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Clean-up Plan
We are a society of activists, engaged in radical
self expression and radical self-reliance. Ours is not a convenience society.
We are aware of the waste we generate, and we take care that none of it
affects the desert of our fellow citizens.
—Burning Man
Leave
No Trace Pledge
To minimize our impact on the Playa, we at camp Palenque Norte pledge
to follow these rules:
- Leave No Trace -- We plan to clean as we go, to set time aside
each day to cleanup, and take all our camp trash in sealed containers
to a landfill on the way home. After cleaning our camp, everyone in
our camp will devote at least two hours to the general city cleanup
(e.g. trash fence, around the Man, café, etc).
- NO GLASS!
- We will not bring glass to the playa.
- No fires on bare ground - If we must burn, we will use a burn plate,
and will sweep up and haul out the ashes.
- No digging - We will not dig holes or trenches in the playa as
we understand this will ruin the playa!
- Don't let stuff hit the ground - We will keep all items that are
loose tied or weighted down, and leave papers at home. We plan to keep
all our bottles and cans with in our camp, and will make sure to not
leave stuff lying around with the intention of cleaning it up later.
- Follow the 3R's - We will Reduce, Reuse and Recycle! We will take
all aluminum to be recycled at recycle camp.
- Leave extra space - We will leave extra space in every vehicle
on the way to the desert, knowing that repackaging will inevitably take
up more space.
- Port-o-potties are for human waste only - We won't put any trash
into the port-o-potties or leave any trash near the potties. If it doesn't
come out of our bodies, it won't go in the potties!
- Prepare as much food in advance as possible. We will be sure to
pre-make as many of the meals as possible so that there is very little
food prep on the playa.
- Make a cleanup schedule for your camp. We will follow a daily clean-up
ritual at our camp, and have a final plan in place for the day we leave.
- Keep water off the playa. We plan on disposing of our grey water
by bringing empty containers to hold the small amount of grey water
used for cleaning kitchen items. This waste water will then be hauled
out of BRC by each individual camper. We will avoid at all costs dumping
water onto the naked playa, understanding that it will leave a stain!
If there is waste water at the end of the week, we will re-bottle it
and pack it out with us.
- Sweep your camp for every little, last piece of trash. Before we
leave on Sunday, we have a plan to find every twist tie, feather, cigarette
butt, sequin, staple, and watermelon seed. We will have an imaginary
grid, and plan to sweep from one end of each section to the other with
a line of people spaced every 6 feet or so.
- Skip the flyers. If we want people to participate in our theme
camp we will figure out a different and more creative way to disseminate
our information.
Clean-up
Schedule
Cleaning up around Palenque Norte is a job shared by everyone, but
there are a few individuals that have taken more responsibility. Each
of our pod living spaces will have a designated Captain, who will be in
charge of keeping the space clean and making sure all lose items are contained
ad/or tied down.
Our Earth Guardians will be responsible for a little more, and their
schedule of tasks are as follows:
Monday
- Set up recycling and garbage bins, and waste water bucket. Secure
them to the playa.
Tuesday
- Set up evaporation pool, and waste water treatment area.
- Monitor dinner.
- Check recycling and trash bins.
- Set up recycling signage.
- Find a home for garbage, and recycling supplies.
- Set up signage.
Wednesday
- Pick up around camp
- Check recycling and trash bins.
- Clean waste water entrapment system.
- Monitor Dinner.
- Take recyclable aluminum to Recycle Camp.
- Check up on mesh dehydration bags.
- Smash aluminum cans.
- Check recycling and trash bins.
Thursday
- Monitor Dinner.
- Check signage.
- Check recycling and trash bins.
- Smash aluminum cans.
- Pick up around camp.
- Check on supplies.
- Check waste water system.
- Deal with ice water.
Friday
- Deal with ice water.
- Take aluminum cans to recycles camp.
- Check on Dehydration bags.
- Pick up around camp.
- Smash aluminum cans.
Saturday
- Check on waste water system.
- Pick up around camp.
- Monitor Dinner
- Deal with ice.
- Crush aluminum cans.
- Check supplies.
- Take aluminum cans to Recycle camp.
Sunday
- Monitor Grid pattern cleanup.
- Clean burn scars
- Divy up trash to take back home.
- Give directions to landfills.
Monday
- Make sure camp is complete, and nothing is left behind!
Clean-up
Supply List
We will bring the following supplies to help with camp clean up:
- Flat-blade shovel
- Big yellow whiskbroom
- 3 5-gallon bucket and mesh withering bag for wet kitchen scraps.
- Separate containers for recyclables, burnables, and unburnables.
- Rope and string for tying loose stuff down.
- Small spare bags for collecting trash as we wander.
- Lots of industrial strength trash bags -- more than we think we'll
need.
- Cheap work gloves for everybody.
- Long-handled sledgehammer for compacting in 5-gallon buckets and
driving stakes.
- Altoids boxes and film canisters for smokers butts.
- Directions and hours of landfills.
What
does Leave No Trace Really Mean?
(Source: Burning
Man Web site)
- Plan Ahead and Prepare Read all of the literature provided before
leaving for Burning Man. Start with the survival guide. Plan your structure
to be able to withstand the extreme conditions on the playa and be reusable.
With Garbage, Precycle/Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - try to reduce the weight,
volume, and odor of the trash that your camp generates. Leave all unnecessary
packaging at home. Choose cans over bottles, and reusable containers
over both. Have a predetermined plan for perishables, liquids and ice.
Prepare food in sensible quantities that your group can finish at a
single sitting -- leftovers will quickly become a liability). Have your
camp tear-down well planned and practiced. Don't stress to hurry home
on Sunday. Recognize that long-term exposure to the playa will fatigue
your body and impair decision powers. Also, when under pressure, we
are all likely to make rushed decisions, miss details and leave things
behind. You will make the wise choice if you know what to expect and
are property prepared. See more hints from Recycle camp.
- Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces: Stay on the playa surface,
drive only on obvious, marked roads, keep speeds under 5 mph in Black
Rock City. Avoid the Hot Springs during the event. These delicate ecosystems
cannot handle the volume of usage that free use during the event creates.
Also, many of the surrounding hotsprings are on private land. Avoid
crypto-biotic soils at the edges of the playa. These soils can take
over 100 years to develop. One footprint can leave a lasting impression.
Please stay within the boundaries of Black Rock City during Burning
Man.
- Dispose of Waste Properly (Every camping party is responsible for
its refuse. Leave nothing behind, including: firewood, ashes, rocks
and cigarette butts. Pick it up and take it with you.) Read on what
cleaning up at Burning Man really means BEFORE you leave for the playa.
Please do not leave behind your old bikes behind for us. Do not use
the playa as your toilet. This is unacceptable behavior and unsanitary.
Be aware of spare nails or smaller trash particles that may be dismissed
as too small for trash including: hair, matches, cigarette butts, feathers,
plastic tie wraps. Do not pour left over gas onto the playa.
- Leave What You Find (except trash!); No trenching or digging; No
pillaging other camps, No burning of other people's art; No claiming
of potential artifacts. Artifacts should be turned into the Lost and
Found in center camp with an EXACT location of wher it was discovered.
Minimize impacts near old Pioneer Wagon tracks throughout the year.
- Minimize Fire Impacts: Use Fire shields to protect playa surface
Do NOT burn carpets, the fumes are toxic; Do NOT throw bottles into
fires, or burn anything that is not necessary. Burn in predesignated
areas ONLY with the fire barrels provided for general use.
- Be Considerate of Other Visitors: Be courteous to your neighbors
-remember that we're all part of the larger BR community, Place yourself
where you belong according to the indications on the city map, coordinate
sound and lights effects with your neighbors educate late comers on
the "Burning Man ways" as soon as they enter your neighborhood,
make your neighbors your friends, help each other with Sunday clean-up
- it's amazing what a fresh face can see.
Helpful Waste
Reduction Tips
- Leave unnecessary packaging at home.
- Choose crushable cans over plastic and glass, and crushable plastic
over glass.
- 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 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.
- 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 into the potties clogs the pumping mechanisms and makes
it all but impossible for our waste vendor to maintain potties during
the event
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