What is up with people leaving their spent CO2 cartridges on the side of the road? I see far too many for it to be people just forgetting to pick them up.

Is this peculiar to my area or do we just have really inconsiderate cyclists?

I bet if they left the bike behind they learn rather fast to pick up after ones self.

I see it all the time on the local trail system. A discarded tube, and a couple CO2 cartridges in the grass. They are usually skinny tubes.......................... too small to make rubber bands out of!

I haven't seen any co2 or tubes left anywhere. I've seen plenty of trash, broken bottles, etc...but nothing cycling specific, that I can remember.

All too common here when you get near ingress/egress points on the river trails. Spent CO2s, tubes, Clif wrappers, gel packs. It's just lazy.

I really thought this was going to be about climate change ...

Gee, what's it take to pocket an empty CO2 cartridge?

People are trashy! Sadly some cyclists don't know better. It is not hard to clean up your trash but some people just don't get it.

Probably aboard a goofy tri bike trying to stay aero urine dripping from their saddles

On the gravel routes I ride on I always see where people eat and then leave their fast food trash on the road. Creek beds seem to be the choice place for people’s garbage. The occasional discarded furniture on the side of the road etc etc.

The worse I've seen are discarded baby diapers. Dozens of them, like someone just did a drive-by dump or something, at the peak of a popular cycling climb.

Gee, what's it take to pocket an empty CO2 cartridge?

Wow, I was just starting to see a lot of the little green cartridges all over the place lately and this thread popped up. Really, how hard is it to stash it away in your bag or pocket?

The green, or sometimes blue, cartridges are from vape pens.

Not just CO2 cartridges, but also gel pack wrappers, banana peels, inner tubes, etc.

If you managed to bring it out there, you should be able to haul it back.

Banana peels at least will biodegrade...all the others there's no excuse for.

Easily enough CO2 in a cartridge to kill several polar bears...

I was on a "group ride" years ago when one of the riders had a flat, changed his sewup tire, and hefted the old one over the guard rail. I retrieved it (at the time I was patching and re-using them), but I still thought that it was annoying that he just tossed it, whether or not he bothered to reuse them.

But, yes, I see far too many of the little CO2 cartridges on the streets. They can be used for other things, but so many are probably cyclists.

Oh, yes, the occasional tube too.

I don't worry too much about banana peels, orange peels, or apple cores, but I never throw them out in urban areas, but sometimes in rural areas, off the road, never to be seen again.

Do they still run those TV commercials with the old Indian standing on the side of the road with a frown and litter being thrown at his feet?


I suppose it now would be considered racist.

If that happens I'm getting polar bear fur panniers.

Littering is wrong but, my wife and I disagree on the banana peels. I say a toss of a peel in the grass and away from the path is good for the environemnt where she thinks it is littering.

Does she think there's a difference between an apple tree, or a person, dropping an apple to the ground..?
Where does she think pure vegetation should be discarded?

I've seen the canisters. It's not a big problem, but it is littering, and there's no excuse for it. They're not all discarded by cyclists though - some of them are from teenagers taking laughing gas.

If you see a banana peel it is trash. The person that left it there is a ******.

My most frequent rides are trails surrounding the St Louis area. I'm happy to report that I just don't see very much of such littering. When I do, I pick it up and pack it out. My theory is that trash attracts trash. Not very many people feel OK about throwing down the first wrapper but, if the area is already littered, many fewer people feel bad about adding to the mess.

+1

My cousin Mario has had some bad luck with banana peels left on the paths.

Perhaps they are not from cyclists but rather from people with CO2 "powered" firearms.