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Placing a cache in a trashy area


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I think the idea has merit. But...

 

I used to think that cachers were more environmentally friendly. Someone on this board corrected me by saying that cachers were just like everyone else. I think that while it is true that cachers may be more likely to care more, I think few really do.

 

Here are two examples:

 

We have a cache at a state park that is a beautiful secluded spot. It takes a short ½ mile hike to get there. Fishermen and drinkers must like to hang out there. At first when we placed the cache i posted on the cache page that if you will not CITO then don't search for the cache. (Recently I amended it so as to not offend cachers.) To me CITO just means take something, anything! You don't need to dress up and get a giant bag and stick. Take a few things when you leave. Please. I think a few might have taken something, but I don't think many have. Rarely a log will say they did but more logs have said that the people that go out there should clean up their messes.

 

It is not a dirty spot, but there is litter. Once a year we hike out and clean it up. (Our family CITO event.)

 

Another cache has under a small tree in a field. When we found it the cache had over 100 visitors. There was trash that had clearly been there for a good number of years. We took most if not all of it. A plastic grocery bag. If each cacher just took one thing, that trash wouldn't have been there.

 

IMO - CITO events work. In general though I think very few pick up any litter. :D

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We try to gather trash at almost every cache.....there was one that was overwhelming, the cache was in among the trash. A couple pickup loads would not of done it justice.

Like Knight says if each cacher just took one thing.

I know many areas that would benefit from a cache, just set up to clean the area. I might try it & see what happens, if someones not happy to pick trash...well there's always TNLNSL

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My wife and I found one a couple of years ago called "Trash Out!"(GC148NA).It was intentionally placed in a pullout area on the interstate here just for that purpose.It contains CITO bags in case you don't have any.We stayed about 15-20 minutes picking up trash and just barely scratched the surface of what was here.I think these caches are great ideas.I always seem to come back from a cache with at least a couple of items that someone has tossed on the ground.

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Would it be ok to put a cache in an area that needs serious clean up. Maybe place a roll of garbage bags in it, asking finders to help clean up the area?

 

I think this is a fine idea as long as the place is worth visiting in the first place. I often feel inclined to do a little CITO if I find trash in an otherwise plesant area. If I find a cache in a trashy area that has no redeeming qualities I'm likely to sign the log and just get out of there.

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... If I find a cache in a trashy area that has no redeeming qualities I'm likely to sign the log and just get out of there.

 

I tend to think this is the sentiment of most cachers out there (sadly), including me, sometimes. While CITO events usually help get an area clean, placing a cache with the intention of cachers CITO'ing by themselves (IMHO) just doesn't work.

 

I'm not saying it's a bad idea... I'm not saying don't try it, but I am saying don't be disappointed if 90% of cachers SL and skedittle.

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Would it be ok to put a cache in an area that needs serious clean up. Maybe place a roll of garbage bags in it, asking finders to help clean up the area?

 

I like being brought to a beautiful area to find a cache. It the area is full of trash perhaps a CITO is in order. If the area is full of trash that could be dangerous (like a dump) with nails in boards, needles, etc, I would be upset for being brought there unless the cache page or cache NAME indicated the your intent.

 

Either way, it is admirable for you to consider helping clean up the environment.

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I think as long as you let people know what they may be getting themselves into, its not necessarily a bad idea.

 

Me personally, if you place a cache in a trashy area that also has trash around it, I won't even bother looking for the cache. I feel it's best in my own personal interest not to "wade" through garbage. If there's a bit of litter here and there, I try to pick up as much as I can, but I will not risk putting my health in jeopardy.

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It's working for us! My friend and I got permission from a landowner to place a cache near a waterfall on one of his properties. All we asked was that cachers take at least one piece of garbage with them when they left. The place is beautiful, and even though it's private property, people visit it and kids party there, leaving stuff behind. So far several bags of garbage have been removed. Cachers who found it are happy, the owner is happy, we're happy.

I went to Costco once and asked the guy behind the photo counter if he had any film cannisters. He was busy and handed over a full box of them. So over the years, I've been putting my grocery store shopping bags in them, labeling them as CITO kits, and leaving them in caches. I still have a lot left. I really didn't want that many!! :laughing:

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I think the idea has merit. But...

 

I used to think that cachers were more environmentally friendly. Someone on this board corrected me by saying that cachers were just like everyone else. I think that while it is true that cachers may be more likely to care more, I think few really do.

 

Cachers used to be different. They sued to be the environmentally friendly sort, the people who loved to get out in to the wild and roam...

 

Then GPSrs got cheaper, caching started to get popular. Now there are still those of us who care about the environment, but for every 1 of us who practices CITO, there's prolly.. 10 more who don't, at least.

And at least one of those who don't is the traditional American slob who doesn't think twice about just hucking their trash where ever.

 

>.>

Would be willing to bet that if you had a way to look at the statistics of CITO practitioners (not thinking of events as some attend CITO events because it's a group thing and makes them look good), you would find that most of the cachers who place caches in the wild, are the same ones who practice CITO.

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Would it be ok to put a cache in an area that needs serious clean up. Maybe place a roll of garbage bags in it, asking finders to help clean up the area?

 

I think you would get better results with a CITO event. Today geocachig seems to be more about the numbers rather than spending time in the area. There is still some cachers that do pick up trash but for the most part it seems like the numbers is the only thing they are doing it for. This year we have had to replace a lot of our caches becuase the lid wasn't put back on. It was still frozen so they pried it open to get to the log. Left the broken pieces there. We have been archiving some of ours.

If you do a CITO event then you will get the people who want to clean up the area.

In the spring here, there are towns that does town wide clean up and they get quite a few people who shows up and cleans it up. They put the date in the paper or put notices up and people from other towns come to help too.

The cachers who are in it for the number will wallow through the trash, sign the log and then write it needs CITO.

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Why not put out a pilot cache to see if it works?

 

I know of one near me that has been out for two years and despite the CITO mentioned on the cache page no one ever mentions it and the area stays a mess. It is still a beautiful spot though. Not a garbage dump.

 

Don't be disappointed when it is a flop.

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As much as I wish it DID work, placing a cache in an area that needs CITO doesn't work, at least not in my area. A cacher hid a cache and in his description, he talked about the trash in the area. Several other cachers have complained in their logs about how disgusting the area is, but after several visitors, all the trash is still there. When I went out there, I picked up 3 buckets full (the buckets had been dumped out there) and loaded them up, took them home and threw them out. If every cacher had picked up only one bucket, it would have been cleaned up months ago!

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We keep a trash bag in the back of our tahoe when we find trash while caching, we put some in the bag until it is filled. However, I am seriously thinking of buying some surgical gloves to use to do so, the trash in a lot of areas is just revolting. One would wonder why you would hide a cache in a place so disgusting as some of the places we have found. EWWW!

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I placed a cache just today in an area that almost always has trash on the ground. It is at a Department of Conservation fishing access. When we checked it out last week, it was raining and we didn't even get out of the car, but saw that we would need to bring trash bags with us when we placed the cache. There were even two sofas, one on the boat ramp and one in a ditch. We had quite a bit of flooding between then and now and when we went to place the cache, the sofa on the boat ramp was gone, as was much of the trash. I would love to think that someone came and cleaned it up, but it probably all just washed down-stream. We filled a trash bag and then realized we only had one with us. I keep plastic grocery bags in my cache bag and CITO almost every cache I find. It doesn't take much to make a difference.

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Would it be ok to put a cache in an area that needs serious clean up. Maybe place a roll of garbage bags in it, asking finders to help clean up the area?

 

I think you would get better results with a CITO event. Today geocachig seems to be more about the numbers rather than spending time in the area. There is still some cachers that do pick up trash but for the most part it seems like the numbers is the only thing they are doing it for. This year we have had to replace a lot of our caches becuase the lid wasn't put back on. It was still frozen so they pried it open to get to the log. Left the broken pieces there. We have been archiving some of ours.

If you do a CITO event then you will get the people who want to clean up the area.

In the spring here, there are towns that does town wide clean up and they get quite a few people who shows up and cleans it up. They put the date in the paper or put notices up and people from other towns come to help too.

The cachers who are in it for the number will wallow through the trash, sign the log and then write it needs CITO.

________________________________________________________________________________________

I could not agree with you more, the majority of cachers are in it for the numbers and

could care less about taking 5 min to remove some litter! We are a nation known for its littering! :(

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We have a CITO series in Anchorage which features ammo cans with rolls of garbage bags. The ammo cans themselves are in scenic locations or otherwise nice places to visit. The bags are for use in other nearby areas or for a cacher to place in their caching bag for future use.

 

I've recently had negative experiences rooting around trashed areas looking for hard to find cache containers. True, if each seeker would remove a bag of trash, the area would progressively look better, but I'd prefer that the container not be embedded in all the flotsam. I don't enjoy that type of CITO experience.

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.....as long there's somewher to place the bag nearby.

I wouldn't want to be burdoned with a rubbish/garbage bag for hours.

 

We (my daughter and I) are still quite noobs at this, but from the begining we have practiced CITO. We did a bit of reading on caching before ever going out the first time so we were able to plan ahead. We carry grocery bags in our backpack (2-3) and then one or two larger trash bags in the trunk of our car. We fill the smaller bags at each site then place them in the larger bag for clean keeping in betweein sites. (still in the trunk) Then at the end of day we chuck the bigger bag into the dumpster at our townhouse. The areas get cleaned a bit and the trunk stays clean as well.

 

And if it's a while before we get back to our car we just attach to our pack. Its not usually heavy or smelly enough to be burden. And its the least we can do to care for our surroundings.

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That is an interesting thought. I help maintain a cache in an area that tends to collect trash. It's a neat park with a locomotive engine next to the cache, but it's a popular spot for homeless people and is in a spot that naturally collects outside trash because of its geography. The cache is there in honor of a person who used to spend a lot of time in the park.

 

Anyway, the warning is on the page about the area, and people don't seem to hugely mind, even when they comment on the trash, they seem to understand. There is a note on the cache page that mentions that people can CITO.

 

I hadn't thought about providing trash bags for CITO, in the cache itself. If I did that, what are the best bags to use and what would I stash the bags in within the cache itself? Any suggestions? :(

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I hadn't thought about providing trash bags for CITO, in the cache itself. If I did that, what are the best bags to use and what would I stash the bags in within the cache itself? Any suggestions? :blink:

 

One cache I found some time ago was in a problem area and the hider requested that finders CITO.

 

The hider supplied regular plastic shopping bags that had individually been stuffed into film canisters and then they had a CITO label on each canister describing what the intent was. Worked well enough it seemed.

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I hadn't thought about providing trash bags for CITO, in the cache itself. If I did that, what are the best bags to use and what would I stash the bags in within the cache itself? Any suggestions? :blink:

 

One cache I found some time ago was in a problem area and the hider requested that finders CITO.

 

The hider supplied regular plastic shopping bags that had individually been stuffed into film canisters and then they had a CITO label on each canister describing what the intent was. Worked well enough it seemed.

I've seen the film canister/shopping bag container approach used in ammo cans and as hand outs at CITO events. The CITO-n-Go series (four of the original six remain) in Anchorage feature kitchen and large garbange bags folded or rolled in the ammo can. The log book and any travelers are kept in a separate ziplock baggie.
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from my own experience it doesnt work. ive been really surprised at how some names are well known at cito events but give them a geocache to find that has a minute amount of litter around the area and they criticise the cache and the owner for placing the cache in a horrid filthy place. cito is good for cleaning up an area and pumping up over inflated cachers egos, leave them to pick up a bit of paper around a normal cache and they run screaming and complaing.

 

(just to mention, i fully agree with the cito principle and will clear up litter whenever it is possible for me)

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from my own experience it doesnt work. ive been really surprised at how some names are well known at cito events but give them a geocache to find that has a minute amount of litter around the area and they criticise the cache and the owner for placing the cache in a horrid filthy place. cito is good for cleaning up an area and pumping up over inflated cachers egos, leave them to pick up a bit of paper around a normal cache and they run screaming and complaing.

 

(just to mention, i fully agree with the cito principle and will clear up litter whenever it is possible for me)

 

There are always going to be whiney complainers. They however, in my opinion reflect a tiny minority of the geocaching community and I'd wager, the outdoor loving crowd on a national scale.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about it. You can rest assured that if such a trashy situation even if minor exists, that in short order, responsible geocachers will take care of it and they most likely won't wait for some official cito event to do it.

 

Unfortunately, as this game has expanded, in my opinion, the ratio of responsible trash collecting geocachers to the communinty of geocachers has taken a turn for the worse.

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I know I'm late on this thread which is poor forum etiquette, but I wanted to weigh in on a still-relevant topic so I hope that's okay. (Such a noble idea deserves a bump.) I think this is a good and admirable idea. Everyone here has complained about the number of people who aren't interested in CITO but even if only 1 of every 10 or 20 people going in helps take stuff out, it's still an improvement, right? And if you put the idea in their head, they're more likely to think about it and do it. One bag of trash isn't that much and can make a huge difference. I bring the stuff back to my car and I have a trash can I keep in there to throw the junk in, and if it's recyclable I take it home.

 

Yesterday I found trash that I'm pretty sure was left where it was BY a cacher because of the location of the cache. That makes me incredibly sad.

 

Yesterday I became an official cacher, finding my first micro and regular. At the micro location there wasn't much around, it was a mall parking lot, but at the regular I carried out garbage even without a bag on me and even found a nice long bungee cord in decent shape that I can use in the back of my Explorer ;) That cache is VERY local and I hike past it with my dogs all the time so I intend to go back and drop off some CITO bags

 

I've thought about this and think that it would perhaps be nice to do a multi where the first location has a small cache with garbage bags and coords for the actual cache, found somewhere near a garbage can.

Edited by starfishsaving
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Yes if done "tastefully". I would suggest that the cache be in a nicer spot beyond the trash. I don't want to be sorting trash as I look for the cache, (those hides get ignored if I know about them ahead of time) but will gladly clean up an area on my way back to the car. We do CITO on a regular basis and collect about 10 gallons a month of crushed aluminum for recycling. The multicache idea above will sounds good too.

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A great way to compactly store several grocery bags is in a zipper quart sized ziploc bag - that's how I carry them in my backpack. And occasionally if it's far to a trashcan will tie a bag of trash to the bottom of my backpack.

 

Yes if done "tastefully". I would suggest that the cache be in a nicer spot beyond the trash. I don't want to be sorting trash as I look for the cache, (those hides get ignored if I know about them ahead of time) but will gladly clean up an area on my way back to the car. We do CITO on a regular basis and collect about 10 gallons a month of crushed aluminum for recycling. The multicache idea above will sounds good too.

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I placed a cache in a trash-filled area and called it "Trash Cache #1." It was a unique hide so people really enjoyed it. Most people did not take out trash despite the trash bags and rubber gloves I provided. Nonetheless I took out at least two garbage bags of trash every time I performed maintenance (and sometimes 4 or 5), and the occasional cacher brought their family to clean up the area...so it was spotless after about a year. :P

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