To make sure the "leave no trace" rule is upheld, Burning Man relies on a Playa Restoration Team (The "playa" is the land used during the festival).
Crews of people determine which areas have the most trash — or, as Burners call it, "matter out of place," or MOOP.
They color-code the areas based on severity, green being the lightest MOOP areas, yellow being moderate, and red being the most moopy — Burning Man's words, not mine — and have a line of people clean up each area.
Then the transformation back into an ordinary desert is complete.
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Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
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Chris was a senior editor on Business Insider's Future of Work team.He oversaw multiple desks on the team, including Careers and Entrepreneurship.Previously, he served as lead science editor at the NeuroLeadership Institute, an HR-focused cognitive-science consultancy. Before that he was a senior innovation reporter at Business Insider covering a wide range of topics, including basic income, education, public policy, human behavior, and the future.