Why cleaning up after Burning Man is ‘awesome business’ for this Nevadan

NIXON, NV — Sitting on a dusty lawn chair alongside the road, Marc Lowery is turning Burning Man's trash into his own personal treasure at $10 a bag.

Burning Man is the world’s largest "Leave No Trace" event, but that applies only to physical trash on the dry lakebed where this year 62,000 attendees partied for a week. Just as Burners are required to bring in all the food and water they need for the week, they’re also required to remove all their trash, down to every last bit of glitter.

In a roadside pullout surrounded by more than a dozen dumpsters and roll-off trash containers, Lowery watches as his family and a team of college students swarm the dusty vehicles as they pull off to hand over their trash.

Lowery, 45, charges $5 for a small trash bag and $10 for big ones. He also collects used gas cans, dusty chairs, battered bikes and gallons upon gallons of water.

International Burning Man attendees, he said, have to buy almost everything they need once they arrive in the United States, and then leave behind whatever won't fit in their suitcases.

"Whatever they can’t take with them, they dump out," Lowery…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/