Earth Guardians

Earth Guardians help us respect the Earth at InterFuse through education and opportunities for practical action.

We wish to extend thanks to our gracious hosts, the Ozark Avalon Church of Nature. More information about them will be available at the Earth Guardians Station.

InterFuse Recyling

Recycling conserves our limited resources, reduces the amount of CO2 we put in the air, and is an important part of Leaving No Trace.

The Earth Guardians are leading our recycling effort and they want to make it easy for you to get in on the recycling action. So, they are providing a recycling drop-off at the Earth Guardians Station. You may drop recycling off there at any time. Please be self-sufficient and place your sorted recyclables into the proper containers at the Earth Guardians Station.

The Earth Guardians will accept the following recyclables:

  • #1 & #2 plastics (Look for the little triangle with the number inside on most plastic containers.)
  • Glass (brown & green - no need to seperate)
  • Tin cans, aluminum cans, and metal bottle caps (can be mixed with the glass)
  • Cork-Top wine bottles (Ozark Avalon recycles these bottles for reuse. Screw-top bottles can’t be reused but can be recycled with the other glass.)

Earth Guardians Station & Lost n' Found

The Earth Guardian Station and Pandora's Box Lost n' Found will be located between the Front Gate and Frog Bog. You may drop off recyclables there at any time: #1 & #2 plastics, aluminum cans, (clean) paper, glass and metal. We will have trash bags and smoker's tins available for your use to LNT. For non-recyclable trash, LNT: YOU bring it in, YOU take it out.

Lost n' Found will also include a board to post notes about missing items. If you are dropping off a lost item or are looking for something that you've lost, ask Front Gate to radio for an Earth Guardian to bring the key to Pandora's Box.

Help us help you Leave No Trace!

Portable Ashtray Project

Some of the The Earth Guardians will be gifting breath mint cans and empty pill bottles to use as portable ashtrays. You can help the Earth Guardians with this project by bringing your extra mint cans and pill bottles by the Earth Guardian Station at InterFuse. If you have extra time, consider decorating them too.

A Personal Note From The Earth Guardians:

Pollution: Almost everybody will be dealing with some kind of fuel sometime during InterFuse, whether camp stove fuel, fire spinning fuel, tiki torches or whatever. Please bring along some kind of metal container to place under your object when you put fuel in it to catch any spills. Some plastic containers will work, too, but you need to test it to make sure your fuel doesn't eat right through it. Also helpful will be some plain clay kitty litter to absorb any spillage - soak up the spilled fuel with the kitty liter and then put it in your trash bag to take home with you. The Earth Guardians Station will have some kitty litter available for this purpose. If your car or truck has an oil leak, please place something under the leak to keep it from going into the ground and take that something home with you.

I'm not married to these words, but that's the general idea. As a rule, it would be best if refueling were done on the road since spillage there would do the least harm. But that's not very practical.

Brandon
Earth Guardians Lead
InterFuse 2010

Ashtray Art Event

Bring your artfully (or artlessly) built or decorated container for cigarette butts to InterFuse so you can participate in our exhibition of smokey talent. Bring your contraption to the Earth Guardian's tent so we can photograph it (or capture one of us and take us to your ashtray installation) and explain the best angle and lighting for appreciating your incredible talent/artistry in coming up with a way to do something with those marvelously nasty things left over after a smoke.

Prizes will be awarded for as many different categories as seem reasonable to the judges.

Earth Guardians' InterFuse Tips

  • PLAN. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES put your trash bags in the neighbors' trash on your way home. We are guests in this area and want to maintain a good relationship with the neighbors. Dumping your trash in the neighborhood is very unfriendly and can endanger the existence of InterFuse and Ozark Avalon.
  • PREPARE. Plan your packing with trash hauling in mind. Make sure you have room for your trash. Consider using 5 gallon buckets with lids for carrying stinky wet trash in cars. You don't want to end your InterFuse experience figuring out how two bulging stinky trash bags can be squeezed into a packed-to-the-roof car for a 5 hour trip.
  • REDUCE. First before your buy something, ask yourself whether you really need it. When you do purchase supplies, buy in bulk to reduce packaging and your expenses. Strip your gear and food of all unecessary excess packaging BEFORE coming to InterFuse, to reduce your trash load. Burn non-toxic and paper trash.
  • REUSE. Reusable cups, personal water bottles/canteens, camel baks, and large refillable water containers are much easier on the environment and your trash load than disposable cups and plastic water bottles. If you're running a bar camp, consider making people be self-sufficient and bring their own cups or make nice InterFuse gift cups that people won't want to throw away. The same goes for reusable dinnerware vs. disposable dinnerware. If you must use disposable dishes, use paper products that you can burn to reduce your trash load.
  • RECYCLE. Check out the items above that the Earth Guardians will take for recycling. You can further reduce your trash by keeping these items seperate from your trash and giving them to the Earth Guardians. Do NOT throw metal and glass into fire circles. The Leisure Army will come beat you with their shovels and full cans of warm PBR. You will feel shame.
  • When planning the drinks you're going to bring, please remember: cans are better than bottles. Cans can be crushed to take up less space in your recycling bag and they weigh far less than bottles when empty. Also, bottles can break. Broken glass is a real danger and an accident waiting to happen. Kegs are even better for beer as they are reusable.
  • Never let your trash hit the ground.
  • Clean up your camp throughout the event, so there's not a huge mess to clean up when you're tired and want to go home. Make yourself the Earth Guardian for your camp and lead your campmates in camp LNT efforts.
  • Use tarps and large pieces of carpet or rug as ground cover in common areas of your Theme Camp. Roll it up carefully after InterFuse to catch all of the tiny MOOP in one fell swoop.
  • Did you know that bottles, bottle caps, and cigarette butts are the most common MOOP found? Bring portable containers to put your butts in, like empty prescription bottles, Altoid tins, or in an emergency, empty beer bottles. Drop your bottle caps in your pocket for recycling later. Empty glass and plastic bottles should be taken back to the recycling bag at your camp or the Earth Guardian Station.
  • Think about your constumes as you create them. You want to avoid costumes with loose things attached to them like boa feathers. You don't want your fabulous costume to be a walking MOOP machine! Leave your feather boa at home and bring fur boas instead!
  • Do not discharge wastes, pesticides, herbicides or other agents to repel insects or kill noxious weeds. The only exception is trace run off from your body of insect repellents. Consider buying organic bug repellents usually sold at your local health food store.
  • If it didn't come from your body, don't put it in the potty. Anything but 1 ply toilet paper and body fluids will clog the machine that cleans out the porta potties. The permanent Ozark Avalon toilets are composting toilets so any thing that's not biodegradeable has to be picked out of the poo.
  • After the event we must return the land to it's original condition. So do not discard anything that does not occur naturally in the Ozarks, including biodegradable trash like fruit rinds.
  • Consider using rechargeable batteries, battery powered glowsticks, and LED rope or Christmas lights to sustainably light up your experience and save energy so you can have a smaller power source.
  • For large projects, look into local places that recover and resell building supplies. The InterFuse effigy uses some recovered building supplies. Freecycle.org is also a great resource since it will save you money and ensures that all types of things are reused.
  • Consider purchasing carbon offsets to cover the carbon you produce travelling to InterFuse. You can easily calculate your carbon footprint and purchase offsets cheaply and quickly online through a variety of companies.

Questions? Want To Volunteer?

Any questions about the Earth Guardians can be sent to The Event Planners. If you're interested in volunteering with the Earth Guardians or the Earth Guardian Special Forces, please visit the Volunteer page (there's a form at the bottom).


"To play safe, I prefer to accept only one type of power:
the power of art over trash,
the triumph of magic over the brute."

— Vladimir Nabokov