Leave No Trace

Protecting & Preserving the Playa

There is no garbage collection service at Burning Man. We are the largest Leave No Trace (LNT) event in the world—LNT is one of our core principles—and it is up to all of us to ensure the long-term survival of our event by practicing LNT techniques to remove all Matter Out of Place (MOOP) from Black Rock City. That means we are ALL responsible for trash in Black Rock City, and every camp is responsible for its refuse. EVERYTHING you bring has potential to become trash: tent stakes, bottle caps, ashes, wood debris, orange peels, cigarette butts, pistachio shells, rope fibers, sequins—even abandoned bikes. Our Bureau of Land Management (BLM) permit allows for a very short time to restore the playa to its original condition, and we can only satisfy the BLM stipulations and pass inspections if all citizens share in the responsibility to line-sweep their camps and the city for MOOP.