From hiking nature trails to traversing pristine waterways, Scouts thrive when they explore the great outdoors. For more than a century, the Scouting America has been dedicated to preserving the beauty of the natural world and Earth's precious ecosystems. As Scouts, we have a duty to nature, which is why the Scouting America follow strict guiding principles like The Outdoor Code and Leave No Trace. If you're a Scout or parent who wants to reduce your environmental impact, read on to learn more about things you can do to reduce your impact on the trail. 

The Outdoor Code asks us to do our best by showing respect for the outdoors by being clean, careful with fire, considerate, and conservation-minded. The Leave No Trace Principle gives us seven guidelines to help us preserve nature:

1. Know Before You Go. (Follow any rules of where you are heading)
2. Choose the Right Path. (Walk on trails and use specified camping grounds)
3. Trash Your Trash. (Use bathroom facilities when available and follow the rules for trash and handling dirty water)
4. Leave What You Find. (Leave natural treasures and take nothing but a picture)
5. Be Careful With Fire. (Cook on a camp stove or grill when possible and only build fires in designated fire rings)
6. Respect Wildlife. (Travel quietly and be considerate of animals)
7. Be Kind to Other Visitors. (Be respectful by keeping the noise down and only enter other campsites with permission)

I want to expand on the “be conservation-minded” clause from the Outdoor Code and number 3 from The Leave No Trace Principles. At the end of the day, whether on a camping trip or at home in our everyday lives, we can rethink how we view the products we use. The concept of the “Circular Mindset” can help us do that and lead to having an easier time while camping with our packs, dens, and family.

I came across the Be Zero nonprofit about a year ago when I met one of the ambassadors for the organization. I ended up looking up Be Zero's founder (Andrea Sanders) on Instagram and have been thinking about creating less waste ever since. She was so passionate in a non-invasive and not-pushy way about the concept of creating less waste. What was so unique about Be Zero was Andrea's 20-year history in environmental conservation that she blended with real-world testing and, from that, practical guidance. She used the term "Circular Mindset" to help us understand how we (as individuals) can have an impact and produce less waste.

Part of Be Zero's mission was "to inspire, educate, and activate individuals to dramatically reduce their plastic and trash footprint," which tied in exactly with the Outdoor Code and Leave No Trace Principles followed by all of us at Scouting America.

Reducing how many single-use products we use can directly impact the natural world around us. While her nonprofit is no longer active, the idea of "zero waste" is undoubtedly being practiced!

For instance, how often have you been to a campground or park and taken your trash to the provided garbage cans only to find they overflowing? So you do your best, shove your trash down as hard as you can, or do the Jenga jive and try to balance your trash on top. What if you didn't have any garbage to start with?

Enter the Zero Waste Circular Mindset. Andrea defined the Circular Mindset as "a way to rethink our daily consumer and lifestyle habits to help us reduce our trash and plastic footprint" and said, "By applying this mindset into every day, we naturally reduce our trash and plastic footprint and put more value and ownership around the resources and materials we use." 

Here are some action items you can immediately implement, whether at home or on your next camping trip.

1. Bring your own reusable containers and bags. This will give you the power to say “no, thank you” to the single-use coffee cup you will have to find a trash can for or the never-degradable Styrofoam to-go box. Rethink packing everything for a camping trip in plastic baggies, practice the Scout Law of being thrifty, and look for other options!
2. Skip the little plastic bags for produce at the grocery store. Fruits and vegetables aren’t going to contaminate each other if they touch, and they were probably covered in dirt at some point, so who cares if they touch the cereal box?
3. Give up paper towels. This is a scary one for lots of people. Try it on for a week and see what happens – most of us have t-shirt drawers that are overflowing with unused shirts (because we all have 7 favorites, right?!) – what if you cut up your least-used 3 shirts and kept them on hand in the kitchen for spills and messes so you could toss them in with the laundry loads you are already running?
4. Use whole foods whenever possible. By skipping prepackaged, preprocessed foods, we are more in keeping with our Scout Oath to keep ourselves physically strong AND honor our planet.
5. Start a compost! Food scraps don’t need to head to a landfill where they will be so compressed with other waste that they won’t break down as efficiently. More on this in a future blog, but there are all kinds of easy ways to start composting your food scraps.
6. Share your tips and tricks with your dens, packs, and family! Challenge each other to try new things.

It's up to all of us to preserve mother nature and keep our planet clean. As Scouts, we must take the lead and set an example for the rest of our community to keep our parks, lakes, and nature trails garbage free. Are you ready to do your part and reduce your environmental impact? Please share your tips and conservation efforts using #ScoutShop_BSA to be featured on our social channels! For hiking and camping gear, visit ScoutShop.org—the official online retail store of the Scouting America.