Trash talk

Yet another sunset at Box Wash.

For those of you who are wondering, as I'm sure many of you are, what I do with my trash when I'm boondocking I decided instead of keeping you in suspense any longer, I will tell you the truth about trash.

If you're staying in an RV park taking out the trash is no more difficult than a leisurely stroll to a dumpster 50 feet away. But for boondocking out in the sticks where there are no dumpsters you have to be a bit more.... Shall we say imaginative with your trash disposal.

In order to save a few shekels I have always used Walmart grocery bags to put my trash in. Reason being is their plentiful, just the right size for my meager amount of trash, and small enough for surreptitious disposal.

And that surreptitious disposal thing is the key to keeping control of your trash while boondocking. Believe it or not a lot of businesses are not all that thrilled at people bringing them trash from home. I don't blame them, having been in business myself I know that having dumpsters picked up two or three times a week can get very costly and the last thing you want is people's personal trash filling up your dumpster.

But having said that, as a boondocker I still have trash to get rid of and going to a commercial pay dump, if I could find one, with two Walmart bags of trash is a little ridiculous. So what to do.

The first thing you'll notice is when you're in a town that's not overrun with RVers trash cans are easy to find. Their in every gas station, every Walmart parking lot, and a lot of store and restaurant parking lots. Just like here in Wickenburg when I go to the Safeway for groceries I drop off two Safeway grocery bags full of trash into the parking lot trash cans, I have no problem with that after all their groceries are the reason I have trash.

But the closer you get to popular RVing areas like Quartzsite for instance the harder it gets to find a trash can, not impossible, just harder. Gas stations will still have them, McDonald's have them, but a lot of other places don't. You can keep putting the bags in the back of your truck, but it makes the eventual disposition of them more difficult, and one day you may find that birds and other critters have made a royal mess of two weeks worth of trash bags .

 As usual I frequently find myself falling back on Walmart when I need a place to shop, a place to spend the night, or a place to take my trash. Even when I'm in Quartzsite I often make a 35 mile Walmart run to Parker once a week for groceries so I just take my four or five Walmart bags of trash back to the place I bought it from.

So you can find places to get rid of your trash you just have to be a little more imaginative and try not to be too much of a burden on others who have to pay to eventually dispose of your trash.

 I will leave you with this one bit of wisdom. Most public trash cans have a top on them with a trap door that will only allow small items to be placed in the can. But that top can easily be lifted off, after all that's how they get the trash out, then you can put your trash bag in and put the top back on.

                   theboondork

That's Box Wash on the right as it meanders down from the mountains. On the left is the Jeep trail with boondocking spots on both sides.

Notice the tire marks beside my boondocking spot. Then notice that the Arctic Fox or my truck made no tire marks, and that's because your tires have to be spinning to make those marks. And that will give you some idea of the mindless ATV idiots I was cursed with last weekend.