Camco 42987 Pop-Up Utility Container | Camp Trash Can

Camco's Pop-Up Utility Container is one of those camp accessories you don't think much about until you've got trash bags flapping around your site or a pile of wet gear with nowhere to go. It pops open to 24 inches tall with an 18-inch diameter, swallows a full 30-gallon kitchen-size trash bag, and then collapses down to just 2-1/2 inches flat when you're finished. No tools, no assembly. You pull it out of its bag, let it spring up, and it's ready. Part of Camco's Life is Better at the Campsite line, it's finished in a teal and white camper print that looks right at home next to the rig.

The body is heavy-duty PVC, so it stands up on its own once it's open and shrugs off the usual campsite abuse. A fully zippered lid closes the whole thing off across the top. That's the part that earns its keep. It keeps raccoons, gulls, and bugs out of your trash overnight, and it keeps the smell in where it belongs. Padded handles on the sides make it easy to carry to the dumpster or haul from the truck to the site, without thin bag straps digging into your hands along the way.

The size is well judged for camp use. At 18 inches across and 24 inches tall it's roomy enough to take a standard 30-gallon kitchen bag without the bag sagging to the bottom and getting hard to lift, yet it's narrow enough to sit beside the picnic table or just outside the RV door without becoming a trip hazard. Fill it over a long weekend, and when it's time to make a dump run you just lift the bag straight out by the drawstring and drop a fresh one in.

Camco includes a stake so you can anchor the container to the ground. Anybody who's chased an empty bin across a windy campground knows exactly why that matters. Drive the stake into soft ground and the container stays put even when it's empty and catching a breeze. On a hard surface like a paved pad, a driveway, or a dock, the stake won't bite, so you'll want to tuck the bin into a sheltered corner or tie it off to something solid instead.

It's called a utility container for a reason. Yes, it works as a pop-up trash can, and that's how most folks use it. But it's just as handy for hauling firewood to the fire ring, corralling kids' beach toys at the end of the day, stashing wet towels and swimsuits, sorting cans and bottles for recycling, or holding coiled hoses and shore cords in a storage locker. We've seen people put them to work for tailgating, picnics, lawn and garden cleanup, and general boat and dock organizing. Anywhere you need a bin that appears when you want it and vanishes when you don't, this fills the gap.

When the weekend's over, the takedown is just as quick as the setup. Pull the stake, unzip and empty the bin, wipe it down, and press it flat. It drops back to 2-1/2 inches and slides into the included storage bag, so it tucks under a bench seat, behind a locker door, or in the bed of the truck without eating up the space you'd rather give to real gear. PVC lasts a long time if you look after it. Store it in that bag, out of the sun between trips, rather than leaving it baking on a roof rack, and it'll give you season after season.

For RVers, campers, boaters, and tailgaters, it's a cheap piece of insurance against the mess that piles up on any trip. It won't replace a hard-sided galvanized can at a fixed home site, and it isn't meant to. But for anything mobile, where storage space is tight and you want the bin gone the second you break camp, this pop-up design is tough to beat.