So we have all heard the discussions of how a cache in the woods is not trash, but a puzzle piece in the game of geocaching. However, my question is, when a cache is archived and not retrieved by it's owner, does it then become trash? I found an archived cache today, right where it is was planted. The container had been cracked, the contents were all water logged/moldy and gross. The cache was garbage.
As a community we go out of our way to cache in/trash out, but when a geocacher does not return to retrieve an archived cache, they are doing nothing less than throwing a bag of trash out their car window as they drive down the highway of life.