I am always amazed by the amount of trash that litters our highways and byways, no matter where I go Geocaching it seems there is an amazing amount of trash, from recyclables like soda cans, milk cartons etc. to foil, paper, coffee cups, take out containers and the list goes on and on.
How much litter is out there, well according to Adopt-a-Highway, their volunteers picked up over 26,000 tons of litter in Minnesota alone, I am sure that the Province or State you live in isn't any cleaner. What can be done about this mess, Adopt-a-Highway has the right idea and the rest of us can do the same by pitching in and picking up trash where ever we see it.
Geocacher's have a unique tie with the environment, we are in nature more than the average citizen so we have the opportunity to make a difference. CITO (Cache In Trash Out) is one way we have to make that difference, many CITO, events are held every year all over the globe by Geocachers but we can take it further.
CITO can be an event, but even better CITO can be a Geocaching lifestyle. Here are some ideas to reduce trash while Geocaching; always carry some small kitchen catcher garbage bags and once at ground zero and have found your quarry, pickup the trash around the area, actually even if you have a DNF pickup trash anyway, that can equate to several Pounds of trash per year removed from those cache areas. Do you like hiding caches, then here is something I do, when I place a cache I clean up the area, then when I drop back to perform maintenance on my cache I clean up the area again. I made one exception to this I have an urban cache in a trashy area that is actually using the trash as camouflage, this is the only area I haven't cleaned up http://coord.info/GC2WAAM .
If we were all to spend just a few minutes a day picking up litter where we see it the impact could be huge. So make CITO a Geocaching life style.
Keep-on Caching
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