Bystander stunned after witnessing disgusting scene at local beach: 'It makes no sense'

A hiker in Hawaiʻi shared a disappointing set of photos after coming across a sizable pile of trash near a beach in Kauai.

They posted the scene in the r/DeTrashed subreddit and explained where they'd found the tiny garbage mountain.

"Illustrates the scale of people's neglect of our beautiful places." — Photo Credit: Reddit

"This was one of those annoying piles where one well-meaning beachgoer picks up a small amount of trash but then only carries it as far as the trail," the OP said.

"Soon others do the same and eventually people are disposing of coffee cups and fast food packaging. It makes no sense. The sooner these are picked up the better as at some point they get too big and nasty for a casual picker."

In the pictures, you can see a pile of trash that has accumulated along the trail, including a plastic net float, multiple shoes, rope, and assorted random bits of pipe. There are also a number of disposable cups and what appears to be a large chunk of styrofoam.

Littering on public hiking trails in national parks and other scenic tourist spots is a common occurrence at this point; hikers have shown off piles of bottles, foil confetti, and even human excrement on the ground at hiking trails.

Watch now: What's the point of leaf blowing anyway?

To help reduce this kind of litter and clutter on trails in our parks and wild spaces, try to follow Leave No Trace's seven principles to reduce your negative impact on the natural beauty of our world.

For their part, commenters on this post were quick to champion this person for cleaning up the mess they found.

"It's fortunate you were equipped to collect everyone's rubbish," one commenter said. "Your pics and story of the stuff illustrates the scale of people's neglect of our beautiful places."