New nomads can be shocked at the amount of trash they generate! When living in a vehicle, you have to be much more cognizant of the materials you bring in, and how you will store and dispose of the resultant garbage.
Preventing trash
The biggest win is to prevent bringing potential trash into your vehicle in the first place. This might involve:
- Purchasing less.
- Purchasing products that are not excessively packaged.
- Removing packaging immediately after purchase and throwing it away in the store's own trash receptacles.
- When purchasing eggs for scrambling or baking, crack them all into a water bottle (or similar sealable container) and throw away the carton and shells.
- If purchasing a drink from a restaurant or fuel station, pour it into your own reusable cup and throw the disposable cup away where you bought it. A small number of places will allow you to fill your own cup without wasting one of their disposable cups.
- Using a reusable shopping bag.
- Use regular dishes and flatware instead of disposable paper and plastic products.
Storing trash
- Store trash inside other trash — wad up trash and stuff it into emptied jars, cans, or other trash items. Cans might nest inside each other.
- Crush any trash that you can. Consider a trash compactor if you have space and power.
- If you store food trash in your vehicle for too long, it may attract insects, rodents, and other pests.
- In areas with bears or other animals, keep all trash (and food) inside your vehicle, or inside purpose-built bear-proof storage lockers that are available in some campgrounds.
Disposing of trash
The trick here is to be ruthless in disposing of trash; always deposit trash whenever you see an appropriate public-use bin. In order to not to ruin it for everyone, be as neat and discreet as possible. For bonus points pick up litter near the trash bin and deposit it also. Make your trash as compact as possible to save space.
If campfires are allowed where you are, paper materials might be thrown into the campfire where appropriate, subject to local laws and regulations. Be sure that they are burned completely before you extinguish your fire.
"Rocket" camping stoves and wood stoves can burn paper and cardboard scrap internally with reduced smoke. Check your owner's manual.
Do not leave trash in fire pits. Do not dump trash anywhere it doesn't belong. Don't leave food garbage where animals can get to it. Leave No Trace.
Resources
Search forums and groups | Search van life discussion groups for "trash" | |
Search related sites | Search van life sites for "trash" | |
Search NomadLife.wiki | Search other pages on this wiki for "trash" |
Some or all of the content on this page was originally sourced from this page on RVWiki