What Earth Day Means to Silt, From Our Founder

Here at Silt we see every day as Earth Day. That may sound cliché, but we really mean it. Not only are we constantly thinking about the downstream and upstream effects of our product on this planet, we’re also thinking about how we can get out and enjoy it! Silt is basically a synonym for dirt, which is a synonym for earth!

Earth day is a time for us to reflect on our relationship with our world. How we are serving it, and how it is serving us. It's a time to appreciate and love actively. As travelers and outdoor loving people we get so much out of the natural state of the world, it should be a natural role for us to be the most reverent and mindful, and therefore also the least impactful.

"Leave no trace should apply to more than the trail."

However, most travel or backpacking branded consumables use even more single-use plastic than when we’re at home. Think about the last time you were in the travel section of a drug store, or the checkout aisle at a sporting goods store: it almost feels like drowning in tiny plastic bottles. Another common travel convenience is the wet wipe. Wet wipes are a huge environmental disaster; they clog plumbing systems, can’t decompose, are wrapped in single use plastic, and most wipes themselves are woven non-recyclable plastic. And we get it—these products are easy to carry, use when you need it, and throw away without a care.

But as the people who truly worship this green and blue dot, should we not be the ones who are willing to put in a tiny bit more effort in order to be a steward of the thing of we love? Shouldn’t the aisles of REI be filled with compostable, recyclable, or reusable goods?

I don’t want to rag on the responsibility of the consumer here, you all get enough of that. The point is for all parties involved in the outdoor and travel industry: the producer, the retailer, the consumer. If we want the things we love, the places we’re selling items for, the resources we’re using to produce, to still be around in the coming years we have to make a collective effort to be mindful of our effects at every level.

Leave no trace should apply to more than the trail. It should apply to our whole planet by our whole industry. 

An easy swap for a tiny plastic bottle or a pack of wet wipes would be our powder cleansers paired with a compostable sponge or rinseable pack towel. A tiny step for the earth, a huge step for your skin, and the beginning of what we hope is an industry wide movement.