[ Outline ] · Standard · Linear+ Garbage storage?

[Desert Rat]

As we find ourselves taking longer and longer boondocking trips, where to "put the garbage" until we return to civilization is becoming a bit of an issue. After a few days in the forests near the Grand Canyon, we had to air out the truck cab before we could get in, as we put our bagged (and tied, but not tagged) garbage up there to keep it out of the way.

Where does everybody put their trash until they can stash it in the roadside barrel?

[kategrin611]

In my lifetime i've only had one situation with a bear while camping. The King Charles chased it away. Bears and other wildlife don't want to mess with this bred of dog.

[Night_Sailor]

My camping style is a lot like my sailing style. I like to go far off the beaten path and have maximum hang time. The farther I go, the more interesting things I see in nature.

At home I burn wood for heat and everything possible gets tossed in the fire. Burning is the only reasonable method when sailing or camping, as garbage piles up and is difficult to dispose of some places. Some yacht cruiser just dump their garbage on docks. I offer to pay people to take it. I don't believe in simply dumping it.

When sailing offshore, I use an empty gallon size coffee tin, with holes punched in it all around and on the bottom, big enough to stuff a propane torch, and for airflow. It is fast and easy but does need to cool and be stored in a bucket where it won't make a mess. These tins get to be pretty nasty after a while, so I toss and start over again with a new tin.

Regarding burning, I use a wire to support the tin and click on the torch. Burning plastic stinks a bit, but plastic can't ever be thrown overboard, like paper or left-over food. Often I'll wash plastic bottles out, crush and reseal them, and store in in the anchor locker on shorter trips. That works if you can keep it separate. It is far better to burn it though as space is always tight and newbies always mix the garbage with the plastic. Large plastic kitchen bags are ntoo big to burn. Ideally, you want to burn bucket big enough to hold a half full paper grocery bag. Pull out the bag, half filled is best, drop in the burn bucket, nice and neat. Have two places to store trash in your camper, both the same size so materials can be sorted into burn right now and can burn later. If they are small you might find it easy to simply toss them.

While driving, it is better to have these small bundles of trash, I use Home Depot plastic bags for this sort of thing. They can be tossed almost anywhere--service stations, department store parking lots, etc. No one objects to someone toss and tiny bag in a dumpster. They don't want you to be doing wholesale dumping, so spreading it out makes it unnoticeable. These small packages can be disposed of more easily as they fit in trash can's with narrow openings.

While sailing, I am pretty religious about not bringing things on-board that will have to disposed of later. For example, cereal boxes. I bring the plastic not the cardboard. I bring only the minimum of plastic--things that cannot be repackaged. I sometimes repackage foods into resealable stainless steel containers or more durable Tupperware. I have a few nice plastic containers with lids suitable for cereal and dry goods that seal really well and store compactly. I am a master at organizing space and containers.

All this is applied to my camping philosophy. I bring as little disposable packaging as possible, although I tend to be less concerned about paper.

I am restoring a Barth truck camper at the moment. I removed the heavy noisy furnace, the old water heater, and everything else. I plan to install a very small Sardine wood stove for heat, hot water, and cooking in the winter, and use that year round for burning of trash.