Leave no Trace: Packing out other people's trash

Hello all,

I recently went for a long day hike in one of the State Parks in Illinois. Along the way I found tons and tons of trash! Generally, I try to pick up trash along the way and pack it out but there was so much of it I could have filled my pack 10 times over.

What do you do in situations like this? How big of an impact do you try to make? Do you pick up other people's junk? If so, how much?

I try to pack out anything I find in the back country. Only exception was a mass of rotting food at Lower Indian Lake--way too much, and too decomposed to manage.

But in your situation, all you can do is suffer...and maybe offer to volunteer on a future clean up day.



Sorry it was so bad.

I try to pick up small items of trash and pack them out, but when I encounter far more trash than I can manage on my own I notify the agency responsible for managing the area where I found the trash. Photos along with a description of the location. There's not much else one person can do in that situation.

All you can do is what you are prepared to do. When the amount of trash is overwhelming, you can do what you can and, as was mentioned, report it to the authorities. Since it is an Illinois State Park, I wonder what the state budget impasse has to do with it. It still bothers me that people still think that someone else should pick up their trash.

Just out of curiosity, which park was it?

Rock Cut was always pretty well kept up, but the one time I went to Apple River Canyon State Park it wasn't. I didn't spend much time there, I looked at the park rules, the trail, the trash overflowing in the bins and strewn on the trail, and then I left.

I generally try to pack out what I can, within reason, with an emphasis on what I can recycle. On beaches I always make a special effort, because I imagine it otherwise joining the Pacific Ocean Garbage-patch and choking sealife.
My most dogged effort, though, was packing out a used pampers diaper (double wrapped in my spare ziplocks!) that I found in Center Basin on the JMT, carrying it over 13,000' Forester Pass, and then over Mt Whitney, about 32 miles. I tried to pass it off on a ranger along the way, but she was having none of it.

I'd love to see these turds get busted but it's almost impossible to catch them in the act.

That said, it depends. I've carried out entire trash bags filled with other people's garbage a few times. If I find just a bit of trash I'll pack it out, but I don't always pack out a camp's worth of trash if my pack is full and I'm on my way in and just passing by it.

We have volunteer groups that do clean up on occasion here, but we also pay taxes to maintain these areas so I expect those we pay to get in there and deal with this too.