Biodegradable? Think again.
I’m surprised at the number of people who think that Leave No Trace principles don’t apply if the litter is biodegradable. Even in a typical four-season backcountry setting, an orange peel takes two years to biodegrade. That’s the lifespan of a rabbit. In a dry alpine environment, that orange peel may take hundreds of years to biodegrade, if at all. The same is true of a banana peel. A glass bottle can take over 1 million years to biodegrade. The message? Leave No Trace means just that, and biodegradability doesn’t figure into the equation.