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Re: Free/wild camping - toilet paper
Posted: 11 Oct 2021, 3:59am
by Cowsham
A handful of Docken leaves do the job -- cures nettle stings too.
Re: Free/wild camping - toilet paper
Posted: 11 Oct 2021, 8:18am
by Jdsk
Cowsham wrote: ↑11 Oct 2021, 3:59am
A handful of Docken leaves do the job -- cures nettle stings too.
Cure is a bit strong... it might
distract. There's nothing special about dock leaves and nettle stings, and interestingly the idea isn't known in many countries.
Jonathan
Re: Free/wild camping - toilet paper
Posted: 11 Oct 2021, 9:00am
by Cowsham
Jdsk wrote: ↑11 Oct 2021, 8:18am
Cowsham wrote: ↑11 Oct 2021, 3:59am
A handful of Docken leaves do the job -- cures nettle stings too.
Cure is a bit strong... it might
distract. There's nothing special about dock leaves and nettle stings, and interestingly the idea isn't known in many countries.
Jonathan
Next time you get a nettle sting rub it wey a dockin then you can amend Wikipedia.
Re: Free/wild camping - toilet paper
Posted: 11 Oct 2021, 9:15am
by Jdsk
Cowsham wrote: ↑11 Oct 2021, 9:00am
Jdsk wrote: ↑11 Oct 2021, 8:18am
Cowsham wrote: ↑11 Oct 2021, 3:59am
A handful of Docken leaves do the job -- cures nettle stings too.
Cure is a bit strong... it might
distract. There's nothing special about dock leaves and nettle stings, and interestingly the idea isn't known in many countries.
Next time you get a nettle sting rub it wey a dockin then you can amend Wikipedia.
There is no known curative effect. The rubbing might work as a distraction.
But it's even more interesting than that. There's a cod scientific explanation involving acidity... for an effect that probably doesn't exist.
And then there's the delightful idea that dock grows nearby in case we get stung.
Jonathan
Re: Free/wild camping - toilet paper
Posted: 11 Oct 2021, 11:58am
by pjclinch
Used to bury the paper with the Product, but now pack out the second-hand paper too. It's one of those things where I've come across more and more emphasis that it ought to be done, from people who are Good Guys actively involved in environmental management of the places I'm visiting, so I figure they probably know what they're on about.
And it turns out that it's not really an issue as long as you've remembered to take a spare baggie, so even if it's unnecessary, really the case that no harm's being done.
Pete.
Re: Free/wild camping - toilet paper
Posted: 11 Oct 2021, 12:06pm
by Mike Sales
Is a sheet of soft toilet paper, well buried and isolated, really worse than a bagged (plastic?) sheet in the landfill bin?
Re: Free/wild camping - toilet paper
Posted: 11 Oct 2021, 12:12pm
by Psamathe
I put kitchen paper, tissues, etc. (not toilet paper, not used with chemicals) in my compost bins and have never had any suggestion of the original when the compost is used.
Ian
Re: Free/wild camping - toilet paper
Posted: 11 Oct 2021, 1:44pm
by pjclinch
I think a lot of the issue is probably that competence does not scale.
If I do a good job of burying my loo paper in the middle of nowhere I can be reasonably confident that nobody will ever know.
If I say as a general case that burying loo roll is fine there will be a proportion who are as careful as I would be, some who would do an even more thorough job, and others who are variously less competent/bothered (and having seen the amount of used loo roll scattered around the immediate neighbourhood of some bothies I'm amazed at how many outdoorsy types are completely oblivious to the fact that they've been openly and very unhygienically littering).
So it's a better idea to just remove the problem and say to everyone please take it out.
If you do do a very thorough burial job it's probably okay. But best keep it to yourself rather than say, "oooh yes, burying it's fine". Because chances are there will be some rubbish and tenth-hearted attempts at "burial" that some people will rationalise off the back of that.
Pete.
Re: Free/wild camping - toilet paper
Posted: 11 Oct 2021, 2:08pm
by Vorpal
Jdsk wrote: ↑11 Oct 2021, 9:15am
Cowsham wrote: ↑11 Oct 2021, 9:00am
Jdsk wrote: ↑11 Oct 2021, 8:18am
Cure is a bit strong... it might
distract. There's nothing special about dock leaves and nettle stings, and interestingly the idea isn't known in many countries.
Next time you get a nettle sting rub it wey a dockin then you can amend Wikipedia.
There is no known curative effect. The rubbing might work as a distraction.
But it's even more interesting than that. There's a cod scientific explanation involving acidity... for an effect that probably doesn't exist.
And then there's the delightful idea that dock grows nearby in case we get stung.
Jonathan
I've read that there is no scientific evidence to support the efficacy of dock leaves for nettle stings, and they do nothing for me, but my daughter, who is rather more bothered by nettles than I, is also helped very much by dock. She will get large, red, swollen splotches from nettles, but they go down immediately when dock is applied (crushed leaves, rubbed on the area). Even anti-histamine isn't as effective, as that takes a while to work, and she still sometimes experiences itching for a few hours.
Re: Free/wild camping - toilet paper
Posted: 11 Oct 2021, 5:50pm
by Mike Sales
pjclinch wrote: ↑11 Oct 2021, 1:44pm
I think a lot of the issue is probably that competence does not scale.
If I do a good job of burying my loo paper in the middle of nowhere I can be reasonably confident that nobody will ever know.
If I say as a general case that burying loo roll is fine there will be a proportion who are as careful as I would be, some who would do an even more thorough job, and others who are variously less competent/bothered (and having seen the amount of used loo roll scattered around the immediate neighbourhood of some bothies I'm amazed at how many outdoorsy types are completely oblivious to the fact that they've been openly and very unhygienically littering).
So it's a better idea to just remove the problem and say to everyone please take it out.
If you
do do a very thorough burial job it's probably okay. But best keep it to yourself rather than say, "oooh yes, burying it's fine". Because chances are there will be some rubbish and tenth-hearted attempts at "burial" that some people will rationalise off the back of that.
Pete.
So I am fine to carry on with my thorough burying practice? I don't fancy carrying little odiferous packets around in my kit, and the carefully disposing of them.
Re: Free/wild camping - toilet paper
Posted: 11 Oct 2021, 6:16pm
by Mike Sales
I once had occasion to empty my bowels over the side of my boat in the middle of the Irish Sea, in the old fashioned way. My rather prissy crew was disgusted. If I had pumped the product through a hole in the side of the boat he would have been fine.
Recent revelations about the practices of the companies whose job it is to dispose of sewage tell us that they do much the same, except a lot more concentrated and rather closer to the shore (or bank).
Re: Free/wild camping - toilet paper
Posted: 12 Oct 2021, 9:54am
by pjclinch
Mike Sales wrote: ↑11 Oct 2021, 5:50pm
So I am fine to carry on with my thorough burying practice? I don't fancy carrying little odiferous packets around in my kit, and the carefully disposing of them.
We just put them in with the rest of the rubbish we carry out. They don't smell because of the baggie they're in. It really is a bit of a non-issue, one of those things where the first time you think, "eeeeuuuu", steel yourself to do it... and then think, "oh, was I really bothered about that?"
Pete.
Re: Free/wild camping - toilet paper
Posted: 12 Oct 2021, 12:58pm
by hufty
Same as for using water and left hand, which I am surprised hasn't been mentioned so far as another option.
Re: Free/wild camping - toilet paper
Posted: 12 Oct 2021, 1:05pm
by Mike Sales
pjclinch wrote: ↑12 Oct 2021, 9:54am
We just put them in with the rest of the rubbish we carry out. They don't smell because of the baggie they're in. It really is a bit of a non-issue, one of those things where the first time you think, "eeeeuuuu", steel yourself to do it... and then think, "oh, was I really bothered about that?"
Pete.
A single use plastic bag(gie)? Which then goes into landfill?
Not immediately obvious to me that this beats decent burial, to be broken down by the usual process that the ecosystem provides, and which is the best that can be expected in the municipal tip, if the bag breakes down.
Re: Free/wild camping - toilet paper
Posted: 12 Oct 2021, 1:21pm
by kylecycler
A dog reading this thread would find it hilarious.