Burning Man ravers abandon cars, blankets and own waste

One ethos of Burning Man is to “leave no trace” on the grounds of Black Rock Desert.

But too many of the 73,000 attendees this year did the opposite, locals say.

“I’ve been hearing stories about the trash being left behind,” Athena LameBull, who lives on Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation, about 70 miles from the Burning Man site, told The Post.

“There are people who leave abandon trailers along the highway; they break down, leave them and don’t even come after them.

“I heard from people that they left their vehicles behind because of the mud. I’ve never seen so many people hitchhiking out of Burning Man. I saw them riding six to a truck this year.”

Abandoned dresser on the Burning Man playa — An abandoned, busted-up dresser contributed to the Burning Man mess. The festival site has been hit by people leaving behind trash in vast quantities.

Garbage on the Burning Man playa — The local sheriff is dismayed by the sloppiness of burners.

LameBull has a side hustle in setting up dumpsters for exiting burners, charging them $5 per bag in order to take their garbage. This year, though, business for her and others has been slow: “I have to believe that a lot is being left behind.”

But it hasn’t stopped what she describes as “trash falling off of the frigging trucks and being left here. We had a bike tire come flying at us. Luckily no one was hit.”

Back on the playa, which is traditionally policed to its original state by Burning Man’s clean-up crew, it’s easy to see why LameBull’s business is hurting this year. Pershing Sherriff Jerry Allen told the San Francisco Chronicle that garbage has been left “across several miles” of desert.

Cars slowly exiting Burning Man — Cars and campers broke down as burners slowly escaped the playa. Many had no qualms abandoning their non-functioning vehicles.

Woman walking in a traffic jam of cars — With cars and campers dumped as trash, burners took to walking and thumbing rides. One local had never seen so many people hitchhiking home from Burning Man.

Terry Gault, a veteran burner who stayed to help with the daunting clean-up effort, sounded disgusted as he told NBC News that “people abandoned their camps; it’s not surprising that people left trash behind. They’re not real burners. They probably shouldn’t be out here anyway.”

Burning Man did not respond to an interview request from The Post.

Bikes, rugs and at least one trashed-to-hell dresser have been dumped on the dusty grounds where the famously drug-fueled bacchanal takes place.

A mud-covered Jeep — One apparently abandoned Jeep was caught on camera on the road out of the festival.

Other abandoned detritus — Detritus found at the festival site has included camping equipment, blankets and general trash.

“There are numerous vehicles strewn all throughout the playa,” the sheriff said. “Some participants were unwilling to wait or use the beaten path to attempt to leave the desert and have had to abandon their vehicles and personal property where the vehicles came to rest.”

Some trash that actually did get taken out did not necessarily end up at LameBull’s pay-to-dump spot.

Referring to a nearby gas station, where bins are set out as a courtesy, she said, “Those bins overflow and people leave trash on the ground. They leave a big mess all over the place. It’s the worst.”

Despite their professed love for the desert and its natural attributes, burners are not always respectful of the outdoors that others enjoy.

Trash at Burning Man — The scene at Burning Man after the train storm included swathes of trashed tents and camping equipment, and rugs in colorful patterns.

Trash bags at Burning Man — Trash bags were also presnet on the site.

In nearby Truckee, Calif., Lauren Bello Okerman, a designer and illustrator, saw a Burning Man attendee who she initially thought may have been an indigent person living out of his truck.

“He was dumping stuff into the public dumpster – there was a sleeping bag, large sized garbage bags, green waste the went onto the ground – which is really there for people who are enjoying the park,” Okerman told The Post.

“Then he went to a lake, where children from the school were swimming. He started washing his boots and clothing [which were covered in silt from the playa].

Man helps to clean up the garbage — Burning Man is known for cleaning up the mess that gets left behind. But this year has raised questions over that commitment.

Terry Gault, who is helping with the cleanup — Terry Gault stayed to clean up. He believes that the trash dumper are “not real burners. They probably shouldn’t be out here anyway.”

“It was as if he was washing concrete off of his shoes and putting it into the lake. There are ways of cleaning that do not involve doing your laundry in a lake where children are swimming.”

For all the rubbish left behind, there are some things that LameBull wishes did not leave the playa.

Trash sign — All the Burning Man trash has got to go, one way or the other. Local authorities are concerned about the scale of left-behind detritus.

“We have a sign which states that we do not accept human waste,” she said. “Some people take cat litter to their camp, put feces in it and bag it.

“And they come with five-gallon barrels of urine. We tell them that there is no way we will take feces or urine. People do that instead of using the Burning Man outhouses. I don’t get it.”

She sets up free porta-potties in order to keep things clean, but even that can go only so far. “People will stop and s–t and pee by our bins,” she said. “We’ve caught people and bawled them out. You have to have to have some decency.”

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