Leave No Trace (LNT)

We burners are famous for leaving our event sites cleaner than when we arrived. Hosts, governments, and communities welcome us because of our practice of Leaving No Trace. With radical freedom, comes radical responsibility, ESPECIALLY when it comes to cleaning up after yourself.

InterFuse is a four day, three night outdoor camping event, so you are bound to create some garbage. There will be no public garbage containers or dumpsters provided. You must bring trash bags and recycling bags for yourself or your group, and then take ALL of your trash with you when you leave. You may leave recyclables with the Earth Guardians but they will NOT accept the rest of your trash or sort out your recyclables for you.

As an InterFuser, YOU are responsible for ensuring that InterFuse Leaves No Trace. Please chip in on the community work by picking up any trash that you encounter during the event regardless of whether it came from you. Also, spend an hour or two after you tear down your camp to comb your camp location and the surrounding common areas for tiny bits of MOOP (Matter Out Of Place). You don't want to be known as "The MOOPy camp!"

• PLAN. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES put your trash bags in the neighbors' trash on your way home. We are guests in this area and want to maintain a good relationship with the neighbors. Dumping your trash in the neighborhood is very unfriendly and can endanger the existence of InterFuse and Ozark Avalon.
• PREPARE. Plan your packing with trash hauling in mind. Make sure you have room for your trash. Consider using 5 gallon buckets with lids for carrying stinky wet trash in cars. You don't want to end your Interfuse experience figuring out how two bulging stinky trash bags can be squeezed into a packed-to-the-roof car for a 5 hour trip.
• REDUCE. Buy in bulk to reduce packaging and your expenses. Strip your gear and food of all unecessary excess packaging BEFORE coming to InterFuse, to reduce your trash load. Burn non-toxic and paper trash.
• REUSE. Reusable cups, personal water bottles/canteens, camel baks, and large refillable water containers are much easier on the environment and your trash load than disposable cups and plastic water bottles. If you're running a bar camp, consider making people be self-sufficient and bring their own cups or make nice InterFuse gift cups that people won't want to throw away. The same goes for reusable dinnerware vs. disposable dinnerware. If you must use disposable dishes, use paper products that you can burn.
• RECYCLE. Check out the items on the Earth Guardian page that they will take for recycling. You can further reduce your trash by keeping these items seperate from your trash and giving them to the Earth Guardians. Do NOT throw metal and glass into fire circles. The Leisure Army will come beat you with their shovels and full cans of warm PBR. You will feel shame. Never let your trash hit the ground.
• Clean up your camp throughout the event, so there's not a huge mess to clean up when you're tired and want to go home. Make yourself the Earth Guardian for your camp and lead your campmates in camp LNT efforts.
• Use tarps and large pieces of carpet or rug as ground cover in common areas of your theme camp. Roll it up carefully after InterFuse to catch all of the tiny MOOP in one fell swoop.
• Did you know that bottles, bottle caps, and cigarette butts are the most common MOOP found? Bring portable containers to put your butts in, like empty prescription bottles, Altoid tins, or in an emergency, empty beer bottles. Drop your bottle caps in your pocket for recycling later. Empty glass and plastic bottles should be taken back to the recycling bag at your camp or the EG station.

More Tips: Earth Guardians

Leave No Trace Campground Sweep

After most camps are packed up and do their own campsite sweep, hardcore volunteers sweep the grounds for elusive MOOP (Matter Out Of Place).

This year, the LNT sweep is accomplished by two groups. The Earth Guardian Special Forces Captains, will be leading the general campground litter sweep at 1:00 PM on Sunday, May 2. The Captains will meet volunteers at the Earth Guardians’ Station at this time to distribute supplies. You don’t have to participate in other Earth Guardian activities to participate in the campground sweep as a member of the Special Forces. The Earth Guardian station will be located on the East side of the road between the InterFuse Front Gate and Frog Bog.

The Leisure Army is also pitching in on the LNT work to clean the Main Burn site, fire pits, and burn barrels. This group is headed up by Chase, TLA Lead. The Leisure Army begins cleanup work at the Main Burn site in Moon Meadow, 4:00 PM on Sunday, May 2.

While we always accept volunteers onsite, it helps with the planning if you sign-up beforehand. To sign up to help with LNT, please visit the Volunteer page.

Related Links:

• Earth Guardians
• Events & Performers
• The Leisure Army
• Volunteer (use the form on the bottom of that page)

Portable Ashtray Project

Some of the The Earth Guardians will be gifting breath mint cans and empty pill bottles to use as portable ashtrays. You can help the Earth Guardians with this project by bringing your extra mint cans and pill bottles by the Earth Guardian Station at InterFuse. If you have extra time, consider decorating them too. The Earth Guardian station will be located on the East side of the road between the InterFuse Gate and Frog Bog.

Related Link: Earth Guardians

Questions About Leave No Trace?

Use web-based email to Contact The Event Planners.

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"In Beverly Hills they don’t throw their garbage away. They make it into television shows."

— Woody Allen

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