Hey there friends! MAK here! I’m sure you’ve picked up on the fact that I really like to leave places cleaner than I found them. We typically stay on public land where camping is free, I see “Leaving it Cleaner Than We Found it” as paying these places back for our stay. Today I’m going to be taking you through all the ways that we leave places cleaner than we found them so you can do the same while you are out camping and exploring!

This blog post was brought to you in partnership with our friends over at The Dyrt.

The Dyrt is the top-rated camping app featuring over one million photos and reviews of campsites all over the country! The Dyrt has handy tools like the trip planner, offline maps, gear discounts, and public land map layers to show free camping! 

Thank you so much to The Dyrt for supporting us so we can make resources like this on topics that we’re passionate about! They’ve sent us a code to share with all of our friends for a free 90 day trial of The Dyrt Pro! Use code BFN90 so you can take it for a spin this summer as you head out for some grand adventures!

This past year so many people discovered a love for the outdoors in a time where it was all we had. We personally saw this first hand during our travels this past summer. Places that were often uninhabited were packed with campers. We’re so happy to see this new found love for our wild spaces but we also saw an uptick in camp spots being trashed and mistreated. 

In our time on the road we’ve seen many places we love get shut down to public access because they were constantly getting littered. This is something that simply can’t keep happening. With an increase in traffic outdoors, it’s imperative that we learn how to sustainably enjoy these spaces. 

As someone who essentially lives on public lands, I feel it’s my responsibility to care for these places and spread the word about the importance of caring for them. We have to treat our public lands kindly so they’re clean for the plants and animals that call them home, and so these places remain open for everyone to enjoy in the future.

Leave no trace protocol is something that I’ve talked about many times here on our blog, in our videos, etc. but it’s something that bears repeating because it’s truly the gold standard for how we interact with the outdoors. Leave No Trace is a wonderful organization that has Seven Principles that provide easily understood guidelines for minimum impact practices for anyone visiting the outdoors. The seven Leave No Trace principles are as follows:

1) Plan ahead and Prepare

2) Travel and camp on durable surfaces

3) Dispose of waste properly

4) Leave what you find

5) Minimize campfire impact

6) Respect Wildlife

7) Be considerate of other visitors

If we can all follow the LNT guidelines, there will be less “cleaning” up we have to do when we go outside, which would make everyone's experience much more enjoyable! Here is the Leave No Trace website. I recommend taking a spin around their website, as there are tons of helpful resources and blog posts about all of these key LNT guidelines!

I’ve come to realize that I have a hard time enjoying a spot until I’ve done what I can to clean it up. With that in mind, I go for a walk around as soon as I arrive at the new camp spot. I do this to assess how much trash is in the area, what it is, and where it is. I also find this is a good way to get to know our camp spot and “get a lay of the land” if you will. [Side bar. I’ve found a lot of cool things by doing this. Once I found a wall of petroglyphs this way, that I otherwise wouldn’t have! So if you need any more of a reason to explore on foot from camp, here it is!]

If I see things that can be recycled, that are clean enough to pick up with my bare hands, I will start to collect those things and take them back to the truck with me. 

We carry two heavy duty, waxed canvas, tote bags that live in the backseat of our cab to carry our recycling (collected or otherwise). This keeps everything contained and it makes it easy to grab for when we find recycling bins. The nice thing about waxed canvas is that it can easily be cleaned in the event that anything spills in it. We also always crush the cans to be sure that we are maximizing the space in the bags so we can carry more out with us!

Once I’ve collected all the recycling I go back out with a biodegradable trash bag and a pair of gloves to collect all the landfill trash. We then carry out all the trash with us to the nearest trash receptacle that we come across in our travels. On a good day we will take out anything from, no trash to a single small bag. And on bad days I’ve had to pull out full size trash bags and have even filled up our entire back seat once.

*My favorite gloves that also double as our winch handling gloves

If you happen to find yourself near water where people may go to fish, be on the lookout for fishing line. This is particularly important to pick up because birds can get tangled in it. When that happens they can lose a limb or their ability to fly… which is obviously no bueno.

This is actually a great time to sprinkle in a few little pro tips that we’ve picked up over the years!

In our camper we use a cereal container as our trash can. We did this because when we are driving off road we needed something that would stay sealed. We then line them with the small biodegradable trash bags that are listed above! It’s a system that we’ve been using for all of our five years on the road and we LOVE IT!

When you’re out hiking and see trash sometimes it can be hard to carry out with you. We’ve started carrying stuffable grocery tote bags in our day packs. We like these bags because they take up no space in our bag if we end up not needing it. If we do find trash, we have them on hand and ready to use. They keep the trash separate from our personal belongings, they can be tied on the outside of our packs, and the tote bags can be washed to keep it nice and clean!

On the subject of carrying a stuffable tote bag for picking up trash, I also carry this same bag in my purse for when I’m out and about. I know myself well enough that I stand a chance to pick up trash no matter where I am.

These are all the ways that I, personally, like to leave places cleaner than I found them. I’d love to hear if there are some things that you all like to do because I’m always trying to do better. At the end of the day, if we can all leave no trace, we won’t have to do so much to leave places cleaner because they’ll already be in good shape! 

If you all happen to take any pictures of your clean up efforts, tag us in them on instagram because I’d love to reshare your efforts! Together, many hands make light work so we can ensure that our public lands stay open and enjoyable for all!

Again thank you so much for The Dyrt for supporting our effort to spread the word about leaving places cleaner than we found them.

Love, MAK