The Burner's Guide To Leaving No Trace

[trilobyte]

Posted by The Hun on the Burning Blog, this bears repeating here as well. Please take a few minutes to read the whole blog post if you get the chance (more well-written stuff from The Hun, she did a great job last fall with the MOOP Map Live series), but in the meantime the checklist below should be required reading for all your campmates.

The Burner’s Guide to Leaving No Trace
The Burner’s Guide to Leaving No Trace is a series of thoughtful actions you can take, from the moment you start planning your art car to the moment you hose the last playa mud off its undercarriage. Over the next several months, we’ll dive into all these issues in depth. Here’s the overview to get you started:

• PRECYCLE – Buy less stuff in bulky packaging, or recycle and get rid of the packaging before you come to the playa. You’re gonna need the extra room on the back end!
• BRING LESS – Bring less stuff! Less is less! Save gas, save yourself a Tetris headache and save the playa from litter by leaving out that extra, non-sturdy shade structure and seven or eight pillows you don’t NEED need.
• DON’T LET IT HIT THE GROUND – Cigarette butts, wood chips, nails, screws, specifically. Also single-use water bottles (don’t bring ‘em!), feathers (don’t wear ‘em!) and belly dance coins from your blinged-out hips (don’t shake ‘em!).
• MANAGE YER TRASH – Icky, yet necessary. Do it. Water, too. Separate your cans from your hams and let that soapy water evaporate instead of pouring it on the ground.
• PLAN TO MOOP YOUR CAMP – Don’t let anybody hit the road until you’ve conducted an all-camp line sweep. Make an exit plan that includes time to pick up any MOOP in your area, even if you don’t think it’s yours.
• DON’T LITTER THE HIGHWAY – Strap your stuff to your head if you have to! Better yet, make it all fit in your car!
• TRASH & RECYCLING STATIONS – You don’t need to carry all that mass over the mountains, just get it down the road a piece and drop it at one of several facilities that are just waiting for Burners. Check your Survival Guide for details.

[trilobyte]

At my camp we do two bins and a bag under each shade structure. One can's marked CANS and is only for the aluminum cans that recycle camp (near Center Camp) graciously allows us to drop off between 9-6 Monday through Sunday. One can is marked BURN and is only for the wood scraps and other approved burnables that can be taken to the burn platforms. The bag is for the trash we'll be hauling back home with us.

We've done well in the past (green on the MOOP maps), but as our camp's growing in size we figured it was important to step up our game in the LNT department. We just ordered a magnetic rake and a couple trash grabbers that the daily LNT "it" person can use to help keep the space clean throughout the week (if we do a good job throughout the week, we've found that the sweeps at the end of breaking down camp are easy).

Anybody else stepping up their efforts for their camp or art projects?

[trilobyte]

The Hun has written a kickass post about EXodus TRAsh - check it out! In it, she details how you can get rid of the following materials between September 1-5…

• bicycles
• plastics (SPI #1-5)
• all metals (aluminum, tin, copper, brass etc)
• glass
• paper
• cardboard
• plastic bags
• household batteries
• non-perishable food and water
• garbage (at $3 per 35-gallon trash bag)

Not only do you unload things you don't want (or can't take back home with you, if you're traveling a great distance) and less MOOP gets left behind (either in the city or on the side of the road), but you can help Black Rock Solar along the way!

[^Rhino!]

Trilo,

You've got good ideas.

I volunteered to help out with my camp's LNT efforts this year, and I'm also making some trash receptacles for shade structures, and we'll have four categories of trash:


1) aluminum cans, man.
2) 'blue bag' - consisting of #1, #2 plastics, glass, tin cans to be brought back to the default and recycled.
3) Burnables
4) all other trash)

We'll be doing line sweeps for MOOP as often as necessary, and hopefully we'll do good this year on the moop map. (Green previous two years, too.)

It's not only keeping the BLM permit conditions, it's good BRC citizenry.

[tisha2]

doesn't recycle camp close saturday? i recall trying to take cans in on sunday but they were already closed. burn night and all.

[theCryptofishist]

I think you're right. And in the morning. I get why, but it sure messes with my finally got into playa mode head.

[^Rhino!]

Recycle camp may close, but I'll haul my own personal recyclables back to Missouri and put them on the curb - fiberboard boxes, paper, #1 and #2 plastics, newspaper and such. Our city has been doing 'blue-bag" recycling now for a few years.

[tisha2]

just got my ticket (yay!) and survival guide, and it does say Mon-Sun 9-5 for recycle camp. so there's that.

[Beanz]

Has anyone who has tickets at will call received their Survival Guide yet? I'm getting nervous...though I do have my will call confirmation. My understanding is that anyone who has bought a ticket gets a mailed survival guide...anyone know anything different? Thanks for any info!

[Oldguy]

Beanz, I downloaded survival guide from website. It was 20 pages. I still have not recieved confirmation letter yet, so I'm sweating out the ticket scrubbing process. Glad to hear you have a confirmation letter, it gives me hope...

[Beanz]

Hey Oldguy,

Thanks for your comment. Yeah...it's not that I need the Survival Guide so much, as I'm just concerned that I haven't received something that I thought all ticket holders were being sent. To clarify my confirmation...it is the email I received upon purchasing my tickets after I received notice of winning 2 in the lottery. It has a confirmation #, so I should be OK.

I am concerned that you haven't received confirmation, unless you have the same thing I do...an immediate confirmation email with confirmation code. If I were you, I'd contact the Borg and see if you can find out for sure if you tickets! Good luck!

[Beanz]

I had another thought, Oldguy...did your credit card get billed? I hope so. If your's did not...you probably don't have any ticket.

[Ugly Dougly]

Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints. Kill nothing but time.
- John Muir

[CrispyDave]

And please poop and pee in the Portos...

[theCryptofishist]

And not the elevators...

[Oldguy]

Beanz, I got my low income confirmation letter tonight, it is in addition to my award letter, and my disabled vehicle permit. I pay for my ticket at will call with cash or credit card, no checks. I was not in the open lottery, I had to wait it out till now...2 weeks before my departure.

[Beanz]

Hey Oldguy, Horray! I'm so glad to hear you FINALLY got your ticket confirmation.

I was recently talking to someone else who had been awarded a low income ticket and she wasn't sure she could use it, and knew she should return it sooner for someone else to use if she couldn't. So...probably it came so late because someone else opted not to use theirs. Just glad you are going. See you on the playa!

[attemptress]

this may be covered elsewhere, and I apologise that I can't find it if so. I just got asked by someone:

If it's a leave no trace event, why do you burn stuff? doesn't that leave a trace of dioxins and such in the air? greenhouse gases, etc.

[graidawg]

this may be covered elsewhere, and I apologise that I can't find it if so. I just got asked by someone:

If it's a leave no trace event, why do you burn stuff? doesn't that leave a trace of dioxins and such in the air? greenhouse gases, etc.

BURNING MAN? isn't that a clue also we don't claim to be environmentally friendly just we don't leave a mess behind

[Drawingablank]

I believe the current rule is untreated wood and untreated paper. Plastic and other sources of toxins are not supposed to be burned there.

[theCryptofishist]

And if the lumber can be reclaimed, Burners without Borders will take it.

[Ugly Dougly]

It's a lot easier to LNT on the playa if you are also making it a habit to LNT at home.
You don't take your trash out of the playa and just dump it in your living room do you? Okay, but I don't.

[Simon of the Playa]

Dougly hits nail on head, as usual.


in years past, i would start a few weeks out, prepping myself, consciously stuffing cigarette butts into my pockets and picking up stray trash.

then i would start months out, as the Frenzy kicked off, and summer started.

now i just do it, because when i do slip, and let something go to the wind or toss it by mistake, a sudden sense of shame comes over me, and i pick up 2 pieces for every one.


i didnt used to be this way.

most people would call me OCD......fine....i'm OCD.


i wasnt before i learned LNT.



visit the playa sometime other than Burning Man.



drink in the Nothing.



No Thing.

there are traces, here and there, tracks that get covered, small items missed or buried, but for the most part, not much trace of humanity.



it should stay that way if possible.

the Playa, and Northern Nevada, is a special place, it's NoWhere and it's Got Nothing...


I like it that way...

if i can offer up a word of advice to Newbs, start now, like Dougly Says, become aware of your shit, and where and how you put it somewhere.


when you arrive, you'll already be a pro.

[MyDearFriend]

Let's repeat this please:

It's a lot easier to LNT on the playa if you are also making it a habit to LNT at home.
You don't take your trash out of the playa and just dump it in your living room do you? Okay, but I don't.

And this:

if i can offer up a word of advice to Newbs, start now, like Dougly Says, become aware of your shit, and where and how you put it somewhere.

when you arrive, you'll already be a pro.

And some specific information about SHIT THAT'S HARD AS FUCK TO CLEAN UP SO BE MINDFUL, YOU KNUCKLEHEADS:

Don't lose control of your greywater. Somebody will find your patch of crusted playa and dig it up to find your hair, your shampoo & conditioner scum, your greasy food residue, your mess. Don't tell yourself that "It's just a little bit." Those veterans who routinely sprinkle their "little bit" manage to filter and treat it before it hits the ground so keep yours contained.

Don't bring painted plastic. The paint will peel, chip, flake and spread out in a big mess, and every tiny colorful speck will have to be hunted down and removed. Painted plastic tarps are the worst. If you must paint something choose wood or canvas that will hold on to the paint.

And don't let your tarp flap. Geez. I have seen those cheap blue tarps explode spectacularly, which is fun to watch but a huge pain in the ass for everybody down-wind who now has to chase all those little blue shreds and pack them out for you. Cheap plastic tarps work out there only when nailed to the ground. In the shade. Consider shade cloth or canvas tarps or something a bit more substantial. Solid tarps need to be taut and secure. Cammo net or aluminet has a stretch to it that is very forgiving of a looser construction.

THINK before you SHOP and THINK AGAIN before you PACK.

Oh, and a final word about one of my pet peeves: Please don't leave half-empty cans in my camp. I am happy to give you a beer (soda, juice, whatever). I am happy to recycle the empty can for you. But what the fuck am I going to do with a half-empty can? Please use your internal chemical plant to convert that beer (soda, juice, whatever) into urine, for deposit in the JOTS. Nobody is going to drink that beer/soda/juice for you. Once you leave it becomes greywater for me to pack out. Not a nice return for hospitality, is it?

[Ugly Dougly]

Does anyone have some gory pictures of what blows onto the trash fence?

[AntiM]

Oh, and a final word about one of my pet peeves: Please don't leave half-empty cans in my camp. I am happy to give you a beer (soda, juice, whatever). I am happy to recycle the empty can for you. But what the fuck am I going to do with a half-empty can? Please use your internal chemical plant to convert that beer (soda, juice, whatever) into urine, for deposit in the JOTS. Nobody is going to drink that beer/soda/juice for you. Once you leave it becomes greywater for me to pack out. Not a nice return for hospitality, is it?

This, a thousand times this.

[ygmir]

Does anyone have some gory pictures of what blows onto the trash fence?

several mornings each event ,there is much blowing at the trash fence. I'll try to get a photo this year.

[FIGJAM]

phpBB [video]

[trilobyte]

Replying to some old stuff…

To the questions about Recycle Camp's operation, they run from 9am to 5pm Monday to Sunday.

To attemptress' question about LNT and burning, believe it or not the city's carbon footprint is still significantly less than any city of its size (55K). Even with all the burns, even with all the gas/propane generators. You may care to look up the exhaustive Environmental Assessment (which weighs in at over 320 pages) if you care to see the details of the report put together by government and independent assessors of the event's impact on the environment.

Ugly Dougly - I'm working on getting some pics and signs that playa restoration's put together, there are a few interesting shots of MOOP caught in the trash fence as well as other great pics I want to post.

Figgy - that video's hilarious!

[Simon of the Playa]

pack it in and out and in and out and in and out.