Burning Clean: Composting Our Carbon, One Tree at a Time

June 20, 2025

Who says you can’t clean up the world with a trash bag in one hand and sacred tree wisdom in the other?

On May 4, BWB Bogotá gathered 20 brave eco-burners for the first edition of Burning Clean, our carbon-offset ritual disguised as a community cleanup and tree-planting party. Hosted in La Esmeralda, one of Bogotá’s urban eco-dreams, we came, we plogged, we planted—and we did the math.

PLOGGING POWER:

We picked up 35.2 kg of trash:

• 20 kg of recyclables 
• 15.2 kg of non-recyclables
  All together, this helped us avoid 18 kg of CO₂e, plus spared the local flora and fauna from swallowing junk that doesn’t belong in their bellies (you’re welcome, birds).

TREE HUGGER LEVEL: UNLOCKED

Then we got spiritual.
Each participant planted a tree remotely in the Amazon through our partner Saving the Amazon and gave it a name—because we’re not just offsetting emissions, we’re planting stories.

Some of the trees were given names like “Renacer,” “Mamonaca,” and “Raizal.”

During our grounding meditation in the forest, we whispered intentions to Pachamama:
“May this root honor every transformation with tenderness, strength, and truth.”
“May my son grow like this tree, with the firmness of the earth that holds it.”

 THE ACTUAL NUMBERS (Hold onto your dust goggles):

• A round-trip from Bogotá to Black Rock City emits 1.27 tons of CO₂e per person.
• Thanks to our mix of plogging + tree planting, each participant offset exactly that amount.
• Burning Clean = 100% carbon offset for our entire crew.

That’s right—our first 20-person cohort just neutralized their Burning Man footprint.

We didn’t just clean a park—we made a promise to the planet. And planted it.

 Our next Burning Clean event will be on Sunday, August 10. This time we will work at a community garden and learn about compost! Los esperamos, loquillos! 
Follow our dirt-loving, trash-hauling, oxygen-boosting journey on Instagram: @burnerswithoutborderscolombia