Green Your Burn, Leave No Trace: Top 10 Tips for Burning Man 2009
“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you
give of yourself that you truly give.” – Kahlil Gibran
Gifting in a LNT Community: Instead of bringing cheap trinkets for
gifts that become MOOP, consider the gift of one’s self. Look around
and pitch in to help keep things clean: offer a tool, an extra hand, a
gesture of thanks. Try giving a smile, a helping hand or a joke. Help
a neighbor set up camp. You are the best gift.
Speaking of gifts, the Earth Guardians at Burning Man collect and record LNT tips for playa living. Visit their website at: http://www.earthguardians.net And for some eco-friendly burner resources, check out http://www.burningman.com/environment/
Here’s the Earth Guardians Top Ten Leave No Trace and Green Your Burn reminders.
1) BE A LNT GOOD NEIGHBOR, LEND A HAND, SHARE CLEAN ENERGY, CARRY A
MOOP BAG
2) PREPARE A LEAVE NO TRACE & A GREEN PLAN
3) RESPECT, RETHINK, REDUCE, REUSE, PRECYCLE, RECYLE AND RESTORE!
4) IF IT DOESN’T COME OUT OF YOUR BODY IT DOESN’T GO INTO THE POTTY.
5) CONSERVE ENERGY & USE ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES (SOLAR, WIND,
BIODIESEL)
6) NEVER LET IT HIT THE GROUND (INCLUDING GREY WATER & CIGARETTE
BUTTS), CLEAN AS YOU GO! & SECURE ITEMS FROM THE WIND
7) INITIATE A NEIGHBORHOOD MOOP SWEEP! GRID YOUR AREA BEFORE YOU LEAVE
8) GIVE YOURSELF, NOT GIFTS THAT ARE LIKELY TO BECOME MOOP
9) PREPARE FOR THE HUNGRY WIND – SECURE YOUR LOAD, ESPECIALLY YOUR TRASH
10) VOLUNTEER FOR CLEAN UP WITH DPW & PARTICIPATE IN ECO-RESTORATION
PROJECTS YEAR ROUND!
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THE PRINCIPLES OF LEAVE NO TRACE
It takes thousands of participants to create a disappearing city. What
Can You Do? The Earth Guardians collect good ideas from participants,
mix in Leave No Trace principles, and pass them along. Not only will
you reduce the Matter Out Of Place (“MOOP”), you’ll make your visit to
Black Rock City (BRC) happier.
Leave No Trace Principles – We have embraced these seven LNT
principles and have made Burning Man the largest LNT event in the
world. The Leave No Trace Organization has more information on their
website: http://www.lnt.org .
1.) Plan Ahead and Prepare, 2.) Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces,
3). Dispose of Waste Properly, 4.) Minimize Campfire Impacts, 5.) Be
Considerate of Other Visitors, 6.) Leave What You Find, 7.) Respect
Wildlife
THE GREEN PRINCIPLES
We have developed some additional Green Principles to help you think
green. Think about the effect your decisions have on the environment
and choose the least harmful option.
1.) Rethink What We Need to Thrive and Reduce What We Purchase &
Bring, 2.) Conserve Energy & Reduce the Use of Fossil Fuels, 3.) Reuse
Materials from Year to Year, 4.) Recycle Everything Else with a Goal
of Zero Waste, 5.) Coordinate With Our Neighbors to Share Resources,
6.) Respect the Environment
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LNT Principle 1 – Plan Ahead and Prepare
Pick a Leave No Trace team for your camp and develop LNT & Green
plans. These folks will help set up the camp so that it doesn’t blow
away, help to plan your camp’s cleanup and break-down ahead of time,
reduce waste (especially stinky trash), design gray water disposal,
and identify what NOT to burn. If you plan ahead and prepare to LNT,
you’ll have less to haul up to the playa, and have less to clean-up at
the end of the week
Minimize kitchen waste and clean-up by planning simple, low-
dishwashing meals, repackaging and preparing food in advance. Bring
less food than you think you’ll need. Repackage and prepare food in
advance. Bring water in big reusable plastic or stainless steel
containers and bring reusable cups, utensils, bowls or plates, not
flimsy, blowable disposables. Ask visitors to your camp to BYOM (bring
your own mug) and take your own mug to the Center Camp Café and
fashionable bars. A carabiner or shower hook easily secures it for
transport around the City.
Separate and sort trash in your kitchen, including compost and
recycling. Collect food waste in a mesh bag. The food will dry up,
becoming light and nearly odorless. Burn paper and wood in a
community burn platform. Here’s food wisdom from a decade on the playa:
Plan your camp to minimize clean-up efforts. Don’t wait until the
end of the week to pick stuff up. Clean as you go. This will help you
from getting overwhelmed by the mess and help keep trash from blowing
out of reach. Plan to seal the small amount of trash you have left in
big plastic bags, or in five-gallon buckets with lids, to take home,
compost or, if you must, drop off some trash in local landfills.
You can also find out more about the Reno-Sparks Drive through
Recycling Project at designated Save Mart locations.
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GREEN PRINCIPLE 1 –RETHINK/REDUCE WHAT WE PURCHASE & BRING
How are you going to be sustainable at/to/from BRC in 2009? Things to
take into consideration include the type and the materials being used,
waste produced and energy consumed.
Use Greener Materials. Consider using materials that can be reused or
repurposed at home or at next year’s event. Use nontoxic,
biodegradable, renewable and salvageable materials. Select
construction materials and decorations for your camp that are
recyclable or reusable. You’ll reduce costs and disposal headaches at
the end of the week and for next year.
Reduce energy use, consider renewable sources and off-set carbon
emissions. Incorporate energy- efficient lighting. Use human, solar,
wind, or biodiesel energy sources. Carpool and/or offset carbon
emissions associated with transportation and energy (generators) and
coordinate with neighboring camps to share transportation and energy
generation.
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LNT PRINCIPLE 2 -TRAVEL AND CAMP ON DURABLE SURFACES
Winter rains help erase our tracks on the playa, but dust from driving
affects people in BRC. Keep auto speeds under 5 mph in BRC. Do not
even think about taking a dip in the Hot Springs during the event.
These delicate ecosystems cannot handle the volume of visitors that
use during the event would create and visiting them is a violation of
our permit. Don’t do it!
Design your Camp Structures and Shelters to withstand the extreme
conditions on the playa and be reusable. Stake your tents and
structures so they will stay secure in the heavy wind, rain, and dust
storms that are sudden and usual on the playa. Recycle Your Structure:
If you reuse and repurpose the basic framework for your camp’s
structure, you can still reconfigure it to give your camp a new look
and feel each year and save money!
Do not dig holes in the playa. Only dig small postholes used for
structural support which are properly tamped and filled. Larger holes
easily erode even when carefully backfilled. They leave a visible mark
and create a serious safety hazard.
Keep your vehicle from dripping oil or other fluids on to the playa.
BLM did a study on this and requests that we use pans or other
barriers under our cars, especially older cars, to prevent drips.
Always use a potty for body waste – not the playa. Having a pee
jug near your bed will cut down on trips to the potties.
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GREEN PRINCIPLE 2 –CONSERVE ENERGY & REDUCE THE USE OF FOSSIL FUELS
Conserve energy. Turn off unused lights and incorporate energy-
efficient lighting such as energy efficient light bulbs, LED’s or EL
wire. Use rechargeable batteries. There are also many handy lights
that come with their own solar cells.
Use renewable energy sources (human, solar, wind, biodiesel). The
Alternative Energy Zone (www.aez.org ) has been living generator free
for many playa years! If you must use a generator, consider biodiesel
fuels instead of gasoline. Visit Solar Koan to check out their solar-
based recharging station!
Get your car’s maintenance done on a regular basis. A well maintained
car produces lower emissions and will make it all the way to BRC.
Consider purchasing carbon off-sets from http://www.Coolingman.org to offset
your transportation and energy (generators) emissions. Their web
site contains a handy spreadsheet to calculate your carbon emissions.
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LNT PRINCIPLE 3 -DISPOSE OF WASTE PROPERLY
If it doesn’t come out of your body it doesn’t go into the Potty. Only
single-ply toilet paper and human waste in the potties. Anything else
will clog up the toilet vendor two-inch hose resulting in unserviced
potties, and that means trouble.
How will you dispose of your grey water from your kitchen and shower?
We can not dump grey water directly on the playa. Camps can collect
grey water and contract pre-event with United Site Services for
disposal or take it to one of the RV dump stations along Interstate 80
after the event. You could use a variety of techniques to evaporate
and reduce grey water, or if you’re in a small camp, with minimal dish
and body-washing water, you might choose to treat your grey water:
pour it through a filter (like a paint sieve), disinfect it with
bleach, then, since it is treated, sprinkle it on your street to keep
down dust. Learn more at:
and
There are no trash cans in Black Rock city – so you must take any
trash you generate home with you and beware of the Hungry Wind. Bring
tethers, anchors, containers, and covers, to keep light stuff from
blowing away. Don’t let your trash fly off your vehicle, and do not
dump it on the side of the road or at a rest stop! Use an approved
dumping facility or take it home with you. Starting home, take a rest
stop early; at the entrance gate, at a wide pullout, or maybe in
Empire (if not too congested). Check your load. It is most likely to
fail early in the trip.
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GREEN PRINCIPLE 3 –REUSE WHAT WE CAN FROM YEAR TO YEAR
Design your camp structures for reuse, easy deconstruction, storage
and salvage. Use screws instead of nails, reclaimed wood, and metal
when possible. If someone in your camp volunteers to store the
structure and associated shade-cloth, you can spend more time and
energy decorating a structure that will last for years.
Consider using materials that are reclaimed and can be reused or
repurposed at home or at next year’s event. You’ll save money and have
less disposal headaches. You’ll also save money when preparing for
next year.
Trashion is high fashion! Instead of going shopping, go to your
closet or look to save items from going to the landfill for some
styling playa fashions. Nowadays, burners are meeting for swaps, DIY
workshops, and trashion shows. Check your local Regional list for
announcements. And check out some of the wonderful costume boutiques
on the playa and come to the Earth Guardian fashion show on Wednesday
afternoon.
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LNT PRINCIPLE 4 – MINIMIZE CAMPFIRE IMPACTS – HOW DO WE BURN
RESPONSIBLY AND CLEAN?
Don’t Burn on the Unprotected Playa. While resilient, the playa
surface is vulnerable to scarring from careless burning. Burning
directly on the alkaline playa BAKES the surface into a dark, hard
brick-like material. Use community burn barrels or a burn platform.
Reduce and Reuse: Fires are for celebration and spiritual connection,
not places to dump garbage. Low temperature burning produces toxic
emissions, so minimize what you burn. Recycle or reuse materials. Take
reusable wood to a Burners with Borders recycle station! On Sunday,
Monday, and Tuesday, the lumber recycling stations will be located at
stations along the Esplanade.
Don’t Overload the Burn Platforms – Recycle Your Wood! Bring your
extra wood and other camp building materials to re-use/salvage centers
or to a Burners Wiithout Borders lumber recycling station,. If you do
burn, be sure the wood you place in the burn platform is well
contained. When the platforms are overloaded, burning wood can hit the
playa and cause a burn scar. Have tools on hand to break down and cut
up larger pieces.
Burn Clean: Be careful to burn only clean (no paint) wood or paper!
Don’t burn anything that is toxic! Carpets, cushioned furniture, PVC
and other plastics release dioxins, formaldehyde, and other nasty
stuff. The community burn platforms are low to the ground, and produce
smoke that is easily inhaled. The low temperature, incomplete
combustion emits toxic gases and particulates. Do not put any trash
into your burn barrels! For more information on the hazards associated
with toxic fumes:
Participate – Join the Toxic Avengers! If you want to volunteer to
help educate our citizens about wood recycling and responsible ways to
burn, email toxicavengers@burningman.com, and please come by the Earth
Guardians Pavilion at Esplanade, near Center Camp during the event and
sign up for our Sunday patrols. We’ll be having a meeting on Friday at
11:30 to train new volunteers.
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GREEN PRINCIPLE 4 –RECYCLE EVERYTHING ELSE –CREATE ZERO WASTE
Plan to Recycle– Buy only aluminum cans and plan to dispose of the
cans at Recycle Camp. There are many good beers in cans! Check out
to find some. The more cans you can leave with Recycle camp, the less
you have to take home! Be sure to separate any other recyclables
(glass and plastic) at recycle centers.
Composting food waste not only reduces garbage but repurposes the
waste to fertilizer. Be sure to use a container with a tight lid for
transporting the compost home.
Salvage, Reuse, and/or Recycling everything, including camp
construction and demolition waste. Bring your extra wood and other
camp building materials to re-use/salvage centers or Burners without
Borders collection centers for used, reusable, building materials at
the end of the event at wood collection sites on the playa, Sunday
till Tuesday at noon.
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LEAVE NO TRACE PRINCIPLE 5 – BE CONSIDERATE OF OTHER VISITORS
Promote LNT neighborhoods. Initiate a MOOP sweep with your neighbors
to keep your part of the city clean and green. If you get overwhelmed,
ask for help. The LNT principle, “Be considerate of Other Visitors,”
in our city, includes helping neighbors to leave no trace. Carry a
MOOP bag and water as you walk around your part of the city.
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GREEN PRINCIPLE 5 –COORDINATE WITH OUR NEIGHBORS TO SHARE RESOURCES
Coordinate with other participants to carpool, reduce your
transportation costs and impacts and make new friends even before you
get to the playa. Note that many Regionals also coordinate to ship
supplies to the playa. Check with your local regional contact and test
out the BM rideshare web page:
http://rideshare.burningman.com
Partner with other camps to share resources. Many camps now
collaborate on shared energy sources and grey water management. If
you’re in a Village, you work with your village organizers to place
camps so that sharing generators (or even better, renewable power
sources) can happen.
Discuss the possibility of sharing water and water treatment needs
with others in your camp and village. Many theme camps within
villages take advantage of shared resources to use larger scale
processes to store their drinking and shower water and treat their
grey water. Do not bring small plastic bottles of water to the playa.
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LEAVE NO TRACE PRINCIPLE 6 – LEAVE WHAT YOU FIND
On first reaching the playa, we encounter one of the profoundly barren
and empty corners of the world. That is exactly what we want to leave.
A buried stake doesn’t disappear.
Instead, its hazard is magnified.
Even when pounded below the surface, a stake will slowly, inevitably,
emerge from the playa. Vise-grips will almost always remove a stuck
stake. First, clamp on the vise-grips and rotate the stake back and
forth, to break the playa’s grip. Then continue rotating and also pull
upwards. Still stuck? Ask a neighbor for help. Next year, remember
that smooth stakes pull out much easier than ridged rebar.
Clean As You Go and Grid Your Camp at the End! Don’t wait until the
end of the week to pick stuff up, NEVER LET IT HIT THE GROUND and
CLEAN AS YOU GO. This will help you from getting overwhelmed by the
mess and help keep trash from blowing out of reach. Once you have
taken down your camp, pack-up and load everything (including all
trash) into your vehicles, and do a line sweep for every last bit of
MOOP. Use something like cones on the outside of your camp’s border to
define your boundaries, break up any dunes that formed around vehicles
or structures, then divide up your area and begin line sweeps. Give
everyone a sack, line them up along one edge of camp, look down and
slowly walk to the other side. Cover your entire area looking for
those last bits of trash- every wood chip, plastic piece, twist tie,
cigarette butt, food scrap, carpet fiber, match, nut shell, scrap of
Devote 2 Hours to General Cleanup in Black Rock City. This means MOOP
sweeps in the streets, public spaces, and open playa. removing all
burn scars, dunes, leftover debris, or other physical traces of our
presence. Stop by the Earth Guardian camp during the week and on
Sunday and Monday — we’ll give you a beautiful reusable MOOP bag and
direct you to the areas of the City that need the most attention.
Consider staying an extra day to help clean-up and avoid the Sunday
and Monday traffic!
Consider joining the DPW post-event restoration crews. Help us clean
and restore the playa, so that we and all its visitors can appreciate
its beauty again and again. Come back to the Black Rock Desert after
the event and participate in restoration activities. The Earth
Guardians participate in eco-restoration activities year-round. For
more information, check out our calendar at http://www.earthguardians.net
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GREEN PRINCIPLE 6 –RESPECT THE ENVIRONMENT
LNT PRINCIPLE 7 – RESPECT WILDLIFE
At first glance, this principle may not seem as applicable to Burning
Man. However, as users of the Black Rock Desert, we share the Black
Rock Desert with many native species. As home to Burning Man, the
Black Rock Desert has importance to the Burning Man community. Earth
Guardians have partnered with BLM and other user groups to restore
sensitive areas around the Black Rock Desert and have also taken on
our own restoration projects.
Participate in Environmental Stewardship. EG’s are continuing their
efforts to take care of the desert environment with the Bureau of Land
Management and Friends of Black Rock/High Rock. Stop by the Earth
Guardian Pavilion at Esplanade near Center camp to sign up for
environmental workshops and naturalist-led desert walks throughout the
week.
Let’s keep our beautiful desert home clean year round! See the EG
pages for more details:
Promote more sustainable practices at Burning Man with Respect,
Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Precycle, Recycle and Restore, resulting in
more awareness of conservation, ecological footprints, carbon
equivalent offsets, and alternative energy sources, protecting our
global habitat. Interested in helping, come to the Earth Guardians
Pavilion and participate in one of our workshops.
Also, don’t forget, the desert is no place for dogs or other pets.
Burning Man is a no dog event. For questions, email dogs@burningman.comRESPECT THE PLAYA – NEVER LET IT HIT THE GROUND!
RESPECT, RETHINK, PRECYCLE, REDUCE, REUSE, RECYLE and RESTORE! DON’T
LET IT HIT THE GROUND – CLEAN AS YOU GO!
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