Recently while in a local park, an analogy came to me that seemed to crystallize why I get so uppity about people who leave TP in the wilderness. Let me just say that if you really are one of the few that DO bury it very thoroughly (8+ inches) and even "pre-decompose" it by careful burning then possibly this IS the actual best way – in the end probably better than used TP being trucked to the dump down stream where it will probably be near the surface, though at least away from the pristine wilderness. But that is not what the majority of people who leave TP do.
No, my issue is with people who don't do it simply because they think it is "gross". It drives me crazy both because the irony (its gross for me, so I make it gross for the next person who comes along), and because this type of reasoning (or a related species thereof) is the number one reason people use to justify trash in the wilderness – it is gross/inconvenient/troublesome/heavy for me, therefore I don't do it. Who cares about other people.
So…the analogy that came to me is that I feel exactly the same about this as I do about the person who walks their dog in the suburban park (that also doubles as baseball/soccer fields), lets their dog shit in the field, and then doesn't remove it afterwards (as is posted at the entrance) because it is gross. Its also gross for the kids playing soccer later that afternoon and everyone else using the fields, in spite of the fact that it probably is "good" for the grass/environment.
I doubt that this analogy will change people's mind's about the perennial "TP – to pack or not to pack out" question, but it just occurred to me that this analogy was appropriate. Most us us understand that the dog owner that views any plot of lawn as a public restroom for their dog, but thinks it is too "gross" to clean up afterwards is someone who deserves to get publicly ragged on.
I don't get the semantic debate by some above about LNT being an absolute unattainable commandment. I always got that it was an ideal, like "brush twice a day", or "do not covet thy neighbor's wife" and so on. If you keep the ideal in mind you will do a much better job of stewardship – maybe even to the point of cleaning up stuff other people left. Like the lady with the dog in the park, there are 1001 justification for NOT doing it, but the ideal will keep you trying. Exception do occur, like extreme doggy diarrhea, that make it impossible to comply, but if the ideal is forefront it helps to combat the natural tendency for people to do what is convenient short term, then make up the justification – and sometimes whole schools of thought – after the fact.
.
