Carry In - Carry Out in State Parks

The state parks I’ve visited in recent months in Maryland and New York have a carry in - carry out policy for trash; they don’t have trash cans anywhere. Many states are trying to save money on operational costs for state parks and trash collection is one way they doing it.

I was sad to discover how much trash is left in the parks rather than being carried out by the people that carried it in.

In the Patapsco Valley State Park in Maryland there were beer bottle caps, a hub cap, socks, empty water bottles, a broken grill, pieces of plastic (some looked like pieces of plastic ware…some I couldn’t tell what it had been), and broken glass. Wading in the Patapsco River we found broken glass and pieces of pottery. The patterns on the pottery looked old; the age of the glass was indeterminate; either way I was glad I had on water shoes.

At Stony Brook State Park it was much the same although the trash was right at the water’s edge; the next rain would wash it downstream; the trash included crushed aluminum cans, a baby’s soiled diaper, empty water bottles, empty and full soft drink bottles, and beer bottles.

In both places there was a lot of trash - too much to rationalize as accidents. It was apparent that some people were carrying in….but not carrying out anything at all. It is probably the minority of people….but it is a messy (and potentially toxic) behavior.

Do the parks remind people as they enter the park (the person in the kiosk looking the driver in the eye) that they need to carry their trash out with them? Not in any of the parks we visited. It seems like that would be a minimal thing that should happen. Maybe people are not fully away of Carry In - Carry Out since it has not always been like that.

I saw one stand that had plastic bags for people to take to gather their trash to ‘carry out’ but I wonder how many people miss the display just as they ignore signs.

Or maybe the people that leave trash in State Parks are simply slobs and no amount of signage or verbal reminders will make a difference. Depressing - if true.