Many Trash Problems Are Too Large

[+DamOTclese]

Speaking of packing trash out, there's places that are just too flooded with litter where the only solution is to bring in dump trucks and organize dozens of people for the clean up.

 

I'm thinking specifically of Highway 39 which leads up into Crystal Lake in Southern California along which I placed the "Never Find the Body" cache. From around mile marker 20 to 28 the litter is really bad and all of the signs are spray painted.

 

The road around mile marker 28 had been blocked off after the Williams Fire that came through and for a short time of a couple of years the canyons were starting to clean themselves: trash that could degrade started to, plastic and other light materials were collecting in spots thanks to the winds, and spray paint was beginning to lighten.

 

Now with the road open it's worse than it's ever been: the freshly paved road and new road signs all have been spray painted and trash litters the highway along the stretch.

 

It's so bad that it's impossible for geocachers to do anything about.

 

Further up where the river starts to diverge from the highway, however, the littering stops; if there's any effort required to get from one's car to the river, few of the littering pigs are willing to expend the effort so the litter stops. Past around mile marker 32 the litter drops away to nearly nothing and geocaching hikes are spectacular though require considerable committment to get to.

 

I mention all this because CITO philosophy can only work in some places. For "Never Find the Body" one cache finder logged the fact that they had to step over piles of trash -- which often includes used baby diapers -- to get to the area where the ravine's climb begins. Nobody wants to cart out such trash and given its biological contents, nobody should.

[+welch]

I mention all this because CITO philosophy can only work in some places. For "Never Find the Body" one cache finder logged the fact that they had to step over piles of trash -- which often includes used baby diapers -- to get to the area where the ravine's climb begins. Nobody wants to cart out such trash and given its biological contents, nobody should.

Get the county to condemn the area, and turn it into a new landfill. This could solve the problem of people leaving trash in places its not supposed to be

[+trippy1976]

Where do you live? It *is* possible to organize dozens of people to come out and work on a single spot. Depending on where you are, of course. That's what we prefer to do here. Find a spot that's just utterly wasted and bring in 40-70 people for several hours of cleanup.

 

If you can get the people, organizing it's not a real big deal. Just split the work into 4-7 sites and send people out in teams. It's amazing how fast the cleanup can go.

 

We try to line up 3-4 pickups as well. We keep the dumpster semi-central and have 3-4 trucks that work with the teams and bring the bags back to the main site. Usually we have to do this as our dump site is a dumpster and isn't mobile.

 

Last year we only had one truck, but still did it this way. This year I'm hoping to have several.

 

One final thought is that if you only have a small local crew, you could consider getting in touch with the local scout troops, churches, etc. to see if they would post up a flyer. CITO events don't have to be just for cachers!!

[+DamOTclese]

Glendora, California. One of the problems with organizing a trash clean up for the canyon area is security: litter removal people could be expected to be robbed or beaten unless they stay together or have a police escort.

 

I base that opinion on the history of medical emergency teams that have been dispatched to Crystal Lake some 20 miles up the highway (and some 2800 feet higher.) I've talked with a medical person who used to do search and recovery in the area and at times they've had to have SWAT escort. Drug dealing has been a problem in the past.

 

My opinions only, of course.

[+trippy1976]

Well, then your problem goes beyond having too much trash ("there's places that are just too flooded with litter"). Sounds like your place might be too flooded with drug dealers. However, there are safe places where a couple dozen people can make a very nice dent with a cleanup effort.

[+fly46]

Personally, I think that if those are the problems, that perhaps the cache isn't in a good location.

 

Although, if you want to keep the cache there you could always organize CITO events and see if a local police station would volunteer a couple people to help provide safety for the people cleaning. (It's great PR for them to look involved)