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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
A national park in Poland’s southern Tatra mountains has begun offering free poop bags to hikers in an effort to encourage them to clean up after any calls of nature and reduce “faecal pollution”.
“In the mountains, a physiological need can catch up with anyone,” wrote Tatra National Park (TPN). “That is why TPN is introducing a simple and globally proven solution: sanitary bags. This is a step towards a cleaner Tatra mountains and greater tourist comfort.”
Images shared by the park showing the kind of mess left behind by some hikers.
The bags are being distributed at entrance points to the park, with one available per person. They have a triple protective layer and a special gel insert to help neutralise odours, while the package also includes toilet paper and antibacterial wipes.
“After use, simply close the bag tightly, attach it to your backpack, or store it in one of the side pockets, and throw it in a regular trash can – preferably outside the national park,” writes TPN.
The park says that, without use of such solutions, excrement left in nature – as well as accompanying paper – can pollute the soil and water, as well as “disfigure the landscape and degrade the experience of other tourists”.
It notes that national parks in other countries, including in the US, Scotland and Norway, have introduced similar kinds of bags.
TPN is currently offering the bags as part of a pilot programme – and is encouraging users to offer feedback. In the next phase, the bags will be made commercially available for purchase.
“We don’t have a firm deadline for the pilot phase,” the park’s director, Szymon Ziobrowski, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP). “We are monitoring interest, the pace of bag collection, and feedback from users. After analysing these experiences, we will make a decision on the next stage of the project.”
Ziobrowski says that the park “is not ruling out” making the bags mandatory in future, “but it is too early to say for sure at this stage”.
TPN offers around 275 kilometres of marked hiking trails around the Tatra mountains, which straddle Poland’s southern border with Slovakia. The area has been designated as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO, recognising its importance for managing biodiversity.
Poles are responsible for 90% of the violations of nature-protection rules in the Slovakian Tatra mountains, the national park there has revealed.
Offences included unauthorised camping, swimming in lakes, flying drones, and hiking outside marked trailshttps://t.co/ughWiSVE1k
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 1, 2025
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Tatra National Park (press materials)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
