I_like_cereal

Stewardship. Whether it is backpacking or bicycling.

I had to pick up and recycle 3 used CO2 carts and 1 Michelin tube box yesterday on the way home.

Ok, maybe the guy/gal was commuting with three empty carts and just so happened that they jingled loose and fell out... three feet from each other. And, maybe, just maybe, a rabid squirrel was attacking and the guy was carrying not only the tube but the box it came it and had to throw the box at the squirrel and left said box in a bramble bush.

It could have happened like that, somehow though, I doubt it.

I have picked up bike tires as well and carried them to the nearest trash can/recycling can. Not to mention the numerous gu tops and gel bags that litter my ride all through the summer months.

Seriously folks, a basic rule we should all be following:

Pack it in, Pack it out.

I carry a trash bag when I backpack and I have pockets when I ride. I think we all have pockets or some device to carry our trash. Can we all use that device?

I know I sound ranty, but this @#$%$ really gets my hackles in a knot.

AdamDZ

Yeah. There are tubes and CO cartridges all over 9W, the most popular roadie destination in NYC. Cagers on bikes, man... Cagers on bikes, what can I say...

Chris_in_Miami

Key Biscayne is a very popular riding spot for Miami roadies. It's also a great place to pick up free, lightly-used tubes.

Doohickie

I have softer feelings toward the litterbugs. Yes, they should know better. But "should" does not describe the real would, it describes it as we would like it to be. The reality is that some people just never got the memo.

I can remember when I got the memo. I don't think I was ever much of a litterbug, but when my boys were in Scouts there was repeated stressing of the principle of carrying everything out that you carried in. Since then, if I have a can, a wrapper, a blown tube, I stuff it in a pocket and carry it out. If necessary, I'll pick up stuff I see and carry it out to the next garbage can. But some people just don't think about it that much. They should, but don't.

You did good, I_like_cereal. Know that you did, and let that be your reward, and try not to hold it against the st00pid litterbugs.

lhbernhardt

I like to ride the routes of big, professionally-promoted bike races shortly after the rolling closure has gone up the road. Good place to pick up new, lightly-used water bottles, maybe even the odd musette bag with food still inside.

On the other hand, I have been guilty of "dropping off" tires or tubes that are beyond repair. Kind of a way to mark your territory, or at least the territory you've ridden. I've even come back weeks later and noticed the tire still there in the bushes.. But I'm careful about food wrappers. I put the empty gel packets back into a pocket, or stuff them up the bottom of my tights, even if they're really sticky. And I'm really thankful when the small towns I pass thru have litter containers on the sidewalk within reach of a passing cyclist. But organic stuff, especailly banana peels, get the old heave-ho. I trust they will biodegrade naturally, and that they're good for the soil, the animal scavengers, and all the insects that feed on that sort of thing.

Luis (sorry about the tires!)

Miller84

I have the same feelings since getting on the bike I have become more and more annoyed at what I see just thrown to the side of the road.

Although I did find a new beer coozie so its not all bad.

RaleighSport

The only bike debris I tend to see are actual bicycle parts.. I think I'd be highly annoyed in your shoes being as whoever it was obviously was able to carry the stuff to use it.. but not put it back to properly dispose of it later? Pathetic. Good on you though!
Edit: Oh and I have a saddlebag to carry said stuff in.. and to put said trash back in when stuff is used personally.

Andy_K 

I also collect empty CO2 cartridges. For some reason the ones I see are always blue and unlabelled. I don't even know who makes them like that. I've been telling myself that it's paintballers who have been "hunting" bicyclists.

Overall I'd guess I see more scrap metal that fell off of cars than I do bicycling litter, as proportion of road use though, maybe not.

essiemyra

I have not noticed the items you mention on the ground where I ride, more the trash that people just throw out of their cars as if my world is their trash container. Not so much!!! Keep it with you till you can deposit it in a trash container.

Papa Tom

If you had room to carry it with you before you used it, you've got room to carry it away after. Especially if it's just the box that something came in.

CB HI

Yes those cyclist should carry out their trash.

But most of their trash would not exist if not for motorist tossing out their used beer bottles.

lungimsam

Instead of leaving the bad tubes on the ground...patch and pump up the bad tubes, sling 'em o'er yer shoulder, and protect those collar bones in a crash, like in the olden days!!

Do they really protect collar bones???

I_like_cereal

If not you could sling them around a semi-truck mirror and get a free ride complete with sling shot at the end.

I know that stretch of road is awful because of all the gravel, but seriously.

Scheherezade 

If you have to litter your Co2 cans all over the ground, do us a favor and just ride that fancy sport bike on the trainer at home.

Mondo734

Surprisingly the popular trails I ride tend to be relatively clean. And most of the litter around is usually attributable to the homeless in the area. But for those of you who think cyclists are bad about disposing of their trash are clearly not fishermen as well. Everytime I go somewhere to fish I alway find food wrappers, tangled fishing line, lures and hooks, beer can, and just about everything else you can think of. I always take an extra bag or two and clean up not only my mess but usually some of the other stuff around the area I am fishing in; I have found a few good lures by cleaning up other peoples messes before.

Stealthammer

My attitude regarding litter is kind of a Zen thing with me: if I noticed it and my experience was effected by it, so will the next person by if I just leave it where it is.

Now, I know I can't clean up all of the roadside litter and I wont even try anymore (it took living through the '70-'80s for me to accept though), but trailside litter is like a scratch in a really great album, it may not completely "ruin" the listening experience but it definitely alters the quality of the moment. For me, "pack it in, pack it out" just falls short of what I can do to take responsibility for the planet and my fellow man. I view it as doing a favor for someone else, and also doing one for others that they will encounter later on.

The fact that someone doesn't even know that his or her outdoor experience was slightly more "purely serene" because of someone else who came before him and helped to clean up the trail a bit, may have just a small effect on that person in that moment, but then that small effect will likely be reflected in his or her experience interacting with others at another time, and then that in turn will likely be reflected in others that they encounter at another time, and so on and so on.....

Some people are willing to give, and some people are willing to suck, and each of us gets to choose for ourselves.

kardar2

Now that's an Idea I am going to see if my wife can make me a sturdy trash bag to hang on my bars.

tarwheel 

A lot of people are just slobs. No other way to put it. I also kayak, and you wouldn't believe the trash that boaters throw in lakes. I mean, they're out there enjoying a beautiful lake with clean water and nice scenery, and they throw their bottles, cans and other trash in the water. Is is that hard to "pack it out"?

OTOH, I don't see much bike-related trash on the roads around here -- at least not CO2, tubes and tires. However, I do see occasional gel packets and Gatorade bottles, and I'm sure that at least some of them are from cyclists. Most of the highway trash I see around here is cans, bottles and fast-food debris. My personal pet peeve is broken glass, and apparently some people are so infantile that throw break bottles on the road just to see them break.

azesty

You just dont find that stuff in China. One of the greatest hazards in the morning are the paired human streetsweepers who wear orange jumpsuits, like Gitmo suits, and sweep the streets with bamboo poled, twig ended, brooms.

They keep all the **** off the road.

Very few punctures too.

z

dynodonn 

I see an occasional CO2 cartridge, but they still are a rare find along my commute, I do happen to have a serious arsenal of lost bungee cords though

Stealthammer

Anyone remember this commercial or the "Ecology Movement"? Actor Iron Eyes Cody's 1971 anti-pollution PSA.....

And yes, I am aware that Iron Eyes Cody was actually the son of Italian immigrants and was not "truely" a Native American by birth, but even so, he adopted a Native American lifestyle and traditions in early adulthood, and he lived out his remaining years as a honored cultural representive on behalf of the Native American community.

I_like_cereal

On a side note. I am a fisherman (fly fishing) and I get that. I am also a hiker and you would/would not believe the crud people throw on the trail. I found underwear (ladies) hanging on a tree at the foot of a mountain once.

The saddest moment for me was when my son age 5 and I hiked South Sister mountain. We camped in a good spot that look mostly undamaged and when we woke up in the morning all you could see is this large scar of a hiking trail that led to the top of the mountain. I had a long talk with my son about stewardship right then and there. I was lucky enough that a park ranger walked through camp checking over night tickets. He reinforced most of what I was saying. I was advocating shutting the mountain down for 5 years (still am) to recover then go on a lottery system or first come first serve system for overnight and summit hikes.

Seattle Forrest

Thank you. It's a shame somebody left those in the first place, but you've done a good deed getting them into the trash before they got swept into a river and wound up as part of that floating island of garbage the size of Texas, out in the Pacific gyre.

genec

Yeah it is hard not to notice the stuff you don't see a 55MPH. Riding a bike puts you more in touch with the environment... how anyone can leave their crap on the roadside is beyond me... I don't even spit out gum... for fear that sometime down the road I might just run over it.

ckaspar

Dude! You found my inner tube box and used CO2 cartridges. Thank you so much. I have been looking for those everywhere. LOL

Anyway. I rarely see bike litter on my ride mostly hobo and car litter.