Case study · Co-Lead · Regenerative Systems
Composting
in one of Earth’s harshest deserts.
Black Rock City is one of the most operationally extreme environments on Earth — 80,000+ people, a temporary city built and torn down in two weeks, in a desert that punishes anything not built to thrive there. Black Rock Compost is the 10-year community-funded program closing the food-waste loop on the playa.
The client
Black Rock Compost · Burning Man Project. A 10-year community-funded, volunteer-run program sponsored by IDEATE (501c3) — operating inside Burning Man Project’s 2030 Environmental Sustainability Roadmap with the Green Theme Camp Community and Full Circle Compost.
The challenge
Composting at scale in a temporary desert city — without breaking the program or the volunteers.
- 01
Black Rock City is one of the most operationally extreme environments on Earth: 80,000+ people, a temporary city built and torn down in two weeks, in a desert that produces unpredictable rain, dust storms, and 100°+ heat.
- 02
It’s also home to the most ambitious "Leave No Trace" experiment in the world. Burning Man Project’s 2030 Environmental Sustainability Roadmap commits the organization to dramatically reducing the event’s footprint.
- 03
Composting at scale on the playa is one of the hardest parts of that commitment. The program is volunteer-run, community-funded, and operationally complex — every year has to ship under desert conditions with no second chances.
The approach
End-to-end. Shipped under desert conditions.
Co-leading the 2025 program meant designing every layer — community comms, on-playa ops, budget, policy, brand — and making each one survive the playa.
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Pre-playa
Four community How-To calls, ~200-camp onboarding, and pre-event training with IDEATE, GYST, and Ocean Beach sustainability leads.
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On-playa
Three distributed host-camp collection sites, six on-playa volunteer meetings, and hands-on training in our leak-prevention methodology — wood chips and biochar.
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Policy
Launched "No Food Scraps Left Behind" — accept everything, train camps on MOOP prevention instead. Removed the biggest barrier to participation.
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Identity
A refreshed brand built around the yellow daisy native to the Black Rock desert — a plant that thrives in the harshest conditions.
Inside the 2025 program
- 01
4 community How-To calls
Open compost training sessions for participants ahead of the burn, building a baseline of literacy across the community.
- 02
~200-camp onboarding
Registered camps onboarded, with pre-event training led alongside IDEATE, Get Your Shit Together (GYST), and Ocean Beach sustainability leads.
- 03
Leak-prevention methodology
Hands-on training in our wood-chip-and-biochar layering method — wood chips absorb liquids, biochar captures methane that would otherwise off-gas.
- 04
$11K community crowdfund
Fully covered equipment, transport, processing with Full Circle Compost, branding, and education — every dollar from the participant community.
- 05
"No Food Scraps Left Behind"
2024 turned away wet food. 2025 accepted everything and trained camps on MOOP prevention instead. The single highest-rated change of the year (4.5/5).
The outcome
Ten consecutive years — and a model that travels.
- 9,000+ Burners participated on playa
- 50% reduction in off-gassing vs. landfilled food waste
- $11K crowdfunded — covered the entire program
- 10 consecutive years on the playa
A 10th-year program delivering:
- Four community "How to Compost" calls and ~200-camp pre-event onboarding
- Three distributed host-camp collection sites with trained volunteers
- A leak-prevention methodology (wood chips + biochar) trained across the whole crew
- The "No Food Scraps Left Behind" policy — every food type accepted, every camp trained on MOOP prevention
- A refreshed brand identity built around the Black Rock desert’s yellow daisy
Partners on the playa
Why it mattered:
- Black Rock Compost is a working test of regenerative systems in one of the most operationally hostile environments on Earth.
- A model for what a community-funded, volunteer-powered compost program can do at scale.
- BMP’s sustainability team is increasingly treating the program as a template for what’s possible when a community decides to close its own loop.
- Conversations are underway with the Paiute Tribe and Food Bank Collection on future collaborations.
- If a circular system can work in Black Rock City, it can work anywhere.
Designing a regenerative system for your community?
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