14 Ways To Use A Trash Compactor Bag While Hiking And Backpacking

This is my ode to the white trash compactor bag, an essential item for any venture out into the great outdoors! Ever since I found out how useful a white lightweight plastic bag can be on the trail, I have been singing its praises. I even mention it in my Different Kind of Hiker Gift Guide. Have you discovered the versatility and lightweight benefits of carrying a trash compactor bag on your hikes? Did you know there are at least 14 different ways to use a trash compactor bag while hiking and backpacking?

Here are just a few of the ways I can put one trash compactor bag to work (but often I have two!). They are thicker than regular garbage bags making them more durable and the white allow you to see better when using them inside your pack. They weigh 2.1 ounces (61 grams) each and can replace many other heavier gear items sold on the market today.

The trash compactor bag can be used intact or altered to fit your needs and over time. I typically keep it neatly folded with a manila folder rubber band (another great item to have several of in your pack), ready for a call to duty at a moment’s notice.

Uses For An Intact Trash Compactor Bag While Hiking And Backpacking

The life of a trash compactor bag can start out intact from the box, as a bag itself. Most of the 14 ways I use a trash compactor bag while hiking and backpacking are when it is still as bag.

Use #1: A Backpack Liner

The white trash compactor bag makes the ideal liner for inside your backpack. The color makes it easier to see the items inside versus the dark grey or black insides of most packs. Pack liners that go on the outside only serve one purpose and can slip off, snag on branches or leave some portion of your pack exposed and once it is wet, you won’t have anything protecting the contents of your pack like your sleeping bag or warm clothes.

I will line my pack with the compactor bag, add in the things I want to make sure I keep dry and then twist the top and tuck it in. Anything else that I don’t have to worry about like my food (that is already in a waterproof, odor proof sack) sits on top. I’d rather have a wet backpack and know that the contents of my pack are guaranteed dry.

Use #2: A Small Ground Cloth

Another compactor bag kept in your pack can be pulled out when you would like to sit down in less than ideal conditions. I carry a small blue foam sit pad but when the foliage around me is wet or when hiking on snow, it is nice to have the bag underneath as a waterproof barrier.

Use #3: Water Carrying

The bag can be used to carry large amounts of water, say when you need to put out a campfire.

Use #4: Glissading Down A Snowy or Sandy Slope

Who doesn’t love to glissade down a nice snowfield? How about being able to do it without getting your shorts wet or gritty?

Use #5: Backpack Storage While At Camp

At night when I have settled down into camp, my pack liner becomes a way to keep my backpack dry and closed up from critters when I can’t store it in my tent (when I actually have 2 people in my 2 person tent). I can, also, add in my hiking clothes and shoes and not worry if the rain comes in the middle of the night.

Use #6: A Sign

In conjunction with permanent marker (or prewritten at home), the bag can provide a way to signal for help or flag a hitch. The great part is, it can still be used for all the other purposes even with writing on it!

Use #7: A Splint

As a large piece of material, the trash compactor bag can be used similar to a triangle bandage or tourniquet during an injury while out on a hike or backpacking trip.

Use #8: A Vestibule Mat

If you would like something on the ground outside your tent to keep your shoes on or to help transition from ground to tent without getting as much debris into your tent, the compactor bag comes to the rescue.

An Altered Trash Compactor Bag

One of the reasons for having 14 ways to use a trash compactor bag for hiking and backpacking is that I am always one to put any plastic I do use to as much purpose as possible before letting it go to a landfill. I’ve been working on the same box of bags for years now! After months or years of use, the plastic will begin to wear and become less waterproof trustworthy than I would like for a pack liner.

I usually have a rotation that allows me to re-purpose older ones to another use on the trail. I will use it for the groundcloth, for example, where its main goal is to keep my tent clean. Here are some of the other lives my trash compactor bags have lived.

Use #9: A Hiking and Backpacking Rain Skirt

Next to the pack liner, this is my favorite way to use the trash compactor bag. I cut the bottom and one side open to make a large rectangle that can be tied at the waist to provide rain protection from the waist down. It is one of the reasons I hardly ever carry the weight of rain pants on backpacking trips, even if I know it will rain. Easy on, easy off.

The plastic does not absorb water at the bottom like pants do and it will dry with a flick of the wrist at the end of the day. I even use permanent markers to decorate it with designs for fun.

Use #10: A Sunshade

The trash compactor bag can offer a break from the sun during a rest stop when shade is sparse. Attaching to your hiking poles or a large boulder and tucking underneath brings the air down a few degrees and takes direct rays off.

Use #11: Bug Protection

I can not tell you the amount of times I have wrapped my rain skirt around my legs when sitting down for a rest stop to keep the swarming bugs at bay. Yes, it may mean a little extra warmth, but the relief of not having my knees and ankles eating alive is totally worth it. It can also keep you socks clean if you want to take your shoes off and air out the toes.

Use #12: A Larger Ground Cloth

I have taken two of the opened bags and taped them together to make an even larger ground cloth that I can trim to fit the footprint of my tent. I have even cut open a bag on a trip when I forgot my normal ground cloth and the surface space was enough to keep most of where I lie in my tent from causing too much friction with the ground.

Or that one time I was supposed to be sleeping in my hammock but it split open on my the first night of our week long trip so I had to cowboy camp it on my sleep pad. Having a trash compactor bag meant the desert didn’t give it any deathly holes!

Use #13: Emergency Poncho

Need an emergency poncho? Cut a hole in the bottom and two on the sides for your arms and you’ll be drier than without! Here my lovely husband demonstrates with a regular kitchen bag that one time he forgot his rain coat on a trip to the Washington Coast…

Use #14: Emergency shelter

In an emergency, wrapping yourself in the plastic of the compactor bag provides a certain level of insulation if you don’t have a bivy or tent. If you have some skills with using found wood to build a frame, the bag can be used to keep out water.

These are just a few of the possibilities, there are many more ways that a basic, sturdy trash bag can be used on the trail. They are easy to find at most grocery stores or stores that carry kitchen garbage bags like Target. I suggest if you do get a box just for hiking (because like me you don’t have a trash compactor), share with your hiking friends!

Have you used one of these 14 ways to use a trash compactor bag while hiking and backpacking? Have I missed one of your favorite ways to put this powerhorse to work?