At the weekend, the first poo bags will arrive in a Norwegian national park.
Not doggie bags to collect nature’s sticky waste from the four-legged ones, but literally poo nappies for us two-legged ones.
Lofotodden National Park at the far end of the sea in Lofoten is launching a trial project that has already generated great interest among other national parks, hiking areas and tourist-heavy summer resorts.
– Before the start, we have questions from half the country the poop project. The Lyngsalpene in Troms are in the process of preparing something similar, says national park manager Ole-Jakob Kvalshaug in Lofotodden to Dagbladet.
Collaboration partner NINA (Norwegian Institute for Nature Management) also notices the interest by phone and email.
The pulpit
– The pulpit in Rogaland is very keen on poo bags there too. And several festival organizers contact us about how the experiment in Lofoten is going, says communications manager Bjørg Bruset.
Lofotodden in Moskenes and Flakstad municipalities is the country’s youngest national park.
WILD AND BEAUTIFUL: National park manager Ole-Jakob Kvalshaug is launching an attempt to get rid of human excrement in untouched nature. Photo: Lofotodden National Park. view more
It was established in 2018.
Already this year, it is estimated that 50,000 guests from Norway and many other countries will hike in the steep and bare coastal Alps.
And many spend the night in tents on sandy beaches facing the sea. In the national park, the same tent rules apply as elsewhere in nature.
As in nature in general: Hikers have to go to the toilet. But in Lofotodden National Park, there are no outdoor activities, and no permanent residents to knock on.
Tired of this: – Littering
Read: dirt and toilet paper from the 50,000 are left in the terrain by hiking trails and on the beaches.
– Several tests last season document that the terrain toilets can contaminate the drinking water in the streams. Hazardous to health E.coli bacteria was detected in addition to what we don’t like to see in a national park or in hiking areas in general, says national park manager Kvalhaug.
HOW TO USE IT: According to the illustration from the national park. view more
– Don’t leave your poo
From this weekend, tourists will be greeted with large posters with very clear messages in English at the entrance to the two walking routes in Lofotodden:
«Attention! Don’t leave your poo in the national park!»
In Norwegian: “Attention! Don’t leave your poo in the national park!”
Packs with odorless “poop nappy” and puncture-free packaging are being put out. And two containers are set up to dump the toilet bag after the trip.
From 7 July, the national park’s people will hand out poo bags and inform tourists directly about the new measure.
– DON’T LEAVE YOUR POO HERE: Unambiguous on the new posters in Lofotodden National Park. view more
Where does the solution to the piggery problem that Norwegian nature managers have been talking about for several years come from?
Alaska, the moon and Iraq
Answer: Alaska and the United States.
Three years ago, American Rose Keller started as a researcher at NINA. She has worked in Denali National Park in Alaska and learned how they solved the problems with the tourists’ feces there.
Both space travel and the The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 appears in explanations of how so-called waste bags were invented.
These photos from the Boston Marathon make many people rage. A video will show one of the runners defecating in a stranger’s garden. Photo: AP. Reporter: Marte Nyløkken Helseth / Dagbladet. view more
In 1999, someone got the idea to try chemicals NASA had found to remove odors and dangerous contamination from human poo in lunar rovers.
And the practical breakthrough for poop bags came with Western soldiers without toilets in Iraq.
Rose Keller and research colleagues at NINA will follow the experiment in Lofotodden National Park this summer together with, among others, a researcher from Scotland.
THE BAG: odorless poo nappy in the green plastic bag, leak-proof foil on the outside. Photo: Lofotodden National Park. view more
Keller conducted a survey among tourists in Lofoten last year.
– Never heard of
– Nine out of ten had never heard of poo bags for humans. Nevertheless, 75 percent answered that they were willing to test if they were free, says the American NINA researcher to NRK.no.
She has tested the bag herself.
– It is easy to use, and the bags are more hygienic than just nappies, she explains.
Why doesn’t Lofotodden National Park build some outhouses instead?
National park manager Kvalshaug has some points in his answer there.
THANKS FOR THE TRIP: Here you put the poo bag. Photo: Lofotodden National Park. view more
– In such an area, there should be as few human traces as possible. And outhouses must be emptied. Boats and ships largely do not come close to land. And vehicles can’t get through the steep terrain here. A helicopter had been the only option.
2023-07-07 15:39:41
#Dont #leave #crap
