See, this is typical Grist hypocrasy.

You focus on collecting the bottles and cans, but you don't ask the big question: how much CO2 was generated by this concert?

I mean, I've been the the Gorge -- there's no way to get thousands of people there without using thousands of gallons of gasoline.   How long were those cars moving through the big dirt parking lot?   How much natural land scape was turned into a dust bowl by the pounding of thousands of sandals and sneakers on the desert dirt?

In fact, for people who are so touchy about "the planet", going to a Gorge concert has to be about the most Earth-Wasting thing one could possibly do in life.

I hope the Black Angels were worth terrorizing the globe -- but I'm content to listen to them using Rhapsody to Go on my Sansa m240.

John Bailo, The "Denier Guy"
You Read It Here First

I was at Sasquatch, and had a great time, but also was sad and disappointed to find no recycling facilities anywhere (obviously I missed you!).  So many bottles and cans went into the trash, and while we packed some out, it's shocking that such an event didn't consider recycling important...

The event was supposed to be carbon neutral through a group that buys credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange, so that's a start and the CCX is probably much better than some other iffy offset schemes, but a more holistic approach would help the organizers maintain some credibility.  I hope they bought their electricity from the nearby wind farms...

On another note, it's kind of funny how a festival like sasquatch is sometimes associated with progressive social action, just because some hippy -types gather and listen to musicians that generally are very liberal.  Definitely someone like Michael Franti is inspiring, but sitting around listening to music is not exactly a substitute..  (for you South Park fans, "Wait until the corporations hear these crunchy grooves man!")

Hey it was great that somebody organized recycling at the concert. A very nice start.

But that's really only a tiny bit of what we have to do to make events like this "sustainable." As another poster pointed out the very act of driving to the concert burned thousands of gallons of gasoline.

All of those drink containers could have been replaced by re-usable/washable bottles brought by the festival attendees and drink dispensers. I would bet fully half of the containers "re-cycled" where water bottles; where was the free chilled water station?

So for the NEXT festival you plan to go to:

1)Organize a bus charter to get you and your stuff to the festival. If needed rent U-hauls to get everyone's camping gear back and forth. That's seveal extra hours each way to party with your friends folks.

2)Lobby the festival promoters to provide free or low price refills of water bottles from several chilled/filtered water stations. Point out that they will save $$ on labor for trash cleanup and disposal.

3)Lobby the vendors to provide refillable cups with a discount for sodas and beer. If they gave the cups out at the festival gate and then charged extra for no-cup drinks folks would go along. 7-11's and smoothie chains do this now so it's NOT a new/radical idea.

Let's organize rather than criticize.

Put the Carbon Back