trash storage what do you do?

[Hall Pass]

I am curious on how you store trash in a long hike. I have used ziplock bags and put it in my outside pocket in my osprey pack. But after awhile it smelled bad and takes up a lot if space.

[Toolumpy]

I use a small waterproof sea to summit bag bag,. no leakage. Outside bag or on top under fanny pack

[Fiddleback]

Plan meals and repackage food with an eye towards reducing trash. FBC'ing is especially helpful in keeping refuse down...I seldom have anything other than empty baggies to carry out.

FB

[Pedaling Fool]

I don't understand having too much trash and definitely don't understand having stinky trash. I don't go into town too much, compared to most, usually stay out for at least 7-10 days between town stops and I still don't have a problem with excess trash, which is mostly just plastic and it doesn't stink because it's not mixed with food nor is it wet. I simply keep my trash in a plastic baggie in my foodbag. I do once in a while carry teabag-style coffee, but I bury them under the leaf litter. Can't imagine what else in the way of organic trash (causes stink) would be kept.

[atmilkman]

I don't understand having too much trash and definitely don't understand having stinky trash. I don't go into town too much, compared to most, usually stay out for at least 7-10 days between town stops and I still don't have a problem with excess trash, which is mostly just plastic and it doesn't stink because it's not mixed with food nor is it wet. I simply keep my trash in a plastic baggie in my foodbag. I do once in a while carry teabag-style coffee, but I bury them under the leaf litter. Can't imagine what else in the way of organic trash (causes stink) would be kept.

Ditto on this. You shouldn't have stinky garbage to speak of. If your packing say something like tuna fish foil packets then just rinse the packet with water and drink it. Same goes for just about anything else, rinse and drink. May sound a little "yukky" now but you'll get used to it. repack in baggies when possible, then put packets and baggies in a big baggie in your food bag.

[Slo-go'en]

Trash goes in a zip lock and stays in the food bag. This is S.O.P. Most of my trash is wrapers of one kind or another.

[The Cleaner]

Great post&replies.Too bad many hikers still use firepits as trashcans....

[Papa D]

Most of my meals are in zip-lock type bags stored inside my granite gear or sea to summit food bag - occasionally, there is a plastic grocery bag. Most of the small paper and packaging resulting from a completed meal just goes back into the ziplock. After 3 or 4 days, I work on consolidating it a bit - perhaps all stuffed into one or two of the zip-locks. When I get to a road crossing with a campground, rest area, dumpster, etc. I unload the trash - - I always try to save and re-use the zip-locks for as long as I can - - occasionally one that has something sticky inside - oil, cheese juice, etc. gets trashed.

At re-supplies, I occasionally buy zip-locks. I usually have better than half a box to give away to the first nice old man or lady I see. Rides back to the trail have also been scored with this little nicety.

There is NO reason to ever dispose of your waste in a privy, or in a fire pit. If you make more food than you can eat, you are not hiking enough. On extremely rare occasions (i.e. cleaning up some thoughtless louse's ruined, dumped and discarded meal near a shelter, or in a fire pit) I have resorted to burial or said gross matter. In this rare instance, I have transported the mess WAY away from the campsites and water sources and dug a deep hole down into the dirt with a rock and covered in with soil very deep. If you hike a lot, you will eventually run into a mess that you have to deal with like this - - I would say it happens once every 1000 miles or so though. I think "we" are sort of obliged to do what we can to maintain the trail(s) but when you happen upon someone else's shrimp newburg and scrambled eggs dumped on the firepit (which had happened to me) - you just do the best you can.

[Funkmeister]

For solo hiking, I've tried the 'trash compactor' approach. Save something like what the 4x2qt Crystal Lite powder comes in. Jam trash inside, keep in 1 qt freezer bag for extra protection. Empty when convenient, reuse plastic Crystal Lite container till end of trip. Works well for one person, not so much for larger groups.

[Hall Pass]

Too much " trash" comes from 2 people.just trying to figure out what everyone does to make life easier. Sorry you don't understand

[Hall Pass]

Not trying to be mean just looking for solutions.

[Pedaling Fool]

Not trying to be mean just looking for solutions.

I wouldn't worry about people's feelings; we're all idiots and we need to just learn how to accept the truth

I guess to give solutions we'd (at least me) would have to know more details. If you got trash for two people than why isn't the other person carrying some? How much time between town stops? Can you give an itemized list of trash?

That's all I can think of, off the top of my head, just never thought about it too much.

[MuddyWaters]

ziplock, and goes in food bag. How hard is that? You can carry 7 days food but not 7days trash ***?

[Hall Pass]

Thankyou for reading my orginal post but I already use ziplock bags. Trying to see if anyone does anything else

[MuddyWaters]

Well, a few folks try to burn it in fires but that is a bad thing to do. Most never burns all the way. Paper and plastic can burn all the way if you take the time and attention to do so, burying it in coals. Some things burn all the way, but the foil lining in most packages doesnt and leaves aluminum foil debris in the fire ring. Seems I always find the trash uncaring people leave behind. I usually then burn what burns, then pack out the rest . Its a shame some people are too lazy to pack an empty 0.3 oz can with them. I dont burn mine, I just pack it out. In a ziplock or 2, or 3, in my foodbag, inside my odor-resistant liner or opsak.

Not sure what the other possibilities could be??? I dont see how space could be an issue. Your trash has to take up a fraction of the space the food it came from did. Unless you simply dont want it inside your food bag or pack and dont have the room on the outside. I pretty much can get 3 days trash in a quart ziplockwithout resorting to excessive force, so at most I end up with 2 used quart freezer bags full of trash for a week. A lot smaller than the foodbag I started with.! (and a lot lighter)

[Odd Man Out]

My daughter was so proud of how little garbage two people made in two days she posed for a picture with it. And we weren't being very UL. I even carried an onion.

IMG_3371.JPG

[garlic08]

I also pack (and eat) with an eye for minimizing the trash. I just don't carry wet, smelly stuff anymore. I repackage the stuff I can't buy in bulk in ziplocks and reuse the ziplocks. I once fit all the trash from a 160-mile hike into the empty peanut butter jar. I learned how to do this by going through exactly what the OP is going through now, so I think it's a great question.

[MuddyWaters]

The things that smell the worst after a couple of days of warm temps are generally proteins. Tuna, chicken , anything with wet milk protein in it.

Licking those things clean, or rinsing them with re-hydration water helps minimize smells.

[Pedaling Fool]

Ok, I'll bite...what's re-hydration water?

[Spokes]

I am curious on how you store trash in a long hike. I have used ziplock bags and put it in my outside pocket in my osprey pack. But after awhile it smelled bad and takes up a lot if space.

Takes up a lot of space because the bags are way too small. Try using the 2- 2.5 gallon ziplock bags. The extra space allows you to compress your trash more and it will fit better inside or outside your pack.