Show Us Your Cans!

Show us your cans is the oldest mantra at Recycle Camp. In any other Universe, in any other year, we would be deep in the middle of Build Week in Black Rock City, just days away from another AWESOME week of welcoming friends and strangers from around the globe to show us their cans and crush them with our bicycle-powered crusher, The Blue-Duck.

Photo by: Robert Bruce Anderson, 2017 “The Blue-Duck”

Recycle Camp is the brainchild of Simon Haggar and Diane Whitmore. Way back in Black Rock City 1995, they asked the question, “Why is there no recycling at Burning Man?” The answer they got: “Why don’t you start a camp?” They returned to BRC in 1997 with some bikes and trailers made from shopping carts and a plan to collect as many aluminum cans as possible during the event and gift the proceeds to the Gerlach School. They caught the attention of Cultural Founder Harley K. Dubois that year and officially joined the Community Services Department as a staff camp in 1998. Simon passed the torch to mr.blue in 2001 and for 22 years Recycle Camp has given this gift to the Gerlach School.

Photo by: mr.blue, 2019 "Cans"

In 2019, Recycle Camp collected, crushed and recycled over 375,000 aluminum cans and gave a gift of $2,741.20 to the Gerlach K-12 School. Though it was a record number of aluminum cans, the price we received went way down in 2019. With the global pandemic and resulting cancellation of Black Rock City 2020, we were saddened at the thought of NO Recycle Camp, NO aluminum cans, and NO gift at all for the school. Well, we say YES to keeping the Burning Man and Recycle Camp tradition alive in 2020 and we say YES to raising $3,000 to gift to the Gerlach K-12 School this year.

Photo by: mr.blue, 2020 "Thank You card from the kids"

We are asking Burners: if you have ever had a great experience at Recycle Camp while showing us your cans, please join us as we share and show our collective love of Recycle Camp and for the Gerlach K-12 School in this crazy year of uncertainty, especially for schools. With this gift, they are able to purchase necessary classroom supplies and take field trips to explore Nevada, like swimming in the Fernley pool and visiting the Discovery and Wilbur D. May museums in Reno.

In the year of the Multiverse, you will find us everywhere beginning 9am (PDT) Sunday August 30th through 5pm (PDT) Monday September 7th, and you can find Recycle Camp in the Multiverse in BRCvr and Build-a-Burn through the event week. Follow along as we share stories from the volunteers who make Recycle Camp happen year after year, and we invite you to share your stories with us.

Thank you.

* Recycle Camp is a Community Services camp of the Burning Man event. We have organized this fundraiser for the specific purpose of raising funds for the Gerlach K-12 school in Gerlach, NV. All gifts are being sent directly to the Gerlach K-12 School.

Main Fundraiser Photo by: Kirsten Mohan, 2017 "The Wedding Party"