Leave No Trace

Theresa May -AZBurner Newbie Orientation - '04 - Leave No Trace

All participants are required to remove their own trash and garbage. Burning Man is the single largest group user of the Black Rock Desert. Our stewardship efforts are not optional. Part of the beauty of the Playa is its emptiness. Except for tire tracks and footprints, our policy is to leave the desert as the profoundly barren and empty corner of the world that it is. All Black Rock City citizens are expected to participate in our clean-up effort. The Burning Man event has always asked participants to Pack-it-In/Pack-it-out. This is not a convenience society. There is no daily garbage pick up, and there never, ever will be. It's about radical self-expression and radical self-reliance. We are a society of activists -- we leave no trace. No trash receptacles or bins will be provided. Burning Man will provide only portable toilets which will be emptied on a regular basis.

Never let it hit the ground....Clean as you go.
Sort and Separate Garbage.
REduce/REuse/REcycle

HOW TO REDUCE TRASH
Trash is not something most of us think about. We live in a society where men come in the wee hours of the morning and take it all away. Not so on the playa.

LNT starts when buying supplies and packing at home.
Whatever your food and bevs are packaged in WILL come home with you. Is it necessary to bring bottled beer if you have to bring EVERY bottle home with you?
Reduce packaging while packing. Outer board packaging, cellophane, etc. Buy bulk instead of individual packages. Examples: Cereal/Couscous/Mixed Nuts/Milk Crate
Think multi-functional. Reusing ziplock bags, 2.5 gal water containers Examples: Couscous/Water Container/Altoid tin To summarize:
Leave unnecessary packaging at home. " Choose crushable cans over plastic and glass, and crushable plastic over glass.
Aluminum cans can be brought to Recycle Camp. Take your other cans home with you to recycle.
Use a pail with tight-fitting lid for wet garbage. Wet stinks, dry doesn't. If you choose to dry out the garbage, make sure it's secure from wind.
Separate burnables from recyclable and wet materials.
Avoid disposable utensils and paper products. Too much trash is a bigger problem than too much gray water.
Onsite, prepare ONLY what you and friends will eat. " Avoid handing out paper announcements.
Do NOT burn carpets -- the fumes are toxic.
Do some food prep at home when possible (no round-trip tickets to Black Rock City for your chicken bones).
Store cigarette butts in a candy tin.
Do NOT throw bottles into fires, and don't leave them lying around just because you're done and can't find a trash bag. Carry it away with you, or find an appropriate receptacle.

Example: Food pail with lid/Cheese Cloth/Drying Rack

Portapotty 101
Absolutely do not throw ANY trash of any kind into the porta-potties. This includes "organic" materials and others that "decompose" over time in a large public septic system. Putting anything but human waste and TP (1-ply) into the potties clogs the pumping mechanisms and makes it all but impossible for our waste vendor to maintain potties during the event. We're already on probation with the Truckee/Tahoe Sanitation District over trash in our waste -- which very much threatens the survival of the event.

"If it wasn't in your body, don't put it in the pottie!"

This includes TAMPONS. One idea is to carry a ziplock within a ziplock. The inner one is for used supplies, the outer one holds that and fresh supplies (including tampons, pads, baby wipes, extra TP, ibuprophen, etc). Put the ziplock in your garbage when you get back to camp.

WHERE TO TAKE TRASH

Please do not dump trash on the side of the road! Major bad karma points await you, and the locals do not take kindly to people littering in their backyard.... Don't leave it in the dumpster at the Circle K either.

2 options are Fernley Sanitation in Fernley, or Lockwood Landfill in Reno.

See the website for details.

MOOP/Garbage Hitlist:

pistachio shells
beer bottle caps
water bottle lids
mylar streamers
cigarette paraphernalia - butts, paper, pack, foil & plastic wrapper feathers
boa, peacock, colorful playa chicken tooth picks beads
plastic, glass & metal hair ties - all sizes nails (jillions) screws (too many) cable ties twist ties tent stakes
metal & plastic buried in the ground (TOO many) rebar (buried in the ground) broken glass
millions of tiny pieces little plastic toys & trinkets debris from fireworks
tubing, bottle rocket sticks, sparkers astro turf
shards & strings carpet
yarn & strings balloons

Definitions:

MOOP
Matter Out Of Place - Anything can be MOOP, it doesn't have to be garbage. It is just something, even a valuable something, that shouldn't be there. Something that needs to be picked up and moved to it's proper place.

LNT Leave No Trace
Leave not trace of you presence on the land. Of course, this is an ideal, yet if you haven't seen it you have no IDEA how close to the ideal we get on the playa. Pack-It-In/Pack-It-Out

Wayback Funk
Are you familiar with the Wayback Funk? It's when you're driving home from the playa with a stinking bag of trash in your car, and you're reeking all the way back to civilization. Some people cannot abide the Wayback Funk. Last night they may have been wild primal beings, fearless and carefree and jumping over fires, but this morning they are deeply offended by the Funk. The odor of their own rotting history consumes them, enrages them, makes them mad. So, roll down your windows and DEAL WITH IT. It's YOURS, not the Circle K's or the residents of Gerlach's or the BLM's. Do what you can to reduce it, but deal with it you must.

List of items to help with LNT/Trash clean-up

Heavy Duty Trash Bags (tall kitchen work better than the monster big ones)

Work Gloves

5 gallon bucket with locking lid

Mesh bag(s) " Smaller, personal trash bags to carry when wondering the playa

Altoid tin for cigarette butts

Rebar puller

Clamps to hold trash bags in place during use

Small Shovel