Bear spray is exploding in the trash near Yellowstone National Park
Key takeaways
- Every day, workers at a garbage transfer station near Yellowstone National Park clock in with a troubling question on their minds.
- Garbage from Yellowstone gateway communities, such as Gardiner and Cooke City, is collected throughout Park County in Montana before it ends up at the transfer station.
- But at the end of a trip to Yellowstone, visitors who bought bear spray as a precaution find themselves with a problem.
Every day, workers at a garbage transfer station near Yellowstone National Park clock in with a troubling question on their minds. Will today be the day we inhale a freshly exploded can of bear spray?
Garbage from Yellowstone gateway communities, such as Gardiner and Cooke City, is collected throughout Park County in Montana before it ends up at the transfer station. Here, in this rugged and rural area, around 18,000 locals and millions of tourists are encouraged to carry bear spray — cans of high-powered, long-distance pepper spray meant to deter a charging bear — when they’re hiking, biking or exploring the woods. Bear spray costs roughly $40 a can, and it works by temporarily blinding bears and causing them to choke and cough, stopping a charge before it can result in injury or death.
But at the end of a trip to Yellowstone, visitors who bought bear spray as a precaution find themselves with a problem. Bear spray, a flammable aerosol, isn’t allowed on airplanes. And for travelers who drove, the spray likely isn’t necessary back home. Many people don’t quite know what to do with it: So, they throw it away.