us .

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Julie Maurer: Tips for having a low-waste camping trip this summer