I have hunted all over the Peace and have found the amount of garbage not to be that bad at all.
However, within a half hour of say Peace River, or Dawson Creek, or Grande Prairie or Grande Cache or Hay River or High Prarire or High Level, it's usually the same, a bit more garbage. In the back country of all this I have rarely found much.
I have noticed that guys who are packing it in and out seemed to leave less mess than the guys who were setting up a Camp or trailer camp. I have on occasion found empty propane cannisters, clothes, and my biggest piss off is plastic bags.
I once meant a 4 or 5 guys from BC in by the Kakwa. I had a 6 pack of beer and the boys were damn thirsty. After talking for a few minutes, I asked if anyone would like a beer. Well they almost cried.
We drank the ice cold beer (it was hiding in the river

)
and as soon as we were done chatting and having a sociable, one of the guys got up, opened his bag, pulled out a plastic bag and went and collected all our beer cans from us and put them in his pack.
I knew I had fallen in with a good bunch for an afternoon break.
As for Whitecourt, yeah there's garbage around there, but there are people from all over the province there as well. I actually found more garbage back around Fox Creek. (scrapped cars and such and oil barrels)
a few asshats make it look bad for all, ...
Whitecourt is nice enough in my oppinion. Driving through in the early AM in the winter when the fog is on the river and the smoke is barreling and the trees loaded with snow, it's like a wonderland. I've had a good many coffees at Tim's in whitecourt chatting about the hunting.