Leave No Trace

The Heebeegeebee Healers have been to burning man since 2000. We have been growing, giving and learning along the way. This year we plan to expand our camp to a maximum of 65 campers. In order to insure that we leave no trace, we must have a solid plan to succeed. Fortunately, we do! Pre playa preparations

1. First and foremost, we think about what kinds of things we will need to survive. Those things typically leave waste, and are packaged in some form of waste. We lessen this by using items which are durable and can be reused each year, are recyclable, are safely burned or can be taken away with us when we leave the playa.
2. We avoid bringing items, which easily become MOOP such as feather boas, loose sequin clothing, small trinkets, flimsy paper or coverings, messy carpet and glass bottles.
3. We set up our camp in an organized manner that is easy to keep clean. We do this by having a crew of experienced and novice Heebees working in separate departments. Each department maintains it's own standards and practices by detailing what we are bringing, how it will be transported, maintained during the event and safely packed away so that it can vanish from the playa.

We will designate a resident as the camp LNT expert. This person will ensure that our camp stays clean before, during and after the event. We will have much laughter around us at various points through out the event and remain squeaky clean in the process as the Grand Poobah Rev. Blazo likes us to smell as lovely as we look. We will ask for assistance from our neighbors and fellow BRC citizens if and when it is needed. They will also enroll the committee leads in planning our purchases and encourage the Heebees to reuse / recycle / reduce. They will be there until the bitter end when we strike the last bit of shade and sweep our camp for every last trace. We will make sure that nothing is left behind.

To minimize our impact on the Playa, we will follow these rules:

• We pledge to Leave No Trace in and around our campsite and village including our own and other's waste. We will plan to put time aside for the cleanup, and plan the assembly and takedown of or structures and beautifications to simplify their removal. We will keep our recyclables, burnables, and non-burnables separated for easier disposal, recycle our aluminum, and bring no glass to the Playa.
• We will clean as we go, realizing that any trash or MOOP can blow away or be buried at any moment. We have assigned volunteers to check around camp in daily shifts for loose MOOP in all departments including, Playa Operations, Nutrition and Infrastructure. We will take care of any trash left by our guest, invited or otherwise.
• We won't dig holes more than 6 inches in diameter or trenches, scarring the playa. We also use base boards for our parachute structures to prevent scarring from the support poles.
• We will leave extra space in every vehicle on the way to the desert, knowing that repacking will inevitably take up more space. We will take all trash in sealed containers to the landfill and recycling once during the event and Tuesday following the event in Fernley. Our gray water will be hauled away by Johnny on the Spot on Tuesday, Friday and at the conclusion of the event. Every one in our camp will also devote at a minimum of two hours city cleanup. In the past, we have adopted the toilets nearest our camp and routinely made MOOP sweeps in addition to MOOPing through the event.
• We will pack out everything and we won't put any trash into the port-o-potties or leave any trash near the potties. They are not a public trash dump, and we want to keep our toilets functional and our city beautiful.

We will bring the following items for Cleanup day (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday)

• Flat blade shovels
• Big Broom and shop vacs
• 50 gallon plastic trash barrel for kitchen towels and messy stuff
• Separate containers for recyclables, burned refuse and non-burnables.
• Rope and string for tying loose items down.
• Small spare bags for collecting trash as we enjoy the city.
• Lots of industrial strength trash bagsÉthe big black kind.
• Work gloves for those who have forgotten.
• Several long-handled sledgehammers and rebar removers.
• Tins for the butts of smokers.
• Tools to remove, breakdown and store gear. Magnets for picking up small pieces of metal.
• Directions to the Fernley dump and recycling center as well as times of operation.

Helpful Tips to include in the Heebee LNT plan

• Each department takes the packaging off of just about everything before leaving home. We reuse the same coolers, containers and shade structures each year. We precut, precook and freeze much of the food to eliminate work on the playa. We have a meal plan to increase community in our camp and reduce the amount of waste brought by individual campers. We have a Nutrition department, which plans out each meal with the correct amount of campers to reduce food waste.
• We realize that packing to leave the Playa is often strenuous, time restrained and not having enough room to take it all home. We are renting storage in a local unit this year to provide additional storage on our way home. Our goal is to take every thing that we brought with us and a bit more too.
• We strive to never let anything in our camp or on the playa hit the ground. We recommend carrying a bag with necessities when traveling in camp, the village and the city and enough room to pick up MOOP along the way. When we do bring glass, we keep it in camp. We regularly make sweeps to pick up anything, which could blow away and maintain our infrastructure.
• If it doesn't come out of our bodies, naturally, we don't put it in the potties. We enjoy the privilege of using the port-o-potties and realize the importance of keeping them free of trash and debris.
• Burning Man has shifted our perspectives and we realize that Change is Possible. We take the lessons we've learned, including living in a waste-free manner, home with us.
• We are a community inside a larger society of activist, engaged in radical self-expression and radical self-reliance. We are aware of the waste we generate, both physically and energetically, and we take care that none of it affects the desert or our fellow citizens.