The ethics of Leave No Trace (LNT) are core to backpacking. You should leave the wilderness in as pristine a condition as you found it, taking all trash with you.
On a backpacking trip in New Zealand, as I stuffed a large Ziploc bag full of granola bar wrappers and empty freeze-dried meal pouches, I looked out at the ocean and felt conflicted. Yes, I was practicing LNT so my trash wouldn’t end up in the wild, but it would still end up somewhere. I was being a good steward of this land, but not of all land.
If I truly profess to care about the environment, it seemed like I owed it more than chucking a bunch of trash in a dumpster when I got home. In that moment, I committed to a bold endeavor. On my next backpacking trip, I decided I would produce as little waste as possible.
For 4 days and 42 miles on the Trans-Catalina Trail in California, I attempted to make zero waste as I explored the backcountry. Even if you don’t plan to go zero waste on your next trip, choosing sustainable options can reduce your impact and even save you a few dollars, too.
I didn’t reduce my waste to absolute zero — but I got very close. Here are all the tips and tricks I learned, along with the environmentally friendly swaps I’ll keep in mind going forward.
Zero Waste Backpacking: The Gear
To cut down on waste, your first principle should be to use what you already have. The outdoor gear industry is constantly promoting the latest and greatest gear, encouraging you to buy the innovative, tricked-out pack or the new ultralight sleeping bag. It’s a lot of what we do here at GearJunkie.
When it comes to buying gear, though, ask yourself if you really need that new gadget or if what you have will do. I’ve been using the same MSR PocketRocket stove and REI Co-op titanium pot for 15 years, and they still get the job done. Invest in high-quality gear. Take good care of it. And if you do, it should last for years, keeping things out of the landfill and saving you money.
Repair Your Gear
If the gear starts to wear or fail, see what a good repair attempt can do. After three years, the adjustable strap on my favorite lightweight Turtle Fur hat began to rip apart. Instead of tossing it, I got some high-strength thread, sewed it up, and it was as good as new.
Down jackets and sleeping bags can easily tear and lose insulation. However, repair kits from brands like Patagonia can revitalize these pricey items and keep them in your gear closet for years to come.
You can also look into gear repair shops, which are available all over and can professionally repair your broken equipment. Many brands also offer warranties that will repair manufacturing defects for free.
Consider Buying Used
When your gear has truly reached the end of its life, consider used gear before buying new. REI moved all of its used gear sales into stores, and there are seriously good deals there. I’ve found practically brand-new sleeping pads, boots, and tents there for major discounts.
This is a win-win: It is more sustainable than buying brand new gear, and it saves some serious change. There are plenty of online used-gear resellers worth checking out as well.
ZeroWaste Backpacking: Food
The number one source of trash for backpackers is food, which makes sense. Hiking with a heavy pack for 10 hours a day burns a ton of calories, and keeping fueled requires a heck of a lot of food. With a little forethought and planning, however, it’s possible to feed yourself well and reduce your amount of trash.
Bulk Bins
When it comes to reducing trash, bulk bins are truly the MVP. They were my primary source of food for my Catalina trip. I bought some reusable silicone plastic baggies and containers and visited my local independent grocery store.
The clerk weighed the bags, and then I filled them with pasta, oatmeal, rice, beans, gummy candies, nuts, trail mix, and granola. I had smaller, reusable plastic containers that I filled with spices like black pepper and dehydrated garlic. Whole Foods also has a large bulk bin section, and I filled up a few containers there as well.
I was honestly surprised at the variety of foods available. Everything I usually eat on trail was in a bulk bin. Whatever your favorite sweet treat is — yogurt-covered pretzels, chocolate-covered nuts, peanut butter cups, gummy bears — it’s probably available in a bin.
The bulk bins were also astonishingly cheap. I spent $35 on my food at the bulk bins, and I didn’t even eat everything I brought on my trip (don’t worry, I brought it home and ate it). A single standard dehydrated backpacking meal costs between $12 and $18, depending on the brand. For the price of two or three single meals, I got most of the food for my trip.
When it came to producing waste, I deliberately chose foods that delivered a lot of calories for very little trash. My two “luxuries” were a block of Irish butter and a large wedge of Parmesan cheese. These two items brought flavor, fat, protein, and salt, all things you need while backpacking. I used them up fully on the trip.
Since I can only eat so many beans, for protein and variety, I brought along canned chicken. After I used the cans, I cleaned them, peeled the stickers off, and recycled them. I’m allergic to most shellfish. However, canned or tinned fish would also be a great choice to bring along. In recent years, brands like Patagonia and Fishwife have turned tinned fish into a gourmet, flavor-filled product.
Meals
After a long day of hiking, it’s nice to have an actually tasty meal. So, I attempted to make something more flavorful than just good ol’ rice and beans. I made what I affectionately call “dirtbag” mac n’ cheese. I cooked the pasta from the bulk bins until it was al dente. Then I drained it, keeping a little pasta water. I added butter and parmesan cheese and stirred until it made a kind of sauce.
Then, I dumped that out into my bowl and wiped out the pot. I chopped my canned chicken, added some butter to the pot. I brought it to high heat to sear and add some color to the meat, combined everything, and added plenty of black pepper and dehydrated garlic.
The resulting dinner was hearty and filling, and honestly better than a fair number of dehydrated, bagged pasta meals I’ve had. I was concerned that at the end of a long day of hiking, I’d be too tired to bother cooking. But it really wasn’t that much work. Most freeze-dried meals take at least 10 to 20 minutes to rehydrate, anyway. So it didn’t even take much longer.
Cooking for yourself also has the benefit of you controlling what goes into your food. Every time I read the back of a dehydrated meal, there are so many ingredients I can’t even begin to pronounce. With this method, I know exactly what I’m putting into my body.
For breakfast, I got instant oats from the bulk bin. I doctored them up with plenty of fixin’s: dried tart cherries, banana chips, and chocolate-covered cashews became my go-to combo.
With prices upward of $7, packaged backpacking oatmeals have always seemed like a ripoff to me. This method was substantially cheaper. It’s also infinitely customizable and scalable. Whatever your ideal oatmeal is, you can build it.
I’ve never been one to have a big lunch while backpacking. I don’t like the feeling of my heavy pack pressing on my full stomach while I go uphill. Instead, I just snacked on my bulk bin buys, and that was plenty. A great option is to visit your local bakery, grab some bagels or rolls, put them in your reusable bag, and bring them along for quick carbs.
Coffee
I was willing to sacrifice several creature comforts in my pursuit of zero waste, but coffee was not one of them. I usually bring Alpine Start instant coffee, a brand I find tastes nearly just as good as the regular stuff. Instead, to reduce waste, I brought the reusable filter from my pour-over setup at home to use in my YETI Rambler Pour Over.
I bought beans in bulk at my local store, ground them just before I left, and put them in a reusable container. After I made the coffee each morning, I let the grounds cool before putting them in another reusable baggie, and composted them when I got home.
This setup was certainly way heavier than just bringing along instant coffee, but it also produced the best-ever coffee I’ve had on the trail.
Hydration
For years, backpackers have loved Smartwater bottles for their lightweight, slim profile. Replacing these with reusable bottles is one of the easiest ways to cut down on plastic waste. Brands like CNOC and Igneous have developed great alternatives. Check them out here.
Toiletries and Cleaning
Toiletries are another main source of waste on the trail. However, there are easy, sustainable options. For sunscreen (an absolute must for a pale person like me), I used this tinned sunscreen from Badger ($19).
It was a little thicker and required a bit more rubbing in than my usual Neutrogena, but it worked well. It’s also certified reef-friendly. Once I use it up, I’ll reuse the tin for bits and bobs like hair ties and safety pins.
I am happy to be a dirtbag and not shower, but I draw the line at not brushing my teeth for nearly a week. For toothpaste, I used these small tablets from Huppy ($1.20) that came in a small metal tin. You simply put one in your mouth, chew it up, and then brush as you normally would.
For deodorant, several brands like HiBAR ($14) offer sticks that come in recyclable cardboard. I didn’t have access to showers on the trail, but if I did, I would’ve brought HiBAR’s solid shampoo ($15) and conditioner bars ($15).
To wash my dishes, I relied on a few key tools: a reusable container filled with dish soap and a washable, quick-drying cloth. This Oxo Scraper was super-handy for getting off crusty bits.
Organization
As much as I love my Gossamer Gear Mariposa 60 pack, it doesn’t have much internal organization. To keep my pack from becoming a black hole, I usually use Ziploc baggies to separate items and keep things compartmentalized. This time around, I relied on small, durable, and reusable ditty bags from Gossamer Gear ($11), as well as traditional packing cubes from Eagle Creek.
I grabbed a set of travel packing cubes for dirt cheap from Sierra Designs, and have used them for snacks, trash, dirty laundry, and more. If they get dirty, I just put them in the washing machine.
The Other Kind of Waste
Let’s face it: No matter what steps you take, you will be producing your own bodily waste on the trail. It’s part of being human. Be sure to follow proper LNT ethics and bury it at least 6 inches deep. On the Trans-Catalina Trail, there were regular privies, and I made sure to use them as much as possible.
Baby wipes are one of my main sources of trash on the trail. I’m a baby wipe fiend. I’ll use them to give myself a rudimentary bath, clean dirty dishes, and use them after the bathroom.
Pact Outdoors makes a low-waste, eco-friendly alternative to classic wipes ($20 for 100). They come in small, dehydrated disks. Add a little water, and they bloom into full-size wipes. Pact says they’re also quicker to break down than traditional toilet paper or wipes, decomposing in 95 days rather than years for the other options. I used them on the trail and found that they worked just as well as normal wipes.
For those who have to squat to pee, a Kula Cloth ($20) is a must-have on the trail. After you’re done peeing, wipe with the antimicrobial cloth. When you get home, simply toss it in the wash, and it’s ready to go again. I’ve had my Kula Cloths for years, and they work amazingly well. It’s a sustainable choice, and infinitely better than just drip drying.
The Impossible to Avoid
When it comes to backpacking, a few necessary products will produce trash, and there’s not much you can do about it. And that’s okay. Pursuing zero-waste living isn’t a purity test or an all-or-nothing exercise. Reducing your trash output is a worthwhile effort to help the environment, not about being perfect.
First and foremost, I had to bring a lighter and fuel. I suppose I could have tried to cold-soak all my food, but eating cold, wet beans after a long day of hiking was a mental hurdle I couldn’t get over. I’ll be sure to use the entire fuel container. It’s also worth checking out the FlipFuel, a small device that combines half-empty fuel containers.
A first-aid kit is an absolute essential on the trail, and not a place to skimp to reduce weight or waste.
Medications are another arena that will always produce waste. No matter what, my prescriptions will always come in those little plastic bottles. Those bottles, however, are reusable, and in my experience, quite handy. I filled one up with the usual drugs I bring in my first-aid kit (Tylenol, Advil, Tums) instead of a Ziploc bag.
The Final Trash Tally
After 4 days on trail, my final trash total included: one fuel canister, one lighter, seven Pact wipes, butter foil, two stickers from chicken cans, and the plastic wrapper from the Parmesan. I’m also human, so at one point, I passed by a small convenience store and bought and ate two bags of chips, so I added those to the tally as well.
This is a huge improvement over my New Zealand trip, where I ended up with three gallon-size Ziploc bags full of trash. Just a bit more planning and forethought resulted in a vastly lower trash output. I’ll take that as a major win — for me and the environment.
What I’ll Keep in the Future — And What I’ll Ditch
After my zero-waste backpacking attempt, I’ve picked up a few habits I’ll definitely use in the future. When it comes to food shopping, I’ll continue to go to bulk bins first. The variety and affordability beat any dehydrated meal. I will also keep my toiletry setup. It’s lighter than usual, and if I’m flying, it’s nice that none of them count as liquids.
I will use my zero-waste coffee method when I’m car camping and not worried about space or weight. On trail, though, I’ll go back to my instant coffee. It’s so much more compact, and the pour-over setup took up a lot of space in my backpack. I will try brands like Verve, whose instant coffee comes in recyclable paper packets.
Initially, the idea of trying to go zero-waste with a backpack seemed daunting, but I’m happy to report that it really isn’t that hard. Taking the environmentally friendly road is accessible and, very frequently, cheaper.
Next time you’re planning on heading into the backcountry, try adopting one or two of these strategies. The earth and your wallet will thank you.
