Outdoor Code - Clean in My Outdoor Manners
| Category: | Outdoor Code |
|---|---|
| Props: | An orange peel, a twist tie, or a handful of sunflower seed shells (optional) |
| Notes: | First in a four-part series on the Outdoor Code, one line at a time. Good before a campout or at a campsite cleanup. See also outdoor-code-careful-with-fire, outdoor-code-considerate-in-the-outdoors, outdoor-code-conservation-minded, and living-the-outdoor-code for a one-minute overview. |
The first line of the Outdoor Code says, "Be clean in my outdoor manners." Most Scouts hear that and think, "Don't litter." That's part of it. But it goes a lot further.
Let's start with trash. Everybody knows not to toss a candy wrapper on the trail. But what about the little stuff? The twist tie off the bread bag. The corner you tore off the oatmeal packet. The sunflower seed shells. That's called micro-trash, and it's the hardest kind to see and the easiest kind to leave behind. A good Scout campsite gets a hands-and-knees sweep before we leave.
(Hold up an orange peel, if you have one.) And what about this? It's natural, so it's fine to toss in the woods, right? Not really. In dry or cold places an orange peel can sit there for months, even years. Animals that eat it learn to hang around campsites looking for food. If you packed it in, you pack it out. All of it.
But notice that the line says manners, not just trash. Manners are about how you act. Do you strain your dishwater and scatter it far from the lake, or dump it right on the shore? Do you use the latrine, or the bush closest to the trail? Do you leave a campsite so clean that the next troop can't tell anybody was there?
Being clean in your outdoor manners means acting like a guest in somebody else's home, because out there, you are one.