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RICHARDH
Junior Nomad
Posts: 84
Registered: 11-15-2006
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Disposing of trash while in Baja
Disposing of trash while in Baja
For someone visiting Baja for 6 months and doing a lot of remote, free camping, what is the most appropriate method for disposing of trash while in
Baja? Are public trash cans readily available? If so, where can they usually be found?
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MrBillM
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 21656
Registered: 8-20-2003
Location: Out and About
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Mood: It's a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Day
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Good For a Laugh !
Just wait until you arrive in Baja. It will be readily evident to you what the custom is involving trash disposal by both the Mexicans and others.
The most common method is also the simplest.
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Marie-Rose
Senior Nomad
Posts: 894
Registered: 10-2-2003
Location: Victoria, B.C. and Todos Santos
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Mood: Worried...
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As anywhere when you are camping in the wilderness, you carry out what you bring in. We have found that even over the past 3 years there seem to be
more garbage cans along the side of the road. They are not always emptied in a timely fashion but I do believe it is an improvement.
Remember, when in Mexico, yes may be no and no may be
maybe!
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RICHARDH
Junior Nomad
Posts: 84
Registered: 11-15-2006
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Thanks, MrBillM and Marie-Rose. I would bother my conscience to dump trash anywhere except in recepticals intended for that purpose, regardless of
what others do.
I suppose burying (burned?) trash might do in a pinch, but trash recepticals are preferred.
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Bajaboy
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4375
Registered: 10-9-2003
Location: Bahia Asuncion, BCS, Mexico
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Richard-
We usually burn as much as we can. We recycle most of the glass we have (beer bottles). With the little that remains, we look for either trash cans
along the highway or for the local dump, usually found at the edge of most towns. But, be aware that the dumps are pretty much that...a place to dump
your garbage.
I have a feeling you're going to have one heck of a trip report for us when you return. I'm looking forward to it.
Zac
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Capt. George
Super Nomad
Posts: 2129
Registered: 8-21-2003
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go west young man and look past the garbage!
\"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men\" Plato
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Summanus
Nomad
Posts: 481
Registered: 10-15-2006
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But, Capt. George...everyone knows that the Japan Sea Current throws all the Pacific's garbage up on that western Abrejos coastline!
Summanus....ancient Roman Nightly Thunder God. He liked refrieds too.
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Capt. George
Super Nomad
Posts: 2129
Registered: 8-21-2003
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only on Monday and Thursdays!
the delivery days
pick up days?????????? there are none...
nightly thunder or is that simply flatulance?
capt g
\"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men\" Plato
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Summanus
Nomad
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'harmonious' nightly thunderings ...
Summanus....ancient Roman Nightly Thunder God. He liked refrieds too.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64858
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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It is sad to see so many towns in Mexico that have no system other than dumping over the hill where nobody in town can see it, or in an arroyo for the
next flash flood to wash it out to the sea.
One bulldozer with an open pit (landfill) for the garbage could do wonders for the Baja landscape at each town... Where are local collected taxes
going now? (on second thought, don't bother answering that one  )
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Barry A.
Select Nomad
Posts: 10007
Registered: 11-30-2003
Location: Redding, Northern CA
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Mood: optimistic
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Richard------
I have always bagged my trash (after burning combustables) in trash bags, and then carried them to the nearest "dump", which, as said, is litterally
that------a dumping place. I carry the full bags on top of my rig, or in my boat if it is on a trailer. Remember to place the trash bags our of reach
of critters at night while still in camp.
If I am only down for a few days, I haul it back to the USA and dump it in an appropriate container at a gas station, or behind a foodmarket, or
something like that.
I have seldom seen any "containers" in Mexico, and if I did I would not use them----they would just fill up and overflow.
Burying unburned trash is not recomended as it is dug up by coyotes, or dogs, etc. shortly after you leave.
Trash disposal IS a problem, but I refuse to contribute to the mess already there unless it is a big, established "dump".
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abreojos
Nomad
Posts: 168
Registered: 2-9-2006
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RICHARDH
One man's trash is another man's treasure and there are no dumpster divers in Baja because there ain't no dumpsters to dive!
Trash, it is just about everywhere...and if you start picking up trash down here, you can spend the rest of your life doing just that and not put a
dent into it. The NRDC paid one of the only people in Abreojos who regulary picked up trash to clean the beaches of trash. One man cleaning and 1000s
trashing...good luck. Bring as little as possible with you, burn what you can and hope what you carefully deposit in the trash makes it to an even
trashier place and the wind doesn't blow it back to you! It's like peeen in the wind worrying about it..
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bajarich
Nomad
Posts: 464
Registered: 1-13-2005
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Buy returnable bottles for beer, pay the deposit and return them. The beer companies have started producing throwaway glass bottles. They are
cheaper, but at a much higher cost to the environment.
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Bajabus
Senior Nomad
Posts: 892
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: Elias Calles B.C.S. or NC USA
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Mood: My friends..it's good.
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The only garbage I throw out the window is aluminum cans. They get collected pretty fast by locals who trade them in for cash. When traveling I just
bag it up and take it to a trash can in the next town. I don't drive into the dumps. Too many punctured and damaged tires over the years.
On my property I have been filling in a small ravine, I set it on fire occasionally and every few years get a load of dirt dumped over it. Making a
nice terraced area over time
"Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked of such a thing."
Dwight David Eisenhower
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Capt. George
Super Nomad
Posts: 2129
Registered: 8-21-2003
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do you remember our highways and byways before Lady Bird and her Clean up America Campaign? I do.
The roads were pretty skanky. I take my trash to the dump site (all 2,652 sq miles of it) and burn what I can....
I've become accomplished at not seeing it...
harmonious nightly thunderings indeed! you're sleeping outside if you ever come to visit.
george
\"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men\" Plato
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Barry A.
Select Nomad
Posts: 10007
Registered: 11-30-2003
Location: Redding, Northern CA
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Mood: optimistic
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BajaBus------
You say, "On my property I have been filling in a small ravine, I set it on fire occasionally and every few years get a load of dirt dumped over it.
Making a nice terraced area over time "
This does work temporarily, but what happens when the "big one" hits?? (hurricane, tropical storm, etc). That ravine was caused by water running
sometime-----it WILL happen again, and then all the "trash" will be moved downstream, to where????? (I just worry about things like this)
Like I say, trash in Baja is a BIG problem, and I don't pretend to have an answer-----this is one of the few things that Government is supposed to
take care of-----I wish they would get started.
I guess in the mean time we just do the best we can, like Bajabus is doing.
Barry
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Bajagypsy
Super Nomad
Posts: 1416
Registered: 8-31-2006
Location: BahÃa Asuncion BCS
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Mood: Living the dream
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We burn everything we can while camping, throw nothing out the window while driving (other than the odd banana peal as its biodegradeable), and
recycle all glass. (turn in our empty beer bottles in exchange for full ones 
Nothing worse than garbage blowing all over the place. Baja has enough of that as it is and we dont want to be a contrubuting part to the mess.
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Bajabus
Senior Nomad
Posts: 892
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: Elias Calles B.C.S. or NC USA
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Mood: My friends..it's good.
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Barry, so far it seems OK, I am going to have to start building a retaining wall along that side sooner or later. My thoughts are that they just
burn it at the dump in todos santos so why not just do the same at my place and keep it in house so to speak.
I see so many folks collecting aluminum on the side of the road that It really does not bother me to place it there for those less fortunate to pick
up.
At my place in Elias Calles I bag the aluminum and as I drive to todos Santos, right before Rancho Nuevo by the giant billboard sign I drop it off for
the family there. I always see her and her husband collecting on the side up and down their stretch of the highway
"Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked of such a thing."
Dwight David Eisenhower
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TMW
Select Nomad
Posts: 10659
Registered: 9-1-2003
Location: Bakersfield, CA
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What I don't burn in my camp fire I put in a plastic bag and leave in my truck bed until I find a trash can, either at a Pemex or other such place or
bring home. Throwing litter along the highway, be it a can or paper or bottle, is a mindset people need to change. But educating ignorant people takes
many lifetimes no matter which side of the border. We have the CDC in CA and similar people in other states to pick it up in the U.S. and it's still a
problem. I've always been fasinated how someone could throw trash along the hwy and get mad if I were to throw trash in their yard.
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Barry A.
Select Nomad
Posts: 10007
Registered: 11-30-2003
Location: Redding, Northern CA
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Mood: optimistic
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gypsy----
Believe it or not, banana peels sorta dry out, petrify, and last for years as a black "thing" sitting around (especially in the desert), but you are
right, they eventually do biodegrade, but it takes years and years. We always hide those suckers behind bushes, or under rocks.  or include the squishy smelly things within our trash bags.
We never burn stuff in camp unless it is really combustable (paper, etc) as it sure does make for a smelly campfire otherwise. 
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