Study Reveals Hundreds of Thousands of Pieces of Trash Along Pacific Crest Trail

Hiking is an excellent activity if you want to spend more time in nature. You’ll feel transported away from life’s stressors, but not if your hiking spot is covered in garbage. Researchers recently found trash all over the Pacific Crest Trail. Learn more about their findings to discover how everyone can work together to prevent other trails from accumulating litter, too.

What Is the Pacific Crest Trail?

The Pacific Crest Trail is a hiking trail that connects Mexico and Canada. It’s a scenic getaway that passes through 43 miles of the Cascade Mountains within its total 2,650-mile journey. People visit it throughout the year, which makes it more susceptible to trash left behind by hikers.

Many say it rivals other popular hiking options like the American Discovery Trail, which stretches across 6,800 miles from coast to coast. However, the Pacific Crest Trail is much more manageable at nearly half the length.

Why Does It Have So Much Trash?

Two environmental researchers recently decided to better understand how much garbage accumulates on the Pacific Crest Trail. Tori McGruer and Macy Gustavus surveyed one-kilometer-long stretches of the trail every 10 miles. They logged garbage like bullet casings, a horseshoe, bandage wrappers and food packaging.

Altogether, they found approximately 200,000 pieces of trash along the trail.

They found the most trash on the outskirts of Los Angeles but noted that garbage was left in 60% of their survey zones. It mostly existed around trail access points or where people normally spent the most time, like on trail sections along highways.

Some trash ends up on the trail because people don’t want to carry it to the next disposal site. Other things, like half of a bandage wrapper, can easily slip out of your grasp on the wind and disappear before you can race after it.

Other forms of garbage were left with good intentions. Pistachio shells were among the most common grocery-type trash the researchers found during their trip. The shells biodegrade, but they’re still considered litter because the process takes a long time.

Increased amounts of garbage on the Pacific Crest Trail could also mean more people are hiking. The number of visitors fluctuates as the weather warms and cools, but a new trend has also changed the hiking world. The idea of soft hiking recently got 10 billion views on TikTok because it prioritizes enjoying your time in nature rather than accomplishing a new speed on a trail.

3 Ways to Prevent Litter Accumulation on Hiking Trails

There are numerous ways to combat garbage on hiking trails. Consider a few preventive tips the next time you want to spend time in the woods.

1. Bring a Bag for Your Trash

Some amount of garbage is inevitable on hiking trips. You’ll eventually need to put protein bar packaging or an empty water bottle somewhere. Bring gallon-sized zip-top bags to hold everything in your backpack. You’ll eliminate most of the potential odor and keep the garbage from touching anything in your bag.

2. Optimize Your Food Choices

You might want to roast sweet potatoes while you camp to improve your health with vitamin C, but what happens to your trash when you finish your meal? Plan your hiking snacks and meals according to how much waste they’ll create. It’s much easier to fit a sandwich bag back in your backpack than trash created by cooking a whole meal over a campfire. If you want to make an entire meal, bring a second bag for garbage that hangs off your backpack.

3. Consider Volunteering When You’re Not Hiking

The National Park Service is always looking for volunteers to clean their local trails. Check their website for new volunteer opportunities close to where you typically hike. You can support your local environment with friends if you make a big group that cleans trails monthly. You might even realize how much you love working with the National Park Service and potentially discover a new path forward for your career.

If you want to help the Pacific Crest Trail after learning about how much trash it contains, join a volunteer group that covers various sections of the trail each month. Additional hands mean you’ll pick up more of the garbage the researchers found, even with the volunteer groups being active along the trail.

Keep the Pacific Crest Trail and Every Trail Clean

Garbage is an unfortunate recurring problem on any hiking trail. People will always create some amount of trash while they’re out in nature. The key is containing your own garbage and giving back to nature through volunteer trash pickup. If more people prioritize those things, the Pacific Crest Trail and others throughout the country will become more beautiful places for all living things.