Trash can be a problem when RVing, Camping, or Boating. A lot of our camping food and supplies comes in disposable containers that
often generate even more trash than we normally do at home. Paper and plastic cups, plates, and utensils are very convenient for camping but do add up to more trash to take care of. At home we just toss all our trash into the nearest wastebasket, which gets dumped into the trash can, and picked up by the waste management company at the street every week. In camp or on a boat we have to collect our trash and store it for later disposal. Some campgrounds and marinas have dumpsters you can put your trash in but you will have to pack it out when you are boondocking or camping in a primitive camp site. Very few RVs or boats and no tents I've ever seen have any built in provisions for collecting or storing trash. So trash bags area the obvious solution, even if you bring along a wastebasket -- trash bags collect nasty stuff that can be hard to clean from waste baskets. 'Pack it in, pack it out' is one of the original tenets of back country travel. It is something everyone who participates in remote outdoor activities should live by. Trash bags make that easier.
My brother once observed that trash bags are the perfect consumer product: people buy them just to throw them away -- and then buy more!
A lot, but not all trash can be safely disposed of in campfires. Pressurized containers, batteries, and even tin cans should not be put in campfires. Aluminum cans may burn up, but do you really want to breathe vaporized aluminum in the smoke? I can't imagine that doing anything good for lungs! And every can you toss in the fire means you are throwing away that 10 cent deposit! Recycling aluminium cans can be tedious, but it can we worth it. A group who collected aluminum cans after the Holiday Farm Fire in Oregon amassed more than $25,000 in less than a year to aid victims of the fire. The bulk can be reduced by crushing the cans but some recycling places only accept uncrushed cans. If you take your recycling to where it is weighed, crushed cans are OK. Burning paper plates is usually OK and even burning styrofoam and plastic utensils isn't all that bad an idea and the more you can burn the less you have to hang onto and transport home.
Of course, if you have room, you can bring along a convenient sized waste basket or trash can to collect trash during your outing. But sometimes that isn't very convenient because it takes up so much room in your vehicle. A handy alternative for use in RVs, campers, and boats is a plastic bag holder that an be hung on a cabinet door or even a picnic table. It makes an easy, readily available place to deposit refuse for future disposal in a dumpster or your home trash can. These plastic bag holders are usually designed to use the regular plastic bags that we bring our groceries and other items home in, giving us a good opportunity to recycle those pesky plastic bags. Even if you use a wastebasket it is a good idea to line it with a trash bag. It makes it a lot easier to dispose of the trash and minimizes having to clean the waste basket. Trash bags can be easily tied off to contain odors and minimize unwanted spills.
Grocery bags are sometime the right size for small waste baskets and those little plastic trash bag holders that fasten onto cabinet doors but you will probably need larger, commercial trash bags for kitchen-size units. There are typically two styles: draw string and the kind where you have to tie the corners together to close the bag. Drawstring bags are obviously more convenient but usually cost a little more. Kitchen bags are usually 13 gallon capacity. Regardless of the style of bag you will find different qualities and strengths depending on brand and price. The better bags cost more of course but are not as likely to tear and dump your nasty trash all over the floor or the trail and your feet! If you are lucky, your bags will fit your kitchen-sized waste basket snugly. If they are a little small they can usually be stretched. Take care stretching them. If there are any sharp corners or edges on the can, put the bag over them first to avoid tearing the bag if you try to stretch it over sharp spots. If they are too big, gather the excess on one side and twist it about 6 times and tuck the twist up under the edge of now snug top of the bag. Kitchen trash bags are usually strong enough to handle normal kitchen trash but you may need extra strong bags or double them up if you have extra heavy trash like bottles or lots of wet food waste. Double up bags for heavy loads. You never want your trash bag to tear and drop stuff all over the place, especially if there is a lot of wet, heavy, nasty garbage!
Draw-string bag are easy to close and can be re-opened if you need to add something. There is a draw-string (usually a brightly colored strip of plastic, orange or yellow are the ones I've seen) inside the top seam of the bag. Look for half moon shaped cutouts an each side of the top of the bag to grasp the draw-string and pull it tight to close the bag. These draw-strings are usually about the same strength as the bag itself and should be adequate to pull it pretty tightly closed and maybe even strong enough to use as handles to carry it, but don't pull too hard or use them to carry really heavy bags or you could tear them.
Handle-close bags are a little more difficult to close and, depending on how tight you tie the knots, can be difficult or even impossible to re-open. You need to leave a little extra room at the top of the bag in order to have enough bag to tie. Grab the top of the bag on opposite sides, pull tight, put a few twist in each side to roll the bag corners into a kind of rope shape, then tie the two ends together. Use just a single over-hand knot if you think you will need to re-open the bag. For permanent closure (for transport and disposal) tie a second knot. then grab the remaining ends or corners and tie them together with a double knot. Tying up all four corners keeps the bag more secure and reduces the chance of spills.
You may want to set up separate collections bags for trash and recyclables. It is kind of nice to get back that 10 cent deposit on every aluminum can and plastic water bottle and its better for the environment. Using separate bags lets you easily take your combustible trash to burn in the campfire or put in dumpster. Be careful not to burn bags with large amounts of rotting food that might create a nasty smell around the campfire and avoid burning plastics as they can create toxic fumes that could make you sick. Never put aerosol cans in the campfire as they can explode sending shrapnel and burning embers all over the place. Tin cans won't burn, just accumulate in and mess up the fire pit. Some with glass bottles. Only put combustible material in the campfire.
RV stores often sell devices to store grocery bags for later use. I have tried both hard plastic containers and soft cloth ones and both have served well. You can usually stuff new bags into the top and pull bags out the bottom to use. The plastic trash bag holders are often designed specifically to hold grocery bags neatly and you will seldom fit enough trash into a grocery bag to overload it or make it too heavy to easily carry. The bags are originally designed to carry fairly heavy loads of groceries.
The plastic bags retailers use to corral our purchases are often a convenient size for trash collection during our outings. And it is a nice way to get a little extra use out them and even save a little money and avoid adding even more trash bags to the land fill. However, if you have a larger wastebasket in your RV or camper you will probably need kitchen size (13 gallon) trash bags. I prefer the drawstring style over the handle style. They are easier to close and can be reopened if you have a last minute addition or two.
Kitchen sized bags are often available with some kind of scent to offset bad odors in the trash. Whether or not it is worth any extra cost is up to you. You may be able to spray ordinary trash bags and containers with air freshner or Fabreze as an alternative. Scented bags might be helpful if you frequently have to deal with smelly trash but probably aren't necessary for ordinary waste like packaging.
Lawn or contractor trash bags come in larger sizes, usually about 30 gallons. They too can be purchased with and without drawstrings. The heavier plastic of contractor bags handles larger loads and is a good place to collect and store trash until you can dispose of it properly in a dumpster or your home trash can. I prefer the drawstring bags because they can be easily opened and closed to add trash throughout your outing. Lawn and contractor trash bags are usually black but can be found in yellow and orange and sometimes other colors. The yellow and orange ones can be used for emergency signals and are a little more attractive if you have to use them for emergency rain ponchos. It usually isn't practical to bring along large trash cans when RVing, camping, or boating but you can get folding trash bag holders that are easy to transport and hold your bags open for easy use, giving you a large trash container in camp. Years ago I made my own out of the framework of an old bag chair.
Large trash bags can be used as emergency rain ponchos. Just cut a slit in the middle of the bottom and one in each bottom corner. The middle slit goes over your head and the corner slits let you get your hands out if you need to get hold of something.
You might cut a large trash bag open to make a small tarp to cover equipment you leave outside during a surprise rain storm or even tie it overhead for emergency rain protection.
My first choice for trash bags for camping etc is to recycle the pesky plastic bags my groceries and supplies come in but I also find it useful to keep a supply of kitchen and contractor bags in my RV and even in my boat! I usually buy mine at my local Dollar Tree but buying larger packages at a home center or grocery store might cost less per bag. I find the smaller packages convenient for camping and boating and lower purchase price attractive. For home use I prefer buying my bags in bulk at a big box store like Costco or Walmart to save money and make sure I always have plenty on hand.
Bag it!