Clean up the Commonwealth with Fallout 4's Trash Collection mod

Fallout 4's post-apocalyptic Boston is filled with endearing tourist hotspots—not least the Salem Museum of Witchcraft, the USS Constitution and the Cheers-like Prost Bar. But what about all that rubbish that lines the streets? 250 years of post-civilised society living has left the Commonwealth in a bit of a mess, which is where GenghisKhanX's Trash Collection mod comes into play.

While garbage removal mods for Fallout 4 already exist, GenghisKhanX's requires you physically approach and engage with each pile of trash yourself, which is turn lets you harvest whichever resources and/or valuable scrap each bundle contains. This, reckons the creator, results in a sense of well being.

"You can download mods that remove those trash piles for you, or let you scrap them in the workshop," GenghisKhanX tells me. "But I wanted a mod that let you remove them all yourself, and rewarded you for doing it. Mostly, it was mostly about making the world look nicer."

GenghisKhanX compares modding games to modelling clay, "only the clay models back." He suggests the reason he chooses to mod games at all—a hobby he's pursued for 20 years—is because he's never satisfied with the way things are in their base state. I in turn ask if he plans to eradicate Fallout 4's Commonwealth of every single one of its trash piles.

"There are over 30,000 trash piles affected by this mod," he says, "so I'm going to go with no. But never underestimate the power of a gamer with a goal."

So there you have it folks, the garbage gauntlet has been laid down. Hit me up if anyone has the guts/interminable perseverance to take up the challenge.

GenghisKhanX's Trash Collection mod can be downloaded via its Nexus mods page.