Got back from Virginia today. On the way back, I stopped at Monocacy National Battlefield. It's relatively new--it opened in 1991. It's quite nice; excellent exhibits, and restored to near-1864 condition, including working cornfields.
They're most notable, however, for their trash cans: They have none. I wanted to dispose of some water bottles, and searched in vain. I took them with me into the visitor's center.
"Can I throw these away somewhere?"
"We ask that you not."
"What?"
"We're a 'Trash Free Zone.' If you create trash, you have to take it with you out of the park."
(pause)
"Do you seriously expect that to work?"
They did, apparently. She did relent, and offered to take the bottles off my hands privately.
I will say that I didn't see mountains of garbage laying around, but (a) the policy was quite new, and (b) it was still the off-season. We'll see how this goes in July.
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