Trash Cans Disappear from Iwo Jima Memorial

Tourists and visitors to the Marine Corps War Memorial will have to find somewhere else to dispose of their trash.

Trash cans have been removed from the Iwo Jima memorial and a number of other National Park Service properties in the area, including Netherlands Carillon, Roosevelt Island, LBJ Memorial Grove, and the Roaches Run waterfowl sanctuary.

The trash cans were removed following the Boston Marathon bombing — when there were incorrect rumors of the bombs being placed in trash cans — but the timing is coincidental. The removal was actually done as part of a larger “Trash Free Park” campaign, and timed to coincide with Earth Day.

“It is a solid waste management strategy of removing trash receptacles from all or sections of a park,” NPS’ George Washington Memorial Parkway branch wrote in a fact sheet last month. “Visitors are expected to carry out the refuse they generate and dispose of it properly at home or at another appropriate destination.”

National and local parks around the country have been getting rid of trash cans as a way to save money and discourage visitors from generating trash at parks to begin with. According to NPS, benefits of a “trash free park” include:

• Fostering a partnership between visitors and the park by encouraging people to take an active role in maintaining a trash-free park.
• Encouraging people to adopt a carry in, carry out Leave No Trace principle.
• Encouraging people to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
• Reducing odors in the picnic area.
• Increasing visitor safety by reducing the number of stinging insects, rodents, and other wildlife in the picnic area.
• Allowing staff time and funds spent on trash collection to be applied to other projects and improvements within the park. (These projects include facility and grounds maintenance, and resource preservation.)
• Reducing the amount of litter in the park.
• Establishing a commitment to park sustainability and responsible park use that will carry on to future generations.

When Fairfax County considered going trash free at county parks in 2010, the annual savings was estimated at $1.8 million.

Not everybody thinks it’s a good idea, though. Some say it’s confusing visitors and resulting in trash being left on the ground, including one recent visitor to the Iwo Jima memorial.

“I watched a war veteran (as indicated by his baseball hat) look for a garbage can to place his empty coffee cup… not finding one he placed it next to another discarded coffee cup,” local resident Lindsey Paola said in an email to ARLnow.com.