Solution to Trash Left Behind!

[adamis]

We have all seen it before. People leave their trash behind at a nice campsite or on the side of the road. To the extent we can, we pick up what is there to dispose of later but the process just leaves a bad impression of hummanity in general. Litter fines do nothing to solve the problem. Searching for solutions, it appears that Thailand has found one option that I'm for...

https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/thailand-national-park-mails-back-garbage-campers-litter

[Bedlam]

Thanks to some political posts that were removed, this thread is now closed. Please keep on topic and out of politics.

[Kayteg1]

Now we can say that the behavior comes from the top, can't we?

[joeshmoe]

It's a matter of character and good behavior. People have lost both or were never taught either to begin with. No matter how many fines and regulations are put in place, it doesn't change the mentality and thinking of these slobs.

Look at the chaos currently reigning across the cities of America. Some people are just disgusting.

[54suds]

specta wrote:
People dump trash because they are inconsiderate pigs, not because there's not a convenient place for them to dump it.

Its their trash and they're responsible for it. Period.

RV parks put the dumpster as far from the campers as possible so they don't have to smell it.

There are zero excuses to leave trash behind. Zero.

X-1000 its time to quit making excused for low lifes

[specta]

We have two campgrounds and people leaving trash behind has never been a problem.

Maybe an occasional can or something in a fire pit but that's about it.

We get compliments all the time about how clean our park is.

[BurbMan]

We used to live on a cul de sac where we were the only house and the rest bordered woods. We always had the night time drinkers/lovers and especially on Sundays I was always picking up Taco Bell and Bud Light trash. I put a large Rubbermaid trash can out there for the kids to use and chained it to a tree. I was the glad that the kids actually used it.

Here in Suffolk County, if you leave your campsite any other way than how you found it, the Parks Dept. will block your access to the reservation system. If you have any current reservations (you can reserve 90 days ahead) they will be cancelled. It doesn't stop all the littering, but at least the offenders won't be back again...fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me....

I think all public CGs should do this, the private ones have been doing it for years.

Also why I got my camper for free, it was stuck on 3 legs and was going to cost the owner $500 to have somebody haul it to the dump.

[Kayteg1]

mkirsch wrote:


If every town/city had a "dump" where you could get rid of things like old tires, i.e. a "convenient place" to dispose of such things, MORE people would use it and LESS people would leave their trash laying along the side of a back road.

Sure you'd still have pigs, but not as many.

Don't bet on it.
Las Vegas has city ordinance to mandate every home owner to have garbage service (that hits owners who keep summer/winter houses here).
Additionally to 90 gallons cans for very affordable price, every 2 weeks we have pickup day, where they will collect trash up to 6 ft long, will take king size mattress, long sofa and such.
Still every few days we do have pickup load of trash dumped on desert, or on remote street shoulder.
The city spend millions of dollars to chain off desert access, yet chains got broken...
Can't fight habits learned at home....

[mkirsch]

Geewizard wrote:

DownTheAvenue wrote:
Part of the problem with litter is there is no convenient place to dispose it. People dump tires, old mattresses, etc. along seldom traveled roads and other places because municipal dumping places are few and far as well as their charges for dumping are out of reach for many people. In some campgrounds, the "pack it in-pack it out" plan where you are supposed to take all your trash home with you, leaves people without any resource to discard leaky smelly trash they don't want in the passenger seat of their vehicle. Other campgrounds have one central spot for trash disposal, often quite a distance from the campsite.

You gotta be kidding me, it sounds like you're advocating dumping your trash instead of dealing with it. That right?

It does not read that way at all to me.

There is a huge difference in explaining WHY people dump their trash, and "advocating" it.

If every campsite came with a 55 gallon drum lined with a plastic trash bag, i.e. a "convenient place" to dispose of trash, MORE people would use it and LESS people would just leave their trash laying around.

If every town/city had a "dump" where you could get rid of things like old tires, i.e. a "convenient place" to dispose of such things, MORE people would use it and LESS people would leave their trash laying along the side of a back road.

Sure you'd still have pigs, but not as many.

[Freep]

Buzzcut1 wrote:
It's really not a new problem it's just that the population has grown so much that the effects of the same percentage of thoughtless people is greatly magnified by the sheer increase in their numbers.

My grandfather was stationed in the UK during WWII(he was an original antifa) and was cited for littering. He threw his drink can and paper trash out the window of this Jeep without even thinking about it. He told me that back then Americans were still unaware of the impact of litter, but Europe was not.

He never littered again after that.

When I see people litter I helpfully pick it up and give it back to them, "You dropped this"

[jimh406]

I agree that removing garbage cans doesn’t help. I’m sure it’s to “save” money, but it’s way easier to put trash in it’s place if it is obvious and you are used to taking care of it that way.

We had a neighbor that was leaving trash out next to the cans at our garbage area on our road. Sometimes, they put it in our can. I guess we encouraged bad behavior by picking it up. They had addresses on some of it. We notified the trash service, they contacted them, and they stopped and appear to have a can now. A new one showed up..

They had just bought a house (according to Zillow). Apparently didn’t know how to get trash service, were too lazy, hadn’t done it yet, etc.

[wnjj]

specta wrote:

Geewizard wrote:

You gotta be kidding me, it sounds like you're advocating dumping your trash instead of dealing with it. That right?

I thought the same thing. At least justifying dumping trash. :M

I read his comments as explaining why people do it, not justifying. In other words if want to solve the problem, unfortunately you have to make it easier for the slobs.

[Buzzcut1]

It's really not a new problem it's just that the population has grown so much that the effects of the same percentage of thoughtless people is greatly magnified by the sheer increase in their numbers.

My biggest peeve is by the smallest litter. The smokers that think the world is their ashtray and toss the butts out the window everywhere including the hills during high fire danger.

every Mt bike ride, every hike no matter where I go I find myself stopping to pick up someone's trash. jut pisses me off. Even my employees leave fast food bags and cups in the work vehicles at the end of the shift...We live in a worl d that forgot take only pictures leave only footprints

[qtla9111]

Funny, you look at old photographs and home movies from 100 years ago and litter really didn't exist. Most things were reusable, returned for deposit, and there weren't plastic bottles, bags, potato chip bags, junk food packages, and the rest of it.

We've done it ourselves. Why aren't we refusing the use of plastics? Why do we allow our kids to consume junk food and then throw the empties away?

I read on Rv.Travel this morning about a boondocking site in New Mexico and the boondocker was shocked to see so many people destroying the place.

One person commented, "why should we pick up the trash?", "we clean up after ourselves".

That's exactly why the "no litter" program doesn't work. It takes everyone doing their part and if some don't comply, we need to do it for them. If not, this thread will be worthless.

[specta]

Geewizard wrote:

You gotta be kidding me, it sounds like you're advocating dumping your trash instead of dealing with it. That right?

I thought the same thing. At least justifying dumping trash. :M