Someone told me it was 102 degrees today and that seems like a conservative estimate. If you haven’t noticed a theme here…warped tour is almost always very, very hot. The heat did not put a damper on our recycling efforts. The Trojan tent ran a contest today for every bag brought to them full of bottles and cans they gave away a huge prize pack. Not to be outdone, AT&T provided us with their much coveted cut passes to give away to four of our most ambitious volunteers. If you didn’t think recycling paid off before…imagine getting to walk smugly past a line of 240 people to be the very first to meet Cobra Starship or We the Kings as four lucky warped tour guests did today.

I’ve been kind of baffled by the kids who ask to buy shirts from us or cut passes but don’t want to take a minute to actually get their hands dirty and help out. Why would you want to by a shirt that says you are an activist but not actually be one? That momentary bummer is always far out shined by the incredible volunteers we meet and the bands that keep coming out to help the cleanup efforts everyday. Our autograph signing with Alesana was a lot of fun and they sold a bunch of cd’s for $5 (half price!) to anyone that brought cans or bottles. Erin is on a rampage and has been collecting bags and bags of bottles all day. She hasn’t come back to the tour bus yet and I’m not sure if we’ll see her before sunset. I collected a few bags myself and Beat Union from the UK has joined forces with us and is going to be running contests out of their tent now.The Eco-army of warped tour is growing. Be warned!

I’m going to try to get a shower in before the line gets too long.

Everything you do makes a difference!

-TaRa

They don’t call it “hotlanta” for nothing. Last year in Atlanta I threw up from the heat. This year was not quite as hot as least but it still was very,very humid. On the upside a lot of the sponsors are really starting to step up their game. Chris from Epitaph ran contests out of his booth to collect encourage kids to collect recyclables today. He gave away a few shirts and some bandannas as well. Luis from Alternative Press required that every person who came to a signing at his tent today brought a bottle to be recycled and he handed over several large bags at the end of the day. Jasmine from Boarding for Breast cancer collects the plastic six pack holders from catering and cuts them up. The stage managers collected 86 batteries to be recycled…our largest gathering to date.

Even just one bottle at a time, one piece of plastic to be recycled-it adds up to a big help. Today was also the first in a twelve day stretch with no off days so let’s hope everyone can hang in there.

Oh and if you get a second check out http://www.modlife.com/ for a blog from Angels and Airwaves on the Warped Eco Initiative.

Everything you do makes a difference!
-TaRa

Every so often, I run into a day where the venues plan for recycling isn’t on par with how I wish to have the day operate. I then must run around all morning coordinating pick-ups with the waste hauler and making sure all of those involved with maintenance/cleaning of the venue are on point with how the WEI volunteers will operate. This is exactly what happened in Houston. But, it somehow all came together! I have a theory: if the Warped Tour venue has a dirt ground, lacking in aesthetic appeal and design, people will litter more. This stood true in Houston. There is something about the dusty air and lack of shade that gives concert goers an “I don’t give a crap and I’m going to throw my trash on the ground” attitude. Perhaps I’m over analyzing but despite an AMAZINGLY AWESOME effort put forth by our volunteers the venue still looked heavily littered at the end of the show.

On a happier note, we were privileged to host both Mayday Parade and Panima in the solar booth who performed completely off clean, solar energy. Participation in the “collect a bag of recyclables, get a free t-shirt” offer was off the charts and we managed to fill a 20 cubic yard dumpster with plastic bottles and aluminum cans!
-Erin Gorski

P.S. There was over 15,600 people at this show…so with only our 20 volunteers and some kids that helped during the day, I’m going to say we didn’t do half bad! Today we also welcomed David of Angels and Airwaves to the recycling team and as always Matt and Matt represented for their respective bands. -TaRa

The following blog is by Erin Gorski, Manager of the Warped Eco Initiative. This summer Tara and Erin are teaming up to bring environmental awareness to the fans, bands, sponsors and stage crews at the VANS Warped Tour. They are doing everything from coordinating recycling at all the venues to hosting acoustic performances at their solar lounge. Check them out at the Warped Eco Initiative tent at any Warped Tour site.

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Formerly known as the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, the Sandstone Amphitheatre in Bonner Springs, KS is one of the greenest venues I have seen on my four years on Warped Tour. Along with their new name comes a new green initiative program headed up by Jesse Jackson. I was able to speak with him about the venues current and future sustainability plans which include targets such as recycling, carpooling, and renewable energy. One of the most admirable and beneficial things that company, or in this case, venue can do when they are serious about developing a more environmentally friendly business model is to hire a sustainability coordinator.

Just since last year, Jackson has developed a recycling program that targets diverting the maximum amount of recyclables by not only placing labeled recycling bins around the venue but also by performing a waste sort at the end of the show to ensure the maximum amount of recyclables are being diverted from the trash stream. Futhermore, they reach out to their local community by employing a local organization from Lawrence, KS to perform the waste sort and in turn keep half of the money earned from the recyclables.

According to their website (http://sandstoneamp.com/green-initiatives), other initiatives include:
- Switching from paper towels to hand dryers in the bathrooms
- Using recycled toilet paper, napkins and plates
- Installing energy efficient lighting
- Setting up paper, plastic and cell phone recycling receptacles
- Planting a garden for caterers to grow veggies
- Allowing fans to park for free if they carpool or drive alternative fuel vehicles
Some of Sandstone’s plans for the future include:
- Installing solar panels and wind turbines
- Installing high efficiency toilets, urinals and faucets
- Attaining LEED Certification, which is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design

In addition to all the changes the venue is making, the Warped Eco Initiative was able to fit right in with their environmental attitude and only further the efforts. Our volunteers ruled, Brandon the videographer from MySpace stopped by to begin filming a segment on WEI, Alesana had a signing, Bidwell performed acoustic from the solar booth, and as usual Matt from Angels and Airwaves popped in to collect recyclables from around the venue.

All in all the day was great! That is, until the hurricane like weather hit around 8:00pm. Luckily, no one was hurt but I definitely saw band merch a few tents get destroyed by the wind and rain.

-erin gorski

Hello friends! This is Erin Gorski writing in for my first on the road contribution to the Warped Eco Initiative blog. I began working for WEI in 2005 which makes this my fourth summer working to create a more sustainable Warped Tour. Every summer I have seen the program grow and even more importantly, I have seen a shift in the mentality that leans more towards environmental concern rather than convenience.

Prime example: Denver, CO Warped show at Invesco Field at Mile High. The venue never had a recycling program in place until this year! Therefore, the WEI volunteers and venue employees were able to collaborate to create an even stronger recycling effort. With a full crew of 20 volunteers we were able to fill about 100 bags of recyclables which equates to 1,300 lbs of bottles and cans. The amount of cardboard we diverted from the landfill was pretty much impossible to estimate. Along with our normal set of volunteers, we were joined by the members of the band The Color Fred along with Matt from Angels and Airwaves who all took time out of their busy schedules so throw on a green WEI shirt and walk around the venue collecting recyclables.

Denver was a day of firsts as we held THREE acoustic performances in the WEI solar powered booth. Between the Trees, Panima, and Midwell all hooked up their PA’s and mics to our solar panels and performed completely off of solar energy. We also hosted a signing with the band Alesana who worked out a special deal with their eco-minded fans: collect 5 bottles or cans and purchase their CD for only $5…quite the deal.

Closing out the day, Tara and I stopped by the kitchen of the fine folks over at TaDa catering to pickup the veggie oil that they no longer needed. We then hauled the container to Andy at Top Shelf Records/rentgreenvans.com. He reuses the oil in his van which he converted to run on discarded vegetable oil.

We had the day off in Gallup, New Mexico before Las Cruces. Erin and I walked a mile down “historic Route 66″ to a Subway (one of the only places to eat in town) at a Loves Travel Plaza. We got honked at by truckers over ten times on our brief journey. Luckily, she also found Nilla wafers at the gas station and guess what we found out.
1. Gallup New Mexico is not somewhere either of us desire to reside.
2. Nilla wafers come in 100% recycled cardboard packaging.

It turns out you can get cookies in recycled packaging easier then you can get recycling at a venue in New Mexico. The venue had no plan in place today so our volunteers came in and saved the day yet again. I think a lot of people just assume whatever they throw away will be recycled or at least I’d like to think it’s more a misunderstanding then a lack of interest in the future of the spaces we all have to share. Sadly, many of these venues just scoop up and trash everything at the end of the day. I read yesterday that only 23% of plastic bottles ever get recycled and only 45% of aluminum cans.

We’ve been trying to show the venues that lack recycling how easy it is and hopefully warped tour can leave a big green footprint in each place we’ve been through and help bump up those numbers. What was collected today was soley what our volunteers were able to haul… Several hundred pounds of recyclables later and we had successfully saved a fair amount from ending up in the landfill.

As it started to get late Erin noticed one of the venue’s employees picking through trash cans and pulling out bottles. When we spoke with her she told us she does it at every show,it’s not her job too but she just feels like it’s the right thing to do. She is a perfect example of how everyone of us can do something.

Salt Lake tomorrow!

Everything you do makes a difference,
TaRa

P.S.
If your going to a show…pick up the bottles or cans you see and put them in the proper place.

Hint: proper place is NOT the ground.

Yesterday was a day of firsts…we had a girl show up with a bag of cellphones to be recycled,we had our first signing at our tent and it rained in Arizona for what the kids told me was the first time since March. The signing at the tent yesterday was with the always eco-friendly lead singer, Fred of the aptly named band The Color Fred. Fred was in a little band called Taking Back Sunday for awhile and I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot more about him as the summer rolls on. He’s vegan,he drives a veggie oil car and his shirts feature two “green” designs with tips for more earth friendly living on the tags. Needless to say, we love him already.

For the first time this tour we also rewarded our two best volunteers by taking them up on stage to see Angels and Airwaves and they were extra stoked to get their picture taken with Tom after the set.

Speaking of Angels and Airwaves, I ran into my friend Matt who plays bass in A&A on the catering line today as he was picking up cans left behind by some less conscientious crew. That’s one of the best things about warped tour. You have Matt Watcher, bass player in one of the biggest bands on the tour walking around and picking up cans. I mean if he can find time to do it, what’s your excuse?!?

I got to catch a full Against Me! set for the first time yesterday and they played “Walking is Still Honest” which happens to be one of my favorite songs…pretty much ever. We get in our recycling bins for the bands buses today and the amazing recycled bean bag chairs that will be filled with empty plastic bags as stuffing in Salt Lake so it just keeps getting better and better…and hotter and hotter.

Everything you do makes a difference!

TaRa

We’re getting settled into the tour as we coasted into day 3 in Ventura,CA with incredible volunteers and quite a bit of heat. We are getting the setup of the two solar tents down and Erin and I have big plans for the rest of the summer as more bands and sponsors are learning about the Eco-initiative and looking to become more involved.

Angels and Airwaves and Cobra starship both said they are starting recycling on their buses and one by one more bands are getting involved. We got an incredible donation from Mrs. Meyers cleaning products for all of the buses on the tour this year so every band will be stocked with Eco-friendly, cruelty free products. The entire tour is really committed to becoming more Eco-friendly…. right down to the aluminum can the official tour water comes in.

bout halfway through the day I saw a group of guys walk by and reach into the trash can in front of our tent. They pulled out an old sign post,that someone else had thrown away,ripped off the poster and quickly re-purposed it into a sign to promote their own band. The said they had found the sharpie they used too. It might seem like something small, but every little thing adds up. One band’s trash is another’s treasure, I suppose.

Check them out on myspace if you get a chance and thank them for being down for the cause!

Despite the size of the tour (something like over 900 of us traveling together from show to show), at the very core of everything is still a very DIY, punk mentality and it’s exciting to be in the middle of all the time. We have collected over 3,000 pounds of recyclables that would have otherwise been destined for the landfill, I’ve climbed into one very deep dumpster and we’ve had ridiculously good vegan pie for dessert… and it’s only day three. I’m looking forward to the day off tomorrow and then the show in Phoenix.

Everything you do makes a difference!
TaRa

http://www.earthecho.org/warped/ecoHome.html

Last summer Earth Echo International ran their sponsor contest where the most eco-friendly sponsor won a trip to Key West with a Warped Tour band. I was lucky enough to win that trip while working for thetruth.com and even luckier to have been asked to join Erin and the Warped Eco Initiative out on the road this year. This is my third year on the tour and I couldn’t be happier to be back. The first day of tour is always a bit like the first day of school with just a bit more dirt and a lot more tattoos. Im covered in dust,I smell terrible and I’m dehydrated…and I cant wait to do it all again tomorrow.

The scope of the tour and the eco-initiative is massive and I’m looking forward to telling you guys all about it in the coming weeks. The most amazing sight (and sound)of the tour so far is the solar powered stage. It’s nearly as big as the main stages and I would say sounds arguably as loud. I was in awe as band after band came on and off, each one playing guitars,drums,basses…all powered 100% by the sun. I think this stage can and will serve as an example to the entire touring world, that there is a sustainable, green option for just about everything and you don’t have to compromise on quality.

This venue was different then most we will encounter on the rest of the tour because they use Burrtec,a material recovery facility which picks up all the trash produced at the show and hauls it to their facility.They then place all the trash on a conveyor belt and actually sort out all of the recyclable materials that were mixed in with the trash. I was especially impressed by the dedication of  the volunteers that came out today and helped us pick up the bags of recyclables that didn’t make it into trash cans. There were returning volunteers, some who had been coming to help out for a few years now and the help they provide is immeasurable. Or rather I suppose it is measurable…in pounds of plastic they save from going into the trash!!!

Bear with me as I get settled into th tour and start checking back for guest blogs and videos from your favorite warped bands on what they are doing to keep the warped tour green.

Come by the tent and say hi and bring ten bottles or cans to recycle with you and you can enter the contest too! I’ve got to run to the showers before our bus leaves, very early, at the 10 pm bus call tonight. I’m especially excited to be in the very eco-friendly San Fransisco area tomorrow (a city where they charge you if you dont bring your own bags to the stores) and you can find vegan food on every corner.