In theory, camping is the most sustainable way to travel there is: a small home, small consumption, nature right on your doorstep. In practice, an astonishing bin bag often piles up after a single weekend. It doesn't have to: with five changes, you can shrink it to a tenth.
The kit: buy once instead of constantly throwing away
The biggest sources of waste when camping are single-use products: plastic plates, kitchen roll, water bottles. The alternatives last for years: enamel or stainless steel tableware, cloths, refillable bottles plus a water canister. For hygiene, solid soaps and shampoo bars win twice over: no plastic, and nothing leaking in the cupboard. (Even so: do not use them in a mountain lake, natural cosmetics do not belong in the water either.)
Shopping: package-free is right by the roadside
The most honest zero-waste shop in Switzerland is the farm shop: eggs in the box you brought along, vegetables in your cloth bag, cheese in your own beeswax wrap. If you stay at farm pitches, it is right outside your sliding door, and no supply chain gets shorter than that. Weekly markets along your route do the same job.
The golden rule: leave no trace
Whatever comes with you leaves with you, all of it. That includes the supposedly «compostable» things: banana peels and cigarette filters take months to years to rot in nature and belong in the bag. The nicest zero-waste exercise is a different one anyway: spend five minutes checking the pitch before you leave and leave it cleaner than you found it. Hosts remember guests like that, and so does nature.
♻️ Start small: take exactly three things on your next trip: a water bottle, a cloth bag and a bar of solid soap. The rest follows as soon as you have seen how small your bin bag can be.
Background research including the roadsurfer blog and guides from TCS, VanSite and other camping magazines; text and analysis: Parkn'Sleep editorial team.
