Second in a short series of 3 traditional geocaches at Bomains Nature Reserve, near the John Muir Way. on the outskirts of Bo'Ness. These caches were done as an experiment to explore different ways of sourcing and creating geocache containers that would reduce the 'plastic footprint' of making physical geocache types. They are also a field test for me to see how well certain biodegradable containers might survive in the wild.
The series is located in paths skirting the edges of the Nature Reserve, and the parking waypoint for the series is the Nature Reserve's Car Park.
THE GREEN COMPASS EXPERIMENTS 1 - BAMBOO/WOOD
This second cache in the series is trialling a type of Bamboo container. Botanists out there will know that Bamboo is technically not wood, but for most purposes behaves the same way in terms of its use as a manufacturing material. I've used wooden-style containers before but augmented them with things like plastic outer containers because most woods are not that waterproof in the long term. This particular container however is intended to be standalone, to see if I can address the lack of water protection that seems common in wooden-style containers I've found previously. Bamboo and Wood are of course biodegradeable, and providing they are not thickly coated in paint, and are is left in a natural setting (such as forest floor), will completely decompose to nothing in a few decades, depending on type etc. Light lacquers/varnishes etc don't seem to make a great deal of difference to how fast Bamboo or Wood decomposes, based on what I've read online, but obviously they include chemicals which may be harmful to the environment.
Wooden-style containers are nothing new, and 'fake stick' containers for example, are well establised and available to buy online (albeit some are faux wood). However most of those on sale or even many homemade ones, will include a plastic log tune or similar to provide waterproof protection. Of course, such tubes are not biodegradeable. Similarly the wooden 'treasure chest' type container that is used occasionally can easily be bought at high street craft shops, but without some form of plastic inner log protection, will usually result in a soggy log. The ones I have seen in the field typically have metal latches or similar which are also not biodegradeable. So water proofing is a common concern with wooden containers, if you don't go for one with a rubber seal or plastic logtube, and other non biodegradeable elements.
'UNBOXING' EVALUATION
Positives
The 'wooden' container I opted for was a Bamboo toothbrush holder, intended to be used by travellers. This container needed sealing a little at one end but the cap was snug and will hopefully be more water proof than most wooden containers. It's from a well known online Chinese retailer, and I found very similar containers from the same place for things like tea storage, lip gloss etc. These came in a wide variety of sizes, with the smallest one at 6cm being a possible bison tube substitute, or suitable to use as a log tube. The selected container was priced at about £3, with the smallest tubes available for around £1.50. As it's made from Bamboo it has some specific advantageous - Bamboo is more waterproof than most hardwoords, and it's cheaper. Where a hardwood tree might only reach maturity and suitability for manufacturing after 20 years, Bamboo is more renewable being able to be re-harvested every 5 years. There are a wide variety of onine retailers of Bamboo products, some in the UK offering delivery in a couple of days.
Negatives
As a container material, Bamboo may be better than other 'woods' but it's still prone to swelling and warping when exposed to water for prolonged periods. From the design of the selected container for this cache it does suggest that although the lid seal is snug now, it won't be for long, and of course can't have a rubber seal. The container here isn't lacquered, so avoids any harmful chemicals entering the environment, but most of the other models of containers online seem to be. Tubular Bamboo containers seem to the only ones which will reliably remain closed, all others I found seem to to rely on non-biodegradeable additions such as metal latches, or plastic/glass inner seals. The lack of a reliable box-shaped option was a bit limiting. Robustness-wise the model I went for doesn't exactly feel it will stand up well as the bamboo is pretty thin. Online buying seems to be the only easily accessible option for Bamboo containers suitable for cachings as they are not stocked by most of the well known high street retailers/supermarkets.
Overall View
Of the three containers in this series, this is the one that I think will suffer the most from weather damage and the attentions of wildlife. Without additional natural cammo it would be easy to spot this container but that is true of all 3 containers in the series. Overall it felt like bamboo containers might be better as a substitute for things like logtubes, but even then would not be water proof if the outer container took in water.
Thinking More Green Thoughts....Swag & Trackables
The question of swag and travel bugs in biodegradeable containers is a bit of a conundrum. The size of container for this cache doesn't lend itself to either of those being left behind, but it's more of an issue for the other 2 caches in this series. In all 3 caches, at the point they were published, I've left biodegradeable swag, and no trackables. Obviously I can't really control what happens after publication. In theory, something like a new cache attribute might be a way of encouraging only biodegradeable items being left behind in the cache. Maybe a simpler solution is just a note on the cache page, encouraging only wooden trackables, collectables and swag be left behind. That way if the cache does get muggled for example, it would minimise the amount of non-biodegradeable materials left behind in the environment. A personal view however, would be that it would lessen the game to start reducing the movement of trackables through caches, but an argument could definitely be made for encouraging only biodegradeable swag be left behind, if that was the CO's preference. The justification for expressing that preference can be seen in the gallery of this cache, in which I've left a list of common items and the rate at which they biodegrade.