ACT garbage disposal
We follow the 7 leave no trace principles on the Arctic Circle Trail. One of the most important is:
This includes:
- all plastic and other garbage
- all empty gas canisters
- all toilet paper (unless disposed of in one of the toilets) and wet-wipes
If you can’t bear the weight of carrying your rubbish all the way to the end of the hike, then the Arctic Circle Trail is not the right adventure for you.
Due to the remoteness of the ACT, we can only service the huts once/year during the winter.
For this reason, we must rely on each hiker to help us keep the trail and the huts clean.
Please take responsibility for your own actions and do the right thing at all times. Don’t “cheat” and add to the problem just because you’ve seen that someone else has done the wrong thing.
The blue bins
Given all this, it might seem strange that in 2022 there were blue bins placed at most of the huts. This is an experiment to see what impact bins could have on trail hygiene.
The result: it seems many hikers opted to dump their trash rather than pack it out with them. This meant that the bins were all full, long before the hiking season was over.
We will continue with this experiment in 2023, but you MUST carry all of your own garbage out with you. We have added text on the lid of the bin to remind you of this.
The blue bins are ONLY to be used for trash you’ve picked up along the trail or around the huts.