Hiker shares photos of troubling scene along beloved trails: 'It hurts seeing this'

A New York parkgoer urged their neighbors to help keep their community clean after discovering heaps of trash on park trails.

The parkgoer shared a series of photos on the r/Harriman Reddit forum. The online community describes Harriman State Park as "the second largest park in New York, 30 miles north of NYC."

The photos show piles of trash in various areas near Pine Meadow Lake. The mess prompted the Redditor to bring several garbage bags from home and remove the litter from the trails.

"It was a lot worse than I expected." — Photo Credit: Reddit

"I hauled out 7 bags today, it was a lot worse than I expected," the original poster wrote. The parkgoer asked fellow visitors to help remove garbage, too, in an effort to keep the park clean.

The United States is responsible for more than 12% of the planet's trash, per Environment America. Data showed that Americans threw out upward of 292 million tons of municipal solid waste in 2018, and much of that waste was plastic.

Plastic can take more than one thousand years to decompose, according to the University of Colorado. Instead, it breaks down into smaller pieces called microplastics, which pose a threat to animals when ingested.

Protecting nature is part of the climate solution. Human activities such as burning fossil fuels to create single-use plastic items release heat-trapping pollution into the atmosphere. The changing climate has led to a decline in biodiversity and made extreme weather events more frequent and intense.

Using less plastic can help reduce the amount of waste that enters the environment. Consumers can start by ditching single-use plastic food containers and grocery bags and using reusable options instead.

Dozens of commenters on the Reddit post about Harriman State Park were appalled by the amount of trash left behind by visitors. "It hurts seeing this in my home park," one commenter wrote.

Other commenters commended the OP for bringing awareness to the issue. "Some people suck," another Redditor said. "You rule. Thank you for doing this."