Many take a green card to climb, golf and ride.
Now 60,000 have also taken a brown card.
– Finally, the poo paper has decreased! says Maria Ros-Hjelm from the Swedish Tourist Association.
The quick version
Litter has decreased on Swedish hiking trails and something that has decreased significantly on the trails is toilet paper, according to the Swedish Tourist Association.
In 2024, toilet paper was the third most common litter in nature, but this year it hasn’t even made the top ten on the list.
Perhaps the merit can be attributed to the brown card – the certificate that started as an April Fool’s joke.
– We cannot lead it into evidence that it is thanks to the brown card, but there are 60,000 people who have taken the brown card, and I am quite convinced that many of these 60,000 have also spread the word about the card, says Maria Ros-Hjelm, general secretary of STF and continues:
– We see no other reasons for the reduction of toilet paper in the mountains.
The idea for the brown card came from some friends of STF’s communications manager. They felt that people don’t really know how to relieve themselves in nature, so they joked that there should be a course.
There the April Fool’s joke was born – which had a completely different outcome than what STF had expected.
The public contacted the STF and said that the brown card is really needed.
– Then we developed a digital course, says Maria Ros-Hjelm.
The corona pandemic gave a real boost to mountain hiking. Photo: Robin Lorentz-Allard
The garbage that peaks
The Swedish Tourist Association and Keep Sweden Clean have been measuring litter along the popular hiking trails at Grövelsjön, Storulvån, Kebnekaise, Helags and Sylarna since 2017. They see that the amount of litter has decreased by as much as 65 percent since the outbreak of the corona pandemic in 2020. But it is still not completely clean.
The most common litter found on Swedish mountain hiking trails is snuff, and so it has been for the last six years.
Extra problematic is that snus contains plastic that does not break down easily in nature, and that nicotine is just as toxic to animals as it is to humans.
What do you think about a new card for snuffers?
– Yes, we’ll see. It’s still a while until the first of April, says Marie Ros-Hjelm and laughs.
– If there is any snuffer out there who has a good idea about what we could do to make it easier to keep clean, please contact us.
Most common litter in the mountains
Source: Keep Sweden Clean and the Swedish Tourist Association
Tips for litter-free hiking
Source: Swedish Tourist Association
