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Nothing I enjoy more than watching the sun set on some river bank while we all sit around a garbage fire.
Burning trash in your firepan
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Y’all do this? Why or why not?
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6,248 Posts
Yeah, I'll sleep under the awning next to the trash and hide from the wind and rain.
You get to sleep with the electric fence in the rain?
Seems like a fair balance of risks!
Burning plastic releases toxins into the atmosphere. And if you smell it you are inhaling it. With all the forever chemicals (PFAS) we need better education. Burning not good and neither is landfilling. The problem keeps growing and few discuss solutions. We live in the plastic age. Cheap, easy, convenient but dirty, devastating, and detrimental to life in water and on land.
Amen brother!
Just leave a place to piss at night without being electrocuted.
But seriously, this does bring up a question I have with those in the lower 48 who use bear fences. In Alaska they use bear fences to put around their food and waste because there are no trees to hang stuff and either have a 2nd fence to put around the tent or don't put it around the tents that are clean and which are away from the food and waste. Here since you have trees to hang stuff, would you hang the food and waste then put the wire just around the tents? I have lots of experience camping in bear country, just not with electric fences.
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6,248 Posts
They are a strong recommendation or requirement on the Smith
And strongly recommended on the Rogue
I play hockey with Justine Vallieres the new FWP R1 griz management specialist, I'll ask her. (she's the one who recommended I get a fence after I saw this on the lower Flathead)
Yeah she'd be a great resource. Although I don't envy you having to play hockey against someone who wrestles griz for a living.
I absolutely agree that burning plastic is nasty, but I didn't really consider PFAS in garbage while on the Tat. Most plastic food packaging is polyethelene (#1, #2, and #4) or polypropylene (#5). We certainly weren't burning Gore-Tex or Teflon, but apparently PFAS are used in lots of food packaging: Dangerous PFAS Chemicals Are in Your Food Packaging - Consumer Reports
Burning garbage on a large scale might explain how PFAS have literally contaminated the entire planet, including most fresh water fish in the US:
Freshwater fish more contaminated with ‘forever chemicals’ than in oceans
Study also says eating one serving of fish with PFAS could be equivalent to drinking contaminated water every day for a month
www.theguardian.com
Maybe next time we'll just burn the food waste and not the packaging waste.
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4,026 Posts
Plastics and our environment. These are critical issues facing our planet and humanity. And our rivers/lakes that we enjoy. A common suggestion is, "think global, act local".I absolutely agree that burning plastic is nasty, but I didn't really consider PFAS in garbage while on the Tat. Most plastic food packaging is polyethelene (#1, #2, and #4) or polypropylene (#5). We certainly weren't burning Gore-Tex or Teflon, but apparently PFAS are used in lots of food packaging: Dangerous PFAS Chemicals Are in Your Food Packaging - Consumer Reports
Burning garbage on a large scale might explain how PFAS have literally contaminated the entire planet, including most fresh water fish in the US:
Freshwater fish more contaminated with ‘forever chemicals’ than in oceans
Study also says eating one serving of fish with PFAS could be equivalent to drinking contaminated water every day for a month
Maybe next time we'll just burn the food waste and not the packaging waste.
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6 Posts
We bring a few ammo cans for ash/organics. I prefer to take the cans back and dump the contents into my compost at home so I don't want plastics, etc. Paper and wood only, if possible.
We smash our cans and put them in a pickle barrel, even the tin cans. If the trash bag is more than 1/2 full when we pack up in the morning it gets rolled into a tight ball with packaging wrap and put into a mesh bag or empty cooler. Carrying garbage out isn't too hard. It was on your boat before it became trash...put it in the community garbage or back on your boat.
We seem to always have that one boat that brings all of their daily garbage off their boat and dumps it into the kitchen garbage. It's mostly water bottles, cans, etc. It's not too bad but most of my standard rafting buddies don't do that; we squish our water bottles and put them in a small garbage on our boat or back into the cooler.
Back to the original topic...we don't burn plastic and we make sure everyone knows the ash/organics can will be dumped into a compost after the trip.
We smash our cans and put them in a pickle barrel, even the tin cans. If the trash bag is more than 1/2 full when we pack up in the morning it gets rolled into a tight ball with packaging wrap and put into a mesh bag or empty cooler. Carrying garbage out isn't too hard. It was on your boat before it became trash...put it in the community garbage or back on your boat.
We seem to always have that one boat that brings all of their daily garbage off their boat and dumps it into the kitchen garbage. It's mostly water bottles, cans, etc. It's not too bad but most of my standard rafting buddies don't do that; we squish our water bottles and put them in a small garbage on our boat or back into the cooler.
Back to the original topic...we don't burn plastic and we make sure everyone knows the ash/organics can will be dumped into a compost after the trip.
I've been deadset against this in the past. If it's during the day and people are around, burning trash makes for a disgusting odor that permeates camp and gets stuck in my nose for days. However, I've learned that if there is a dedicated burner in the group that can do it after everyone has gone to bed, then it's a great way to get rid of a problem on long trips!
It's got to be a balance; burn what burns clean and pack out the rest.
The most important part is to understand this when packing for the trip. Remove as much possible waste before the trip and think about where the waste will end up; "this vac bag is easily compressed and will be packed out, these paper plates are super cheap and don't contain any plastics and can be burned". I rarely ever bring food in it's original packaging, there is always a better option.
The most important part is to understand this when packing for the trip. Remove as much possible waste before the trip and think about where the waste will end up; "this vac bag is easily compressed and will be packed out, these paper plates are super cheap and don't contain any plastics and can be burned". I rarely ever bring food in it's original packaging, there is always a better option.
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