Warped Eco Initiatives (WEI) 2007

What We Do and Why We Do It

 RECYCLE...everything (some States pay you to recycle)

If you don't have a community wide recycling program in your community, go ask the mayor, WHY NOT?  Ask the mayor how you can help put one together. And bug the mayor until you get one. March on city hall and demand recycling. YOU WILL SUCCEED

Bring your own drink cup to the fast food restaurant and coffee house.  Carry your own water from home (Saves $$).

Make sure your local rock clubs, schools and businesses are recycling.

Visit the solar powered WEI Tent (green top) to find out more.

Why recycle?   It is really about two things, resource conservation and cleanliness. A clean planet makes for happy and healthy plants and animals and people (for those who identify themselves as 'not animal').

Think of the wisdoms: cleanliness is godliness; waste not want not...

Consider that for every 19 twenty ounce bottles that are recycled and reproduced into another plastic object, the equivalent of one gallon of gas is saved and that is a reduction of  19+ pounds of CO2 released into our atmosphere.  So when  the Warped Tour collects 70  bags (roughly 10 lbs apiece) of plastic for recycling at a show (Pomona 2007), that is 700 lbs of plastic. And the CO2 reduction is 14,000 lbs, and it saves the equivalent of 700 gallons of gas energy. IT IS CRAZY EASY TO QUICKLY REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE.

And Aluminum...The creation of aluminum is an intense mining and energy sucking  operation, when aluminum is made from virgin materials.  BUT when new aluminum products are made from recycled aluminum, the energy reduction is 95%. CRAZY!  And a forest is not disturbed, a river not polluted.

Reports from the road by Erin:

Pomona, CA- Pomona Fairgrounds- July 29th.
- Set-up day began with the construction of the solar powered booth and the WEI tent.  The solar tent powered the Take Action /Unite the United areas two computers (used for email and data collection for their charity contest).  The panels are also powering a 22 inch monitor and computer that is used to play “An Inconvenient Truth”.  Band signings (Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Big D and the Kids Table) are also held under the solar tent and help promote the fact that there is the use of solar power at Warped Tour.
Fuse, Girlz Garage, Monster, and Lost were all given banners and sign up sheets for the Earth Echo contest.
Fans are able to sign up for the EarthEcho contest by collecting 10 recyclables and returning them to the WEI booth.  We had about 50 individuals sign up for the contest at this particular show. 
Copies of “An Inconvenient Truth” are being given away in exchange for collecting 100 recyclable bottles or cans and bringing them to the WEI tent.  I was also able to get Vans and Multee Purpose to donate some of their merchandise that fans can “purchase” with bottles and cans.  My goal is to expand this “Recycling Store” by getting bands and sponsors that are supporting the eco initiative (and hope to win the earth Echo contest) to donate merchandise that can be given away in exchange for recycling.
20 volunteers participated in the recycling program and in total collected:
-55 bags (approximately 550 lbs) of plastic recycling
-20 bags (200 lbs of aluminum recycling). 
-Monster Energy drink also recycled all of the cans that they gave away that day. 
-Cardboard was collected and bundled together for recycling by warped recycling volunteers as well as venue workers
Although there were no actual recycling bins set out throughout the Pomona venue, the fairgrounds uses a waste management facility called Burrtec that uses a recovery system that sorts through all the trash produced and extracts all materials that are recyclable.  Therefore, the show was a completely recycled event.

Ventura, CA- Seaside Park- July 30th
The 16 production and sponsor buses on tour were given recycling bins today.  Every morning, someone from each bus places the bin outside the door and then it is picked up by a recycling volunteer.  Recycling bins are also placed inside catering every morning. 
40 individuals signed up for the EarthEcho contest
There were a total of 15 volunteers today. 
-40 bags of plastics were collected
-5 bags of aluminum were collected. 
-Monster energy drink recycled all of their cans

Mountain View, CA- Shoreline Amphitheatre- July 1st
This was the first day that recycling was collected from the buses and the response was very good.  12 out of 16 buses put out their bins and I was approached by several band buses that were interested in how they could take part in recycling on their buses.

I had a discussion with the promoter of the show and he expressed how impressed he was that Warped Tour is greening their tour and trying to be more eco friendly.  Shoreline Amphitheatre recently went through their own greening reformation and practices similar waste management facilities as Burrtec (recycle recovery).   Which means this show was  completely recycled event!
40 people signed up for the Earth Echo Contest
8 recycling volunteers came out to the show. 
- cardboard collection was very high (see picture attached)
- 25 bags of plastic material
- 5 bags of aluminum
- Monster separated all of their cans for recycling

Vancouver, BC- Thunderbird Stadium- July 3rd
Today was a great collaborative effort between venue and Warped recycling volunteers.  50 recycling bins were placed around the venue.  Venue workers even went as far as to dig in regular trash cans to separate recyclable material.  The 20 warped recycling volunteers concentrated on picking up whatever bottles/cans/cardboard were on the ground.  It was interesting to see how many concert-goers were using the recycling bins and also how much  less littering was happening in Vancouver as opposed to shows in the states.  By the end of the day, the concert grounds were much cleaner than any other Warped show I have been to.
Unfortunately could not run the contest because of contest rules however the Fraser Riverkeepers came out to promote their cause.  Lauren Brown, a staff attorney from Riverkeepers, came out to the show to promote the newly formed Fraser River branch of the Riverkeepers.  She was very interesting and had a great background is waterway preservation.  Kids at the show were genuinely interested in learning about both the Riverkeepers and WEI causes.
20 volunteers participated:
-cardboard recycling bins made it easy for bands/sponsors/volunteers to separate cardboard and bring it to the appropriate disposal bins.
- recycling bins were emptied throughout the day as they got full. 
- estimated 100 bags of plastic collected(from both bins and ground collection)
- monster energy recycled all of their cans

Calgary, AB- Race City Speedway- July 5th
Race City Speedway has a very interesting recycling/waste management program that they use.  I noted that in the production and catering backstage areas they had set out recycling bins and garbage bins side by side however failed to do so in the general concert area.  I don’t think I counted more than 20 garbage cans throughout the entire general admission area which resulted in a HUGE mess at the end of the show. 
However, Race City is serious about recycling and employees individuals to separate recyclables from regular trash. 
The day was hot and dusty, thanks to the dirt pit we were set up in, however the 10 volunteers that showed up to help worked super hard and collected a lot of recycling:
- 45 bags of commingled aluminum and plastic
-Monster energy once again recycled all of their cans
 

 RECYCLING REPORTS FROM THE ROAD  Read how Erin is putting it all together, with a little help from friends.

STORIES OF THE WEEK Warped Fans on a Recycling Rampage

Camden, NJ-                   
I was earlier emailed by a girl who lived in a town that didn't recycle and she inquired if it would be possible to bring her 200+ water bottles that she had accumulated to Warped Tour to be recycled. So at the end of the day, we trekked out to her car and picked up two large bags of plastic bottles and put them in the recycling bin with the rest of the stuff we collected that day. :)  

Cleveland, OH- After hearing about the WEI contest on the Warped Tour website, this kid brought his recycling from home (20 bottles) and entered the contest!