Rick Crawford
Every year some friends and I head down to Everglades National Park for a fishing and camping trip. It’s a great escape and a highly anticipated adventure, but I started thinking about how much single-use plastic and waste is generated on these camping trips. I always practice leave no trace principles and recycle everything I accumulate during while camping, but is it even necessary to buy items that are single-use in the first place?
For those of you who have not had the opportunity to experience the Everglades, I highly recommend it! Sure, the mosquitoes can get crazy and it’s hot, but it is truly one of the most unique places on Earth and a wonderful fishery. There are a couple of places to launch from, but we usually launch from Flamingo. You have to reserve Chickee’s upon your arrival because in the backcountry of the Everglades there is nowhere to camp except for these dock-like structures, which can be seen below:
You know you are in the right place when there is no cell phone service! Anyways, because it is Earth Month, I started thinking of additional ways I could make a positive impact, and started thinking about how much single-use plastics and waste could be generated on a multi-day camping trip that requires we bring all of our own food and water in the ‘Glades backcountry. So I have decided to find out if I can do a single-use plastic-free camping trip?
Consider potentially how much single-use plastics could be used: to-go coffee on the drive down, water bottles for a 4-day camping trip, all plastic packaging materials on the groceries, etc. My goal is to refuse single-use plastics on this camping trip in an effort to create more awareness about the impact single-use plastic is having on our fisheries, as well as draw more attention to the gross mismanagement of Florida’s water resources causing toxic algal blooms and massive fish kills. To learn more, please visit: www.gladesdeclaration.org and sign the Now Or Neverglades Declaration!
We are headed down to Flamingo, FL next week and I have already begun to prepare for our trip and it seems completely feasible to exclude single-use plastics from our camping trip, but I haven’t been grocery shopping yet, so who knows what kind of challenges I may run into? Stay tuned as I will be posting updates and results in the coming days!
Protect what you love,
Rick