Fourth of July in Lake Tahoe has become notorious for tourist chaos that results in epic trash piles. But this year, the holiday’s bad reputation might be changing things for the better: A record numbers of volunteers showed up for July 5 cleanups, and found much less garbage to collect.
Nearly 800 volunteers showed up for the League to Save Lake Tahoe’s annual post-holiday litter pickups, which took place at “more than half a dozen beaches around the Lake,” according to a Friday news release from the organization. They collected 1,866 pounds of trash, which sounds like a lot until you remember there was so much garbage left behind last year, a League official described one area as looking like “a landfill.” The gruesome 2023 trash total was 8,559 pounds — more than four times this year’s number.
The League has been organizing cleanups in the Tahoe area for more than a decade.