Setting out for a backpacking trip and then stuffing your bag with energy bars and freeze-dried meals wrapped in plastic is one of the best examples of cognitive dissonance in outdoor recreation. Leave No Trace has preached “pack it out,” but then what? It comes out of the backcountry only to get tossed in with the billions of tons of plastic waste sitting in landfills or getting swept into oceans.   We are trashing our planet, and nature lovers are part of the problem. So where are all the green companies doing compostable packaging for backpacking food?   It turns out that revamping packaging systems is more complicated than people in the food industry realized when they first set out to tackle the issue. Even Patagonia Provisions—one of the outdoor industry’s leaders in sustainability efforts—is struggling. “You have to consider the producer of the product, the machinery they have, the waste-management end of it, and, in the case of food, the barriers the packages provide to keep the food safe,” says Birgit Cameron, Patagonia Provisions’ managing director.   Ever since Patagonia Provisions launched its fruit bars in 2015, it’s been working toward a compostable wrapper. The company is currently on the fourth iteration, and there are still problems. One issue is that the compostable film is just different enough from traditional wrappers that it slows down the manufacturer’s packaging equipment. “The texture and thickness work differently on the machines,” says Cameron. It doesn’t slip as seamlessly through the production line, and that means it takes longer to package the bars, which means the manufacturer has to charge more—since the process is holding up that production line. And price is important: sustainable food should not just be for the rich.   Then there are the other problems. When Kate Flynn left corporate America in 2017 to start Sun and Swell Foods, a snack-food company based in Santa Barbara, California, a big part of her goal was to run a responsible business. She formed Sun and Swell as a B Corp and signed on with 1% for the Planet, an organization of companies that have pledged to donate at least 1 percent of annual sales to environmental nonprofits. “But we were still contributing to the problem of single-use plastics,” she says. “About once a month, I’d  do these really aggressive Google searches, trying to find a solution.” Finally, TIPA Corp, a company based in Israel specializing in compostable packaging, popped up in her search results.   In March of 2019, Flynn committed to all-compostable packaging, intending to have her entire line wrapped in the material by the end of the year. That hasn’t happened. “What we learned is that there are so many more complexities than we ever knew. People think it just costs more, but really that’s the least of the concerns,” she says.   Sun and Swell’s biggest issue has been the life span of the wrappers. TIPA guarantees them for nine months. “But that’s [from] when it comes off the line at the printer. Our experience is that it has been a little less than nine months,” Flynn says. The packages have a little transparent window on them, and as the packages age, the window starts to get milky and look funky. Then, of course, customers are hesitant to buy them. “It turns into a food-waste issue,” she says.   And this is the thing about plastic that makes the whole debate so complicated: it’s been hugely helpful in reducing our global food waste—another massive driver of global emissions. Take, for example, grapes. When they’re packaged in plastic bags, their shelf life is 120 days. Left loose, their shelf life would be ten days. Until we can change our system so we’re more reliant on local food, plastic will be a necessary evil.     There’s also the fact that sealing up food is one great way to ensure that it is safe. When Ashley Lance started her vegan, eco-conscious backpacking meal business Fernweh Food Company last year, she really wanted it to be zero-waste. But Lance’s local USDA officer, who helped her get her products certified as safe to sell, wasn’t convinced that zero-waste sales could ever get the regulatory thumbs-up. “For the USDA to sign off on it, it has to be in an airtight, waterproof container,” she says. For local orders, she stores her company’s food in jars. But because jars are heavy and breakable, shipping them doesn’t make much sense for smaller companies like Lance’s.   Her work-around is shipping each item in reusable muslin bags. Those bags are then sealed into a compostable outer package, which satisfied the USDA. It’s not quite zero waste, but it’s as close as Lance feels she’s going to get with the current regulations. Of course, users can’t make their meals directly in the bags—they’ll need a pot. But Lance says most of her customers see that as a feature, not a bug. On the trail, she dumps her dinner into a reusable silicone bag and adds hot water. She keeps one for sweet things and one for savory in her pack. At the end of her trips, she has almost no plastic garbage to unload.   The fact that small companies like Fernweh and Sun and Swell are devoting themselves to this mission is great, but we really need systematic change. One current problem with compostable packaging is that “compostable” is a nebulous term. Things that compost quickly in an industrial system may take months in your backyard compost pile. And a lot of cities don’t offer compost pickup at all, so these wrappers just sit in landfills. “We have a waste system set up. The problem is that it isn’t quite working,” says Cameron.   Patagonia Provisions is actively looking at whether it can use its Tin Shed Ventures—the company’s venture-capital fund—to kick-start a system purpose-built for compostable wrappers. This might include building industrial composting facilities and encouraging manufacturers to invest in machines that seal compostable packages just as fast as plastic ones. “Like anything we do, being in a system fully so we can work on it to figure out how to change it is sort of what we’re up to,” says Cameron. And because Patagonia Provisions is large, it may be able to create a lucrative market for entrepreneurs making more eco-friendly packaging. “What often happens is that people start to adopt what we find,” she says.   In the meantime, a handful of outdoor brands are engaging with a recycling company called TerraCycle. Brands pay TerraCycle to collect and recycle wrappers and other hard-to-recycle stuff. Right now, Backpacker’s Pantry, Clif Bar, Gu, and Mountain House all participate. TerraCycle will send individual consumers an envelope that they can use to return their wrappers. Those become recycled plastic pellets, which can be melted down and reused. While this is definitely better than packaging going to a landfill, it’s not a perfect system, since it takes energy to melt and ship them. Still, it’s a good step for companies who want to move toward zero waste but are hesitant—or unable—to jump completely in.   But let’s hope that more companies adapt and move toward zero-waste practices sooner rather than later, so we can start enjoying our meals in the mountains without a side of guilt.

Backpacking and Emergency Freeze-Dried Food Company Works to Leave-No-Trace with Announcement of Packaging Recycling Program  TRENTON, NJ (March 11, 2019) – Mountain House, the leader in freeze-dried backpacking and emergency food options, has partnered with international recycling company TerraCycle® to offer consumers a free, easy way to recycle packaging waste from their line of Mountain House pouches.     “Since our inception nearly 50 years ago, Mountain House has been widely regarded as the gold-standard brand of camping food,” said Brandy Lamb, Marketing Director. “We are conscious of how our packaging can impact the people and the planet we share, which is why we’re pleased to add, through our partnership with TerraCycle, national recyclability to our commitment to consumers.”     Through the Mountain House Recycling Program, consumers can now send in their empty pouch packaging to be recycled for free. Participation is easy: sign up on the TerraCycle program page and mail in the pouch packaging waste using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the packaging is cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products. Additionally, for every one pound of waste shipped to TerraCycle, collectors can earn $1 to donate to a non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice.       “Mountain House is giving their customers the unique opportunity to minimize their environmental impact by offering them a way to responsibly dispose of the packaging from their freeze-dried meals,” said TerraCycle CEO and Founder, Tom Szaky. “In turn, by participating in the Mountain House Recycling Program, customers are one step closer to truly minimizing their environmental impact.”       Hiking the John Muir Trail eating Mountain House along the way. The Mountain House Recycling Program is open to any interested individual, school, office, or community organization. For more information on TerraCycle’s recycling program, visit www.terracycle.com.  ABOUT MOUNTAIN HOUSE  Based in Albany, Ore., Mountain House has been the first choice of backpackers, hikers, campers and emergency preparation experts for decades. Why? Great taste, ease of use and reliability, no matter how extreme the environment. Born out of Long Range Patrol rations made for Special Forces over 50 years ago – and continuously ever since – Mountain House wrote the book on delicious, dependable freeze-dried meals. According to the Outdoor Industry Association, Mountain House sells seven out of ten outdoor entrées in North America and their line of entrees in pouches and #10 cans has a proven shelf life of 30 years. For more information and a complete list of products, visit www.mountainhouse.com. 

Backpacking and Emergency Freeze-Dried Food Company Works to Leave-No-Trace with Announcement of Packaging Recycling Program  TRENTON, NJ (March 11, 2019) – Mountain House, the leader in freeze-dried backpacking and emergency food options, has partnered with international recycling company TerraCycle® to offer consumers a free, easy way to recycle packaging waste from their line of Mountain House pouches.     “Since our inception nearly 50 years ago, Mountain House has been widely regarded as the gold-standard brand of camping food,” said Brandy Lamb, Marketing Director. “We are conscious of how our packaging can impact the people and the planet we share, which is why we’re pleased to add, through our partnership with TerraCycle, national recyclability to our commitment to consumers.”     Through the Mountain House Recycling Program, consumers can now send in their empty pouch packaging to be recycled for free. Participation is easy: sign up on the TerraCycle program page and mail in the pouch packaging waste using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the packaging is cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products. Additionally, for every one pound of waste shipped to TerraCycle, collectors can earn $1 to donate to a non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice.       “Mountain House is giving their customers the unique opportunity to minimize their environmental impact by offering them a way to responsibly dispose of the packaging from their freeze-dried meals,” said TerraCycle CEO and Founder, Tom Szaky. “In turn, by participating in the Mountain House Recycling Program, customers are one step closer to truly minimizing their environmental impact.”       Hiking the John Muir Trail eating Mountain House along the way. The Mountain House Recycling Program is open to any interested individual, school, office, or community organization. For more information on TerraCycle’s recycling program, visit www.terracycle.com.  ABOUT MOUNTAIN HOUSE  Based in Albany, Ore., Mountain House has been the first choice of backpackers, hikers, campers and emergency preparation experts for decades. Why? Great taste, ease of use and reliability, no matter how extreme the environment. Born out of Long Range Patrol rations made for Special Forces over 50 years ago – and continuously ever since – Mountain House wrote the book on delicious, dependable freeze-dried meals. According to the Outdoor Industry Association, Mountain House sells seven out of ten outdoor entrées in North America and their line of entrees in pouches and #10 cans has a proven shelf life of 30 years. For more information and a complete list of products, visit www.mountainhouse.com.     

As thru-hikers, we’re already traveling off the beaten path. In an era of single-use plastics, disposable toiletries, and landfills the size of small islands, hitting the trail for months at a time is a step toward helping our beloved planet. Being able to fit all of my garbage into one plastic bag for days at a time showed me how much waste I was saving by living on the trail. However, there are always areas to improve and ways we can reduce our waste even when living out of a 50-liter pack.    

1) Take Advantage of the TerraCycle Program

    If you’re one to rely on freeze-dried meals while thru-hiking, you know how bulky those plastics can be. Instead of tossing them into the garbage, several companies encourage consumers to participate in TerraCycle. Backpacker’s Pantry and Mountain House both offer this innovative recycling strategy as a free waste-reducing option for hikers. With an online order at Backpacker’s Pantry, you can request a return recycling shipping label, which can be easily mailed out of any stop in town. Yes, this is one more thing to carry, but it’s worth it. For Mountain House products, you can print a shipping label right in town, box it up, and send it out. All free of charge.    

2) Buy Quality Gear

  We’ve all heard it: buy well, buy once. Before making large purchases, such as a tent, sleeping bag, or backpack, do your research. Choosing items that are specifically built for thru-hiking and long-distance treks helps avoid early wear and tear, saving both money and the environment in the long run. Sale and discounted items may be extremely enticing, but may result in an additional purchase sooner than necessary.  

3) Shop REI Garage Sales and Other Used Gear Programs

We all know REI’s generous return policy, but may fail to take advantage of these products coming full cycle. With like-new and usable returned gear, REI hosts garage sales for its members. If you can’t make one of these events, REI recently launched an online used gear store as well. Quality gear can be pricey, and this helps keep gear out of the landfills and in the backcountry.  

4) Replace Single-Serving Bars, Trail Mix, and Instant Coffee with Bulk Options

    This applies to resupply boxes and grocery hauls in town. It’s convenient to have wrapped, individual bars and snacks, but that extra plastic adds up quickly. Many grocery stores have bulk sections where you can fill up on nuts, dried fruit, and other goodies for one bag of homemade trail mix. Plus, you won’t have to pick out all of the gross raisins. Replacing single-serving snacks with bulk items makes a significant reduction in waste, and can save money as well. This also applies to instant drinks such as coffee. Instead of buying single-serving packets, consider a larger can and transferring it into a plastic (or reusable!) bag. Being mindful and cutting down on single serving snacks and utilizing TerraCycle programs means almost zero waste from food. Pretty impressive for a thru-hiker.    

5) Utilize Reusable Hygiene Replacements

    We’ll all need to wipe our butts. But there are ways to make sure those few precious squares of toilet paper we use are as environmentally friendly as possible. For ladies, investing in a Kula Cloth is a complete game changer. This reusable, absorbent pee square saved us from having to choose between using extra toilet paper or dealing with slightly damp shorts. As far as those situations where single-use toilet paper is unavoidable, there are post-industrial recycled content options available. This company uses bamboo and recycled paper to make their bathroom tissue. Investing in this sustainable swap definitely isn’t cheaper than stealing a few squares from the occasional pit toilet, but will make an impact nonetheless.   Women unfortunately have another hygiene issue to consider. A menstrual cup not only saves waste from single-use tampons and pads, but also is an enormous space and weight saver. There’s a few different brands to choose from, many of which are available in stores at CVS, Target, or online.  

6) Follow Leave No Trace Principles

In order to stay up-to-date on all the latest Leave No Trace guidelines, it is an imperative to check their website and brush up on all updated rules. In recent years lnt.org has included a new resource on how to geotag and use social media consciously. It’s up to all of us to keep these trails wild and pristine as possible for future generations to come as social media draws more visitors to the areas. Plus, we could all use a reminder to make sure our campsites and footprints leave as little impact as possible.  

7) Use a Microfiber Filtering Laundry Bag

This is an investment that will help our water systems at home and on trial. These laundry bags are designed to protect our clothes from releasing harmful plastic fibers into our waterways. While on the trail, this is a crucial way to ensure our clothes aren’t harming the streams and rivers we all benefit from in the backcountry. Also note that it is best practice to gather water and wash clothes elsewhere to prevent the stream of sunscreen, bug spray, and other unnatural products into our waterways.  

8) Keep a Reusable Garbage Bag

To be honest, I didn’t think twice before tossing my gallon-sized garbage bags with all my trash at each resupply. There was absolutely no reason for me to do this. I could’ve just as easily dumped all the trash out of the bag and refilled it. Or, better yet, brought along a lightweight reusable trash bag to avoid the use of any plastic.  

9) Carbon Offsetting Plane and Car Travel

  Many of the thru-hikes I’m eyeing require a bit of travel. Carbon offsetting is not a perfect solution to reducing our transit impact, but it’s a step in the right direction. Basically, for a minuscule purchase (around $2 or more if desired), you can offset the miles you traveled with these funds going straight toward emissions-reducing projects. The Good Traveler is a wonderful resource for all questions regarding carbon offsetting benefits.  

10) Replace Toiletries with Plastic-Free Options

Bamboo toothbrushes are gaining in popularity, and are a lightweight options to replace plastic brushes. Replacing plastic toothpaste tubes with bite-sized toothpaste bits is additionally an environmentally and weight friendly way to cut down on waste. This also saves us frugal thru-hikers from squeezing every last drop out of a long empty toothpaste container. Another simple money and plastic saving tip is to avoid buying single-use travel-size toiletries and invest in reusable tubes to refill with soap, lotion, or whatever helps you feel clean while living outdoors.   When it comes to protecting our beloved trails and environment as a whole, it’s up to all of us. Many of these tips may seem insignificant, but each small reduction in plastic use adds up quickly. As the time of year approaches when we are all dreaming of hitting the trail and may be planning trips for 2020, it’s imperative to consider ways we can reduce our impact.    

All good things must come to an end. It’s been an incredible tour and we couldn’t have done it without this years’ sponsors. For our final Gear On The Go blog, we wanted to highlight our favorite gear that we had the pleasure of using on the road this season. When it comes to van-ready cookware, Sea To Summit’s Sigma 2.2 Cookset checks all of the boxes. It consists of two marine-grade stainless steel Sigma Pots, two Delta Light Bowls, and two Delta Insul Mugs that all nest neatly inside the largest pot to make the perfect lightweight and compact kitchen set. The Sigma series is Sea To Summit’s most durable cookware option, making it perfect for everyday use in the van.When we’re on the road we’re adamant about making our own fresh and healthy food. The Sigma 2.2 helps make that a reality. Both pots have convenient strainer lids that rest neatly on the pots when they’re not in use. We’re not always able to park on a perfectly level spot to make our meals. The grippy heat-absorbing base ensures that the pots will stay on our two-burner and not slide off. When we’re finished cooking the Sigma is easily cleaned and stashed back inside itself. The Pivot-Lock handle keeps everything nice and secure which we really appreciate on rutted-out mountain roads.

Big Agnes: Skyline UL Stool

The Skyline UL Stool is the perfect companion for minimalist packers who want to roll extra light or van-dwellers who want to save space. Weighing in at about one pound, this stool packs down so small it fits inside a large-mouth water bottle. This is the smallest addition to the Big Agnes line of camp furniture and your butt will thank you for packing it when you don’t have to sit in the dirt after a long day on the trail. One reason that the Big Agnes camp furniture line is leading the pack is their hubless design. This feature saves space and makes for stronger construction. The poles that make up the frame are color-coded and shock-corded making for simple setup. The Skyline UL Stool comes with direction printed on the stuff sack, but you won’t need them. We’re impressed by the Skyline UL Stool. It’s small but mighty and comes with maximum size to comfort ratio.

Outdoor Retailer, like all of the trade shows we attend, had plenty of snacks and samples to keep us fueled through the show. The big difference was, there was a lot more real food, too. As in, rehydrated camp food, from a surprising number of new and established players in the packaged meal category. And we’ll get to those, but first there are a ton of new bars to, um, digest, plus a few new things we got in after the show that are totally worth mentioning. Starting with Clif Bar, they’ve added the Whole Lotta line of date-based snack bars to their ever-growing line of mostly organic energy bars. At Sea Otter, they showed off the bite-sized nut butter filled bits, too, giving you not just new types of bars, but new ways to eat them when you’re on the bike, too. The great thing about the Whole Lotta bars is they add peanut butter, pumpkin seeds and pea protein for 10g of protein per 240-calorie bar. There’s also a good bit of fat, too, so they should fill you up (as much as any little snack bar can, anyway). Blue Dinosaur’s Paleo Bars and (at the far end and below in blue wrapper, new protein bars) were some of the best tasting real food bars we’ve had. The protein bars don’t taste like your normal, dry, whey protein bars…   …perhaps because they use peanut butter, egg white protein, and collagen to deliver a little more than 25g per bar. Epic Provisions got started with meat bars made from bison, turkey and other lean animals. Now, they’ve expanded with some insanely good pork rinds that are baked, so there are no cheap bad-for-you vegetable oils to ruin the nutrition. Seriously, if you like rinds or even just potato chips…anything crunchy and salty…you owe it to yourself to try these ASAP. Also new are their breakfast bars, which use dates and egg whites to deliver something a little more morning-friendly. Also tasty, if just a tad on the dry side. ProBar has added smaller “bite” sized options that are meant more for eating during a ride or workout…but they’re the same ingredients as their “Meal” bars, which are among the larger ones on the market. Or, at least, the most calorically dense. Those will get two new flavors soon, S’mores and Blueberry Muffin.   Trail Truffles use all natural, plant-based ingredients to deliver protein, carbs and fat in a dessert-like format. Bags are $6.50 each and they come in four flavors. Shār Snacks (pronounced “share”) is a new trail mix that’s not just delicious, it’s eco-conscious. Well, at least the packaging is, as it uses zero plastic and is completely compostable. And as the name suggests, it’s easy to pour out so you can share with friends. The lid doubles as a little bowl, too, and it’s available in larger bulk 1lb and 2.5lb bags (in case you really like to share). De-Hi Crispy Beef Jerky was an interesting new take on traditional dried meat snacks. The meat is sliced much thinner, and then dried almost completely so that it achieves a potato-chip-like crunch. It’s quite good, and apparently really popular in Hawaii!

New Dehydrated Camp Meals

Flap Jacked has expanded their protein-packed instant pancake mix lineup to include “Mighty Muffin” flavored juat-add-water oatmeal bowls. And the Cookie Bars make a delicious breakfast (or on the bike) snack. Oh, and check out the gluten-free pancake powder, too! Now that breakfast is covered, let’s check out the massive new dinner menu:   Mountain House is one of the big brands, and they have a new curry flavor that’s delicious. The bags have a new look, and they’re now using Terra Cycle packaging so that the bags can be upcycled into other things down the line. Retail is $9-12 per pouch, 2-3 servings each. They’re also reducing artificial flavors and colors and stuff, which seemed to be a trend among many of the brands. Good To-Go offers plenty of ethic dishes made with real foods and all gluten free. Peak Refuel is your bro-tein option if you’re looking for a high protein meal option. They say there’s two servings per bag, but let’s be real, if you wanna get swole, that’s lookin’ an awful lot like a single serving, amiright? ReadyWise and Simple Kitchen offer a mix of dinner and breakfast meal packs, plus a new dried fruit series for a natural snack to keep you fueled. Only problem? Their website isn’t quite finished yet, but you can find the dried fruit snacks here and on Amazon. Tasty Bite sets itself apart by being vegetarian, and by being ready to eat. Just heat it up (if you want), or put some over rice…which they also have in a ready-to-eat pouch. The Indian Madras Lentils are killer and available at Costco, too!

Drinks? Coffee?

Bar Country’s Pocket Cocktails has dried drink mixes so all you need to bring is the booze to make an adult bevvie. We tried a few and while they are no match for the real thing, they’re maybe better than just doing shots. Bivouac Coffee does things a bit differently straight from harvest. The beans are naturally processed, meaning sun dried before being shipped for roasting. They say this processing method saves a whopping 7.9 liters of water per cup of finished coffee, which is about four days worth of drinking water for the average human. They’re a little more expensive, ranging from $15-$21 per 12oz bag (mainly because this method takes a lot longer), but it was a really delicious cup of coffee!

New protein recovery drink

Blonyx is a new brand with a new concept…egg white protein shakes that taste like chocolate milk. Except with no lactose, dairy or egg-y flavor. It’s a clean formula, using filtered egg white powder, organic cane sugar, cocoa and a bit of sea salt (plus lecithin and guar gum to help it dissolve and thicken into a milk shake-like consistency). Each serving delivers 20g of highly bioavailable protein, plus a 11g of sugar to aid in recovery.

Italian in the backcountry? Mountain House has you covered. Their new Fusilli Pasta with Italian Sausage is a hearty home-cooked meal when you need it the most. The entree consists of “spun fusilli pasta in a rustic tomato sauce made with fire-roasted veggies, garlic, basil andItalian-style sausage”. This has become a go-to for late night dinners in the van after long days on the trail. The best part is that it has a clean ingredients list that would make your grandmother proud. Mountain House is committed to using only real ingredients. If you look at their ingredients list (which is listed clearly for each option on their website) you will never find artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. Just delicious, ready in minutes food! One thing we’re stoked for this year is Mountain House’s partnership with TerraCycle to offer free recycling for all empty Mount House pouches.

Italian in the backcountry? Mountain House has you covered. Their new Fusilli Pasta with Italian Sausage is a hearty home-cooked meal when you need it the most. The entree consists of “spun fusilli pasta in a rustic tomato sauce made with fire-roasted veggies, garlic, basil, and Italian-style sausage”. This has become a go-to for late night dinners in the van after long days on the trail. The best part is that it has a clean ingredients list that would make your grandmother proud. Mountain House is committed to using only real ingredients. If you look at their ingredients list (which is listed clearly for each option on their website) you will never find artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. Just delicious, ready-in-minutes food! One thing we’re stoked for this year is Mountain House’s partnership with TerraCycle, a company that offers free recycling for clean, empty Mountain House pouches.

Tom Szaky, president and CEO of international recycling company TerraCycle recently gave the keynote address at the 7th annual Responsible Business Summit New York. Szaky addressed how companies are increasingly looking towards sustainable innovations to change environmental, social and governmental risks into workable business opportunities.

Mountain House

Mountain House has been with us since the beginning and we’re excited to have them back! If you’ve seen us at an event, then there’s no doubt you’ve gone home with a sample or two of a tasty Mountain House meal. Mountain House has a lot of exciting things in the works this year but what we’re most excited for is their partnership with TerraCycle to offer a FREE recycling program for their used pouches. TerraCycle is an innovative recycling company that specializes in giving new life to hard-to-recycle products. For those who can make it out to Appalachian Trail Day’s, bring us your empty pouch and we’ll give you a new one and recycle your old one!