UNH`s Main Street Magazine Catch the Vibe…the Clean Vibes – 2001

G a t chth e Vib e..rTheC Iea nVib e
By P ila ra F el ga te
ahorrthow rnuch sarbagevolr produce on a clailybasis.This irrclrrr'k:s
flfirk
toilet lrupcr'.lissrrcs"anv sort of r.rapper. excessfoocl, and evervthing clsc
I
I tlrat rrrakesi1sn-av to the trash can. Though you nay think 1'ouonlr" contributc to a tiny percentag^e
of the earbage that gcts thlou'n ou1 of your clorm
or house, the tnrth is that vou as a single person rnake n lot of
"nort-ent,
i:uurrir,l
Nor', think about hor. rnuch garbage thele n'oulcl bc iI vorr rntrltiplied the
anrount oI trash you nake evelvday Lrvsa1',80.000 people" ancl then multiplv
that by l.hreedays. \6ar, take about 20 pcople ancl clean it all up ancl r'orr'll have
some iclea of what the peoplc u'ho l.orlc for []lean \ribes do.
[]lean \ribcs" an inclependentcorporatiorr bascclout. o-[Norlhem Neu- Eng-landblings a whole ner- meaning to "taking orrl.dre garbage." 'l'his grorrp of paid
ernploveesand voluntocrs alike are responsiblelitr the \-aste rnanagernenta1 somo
of tlre lalgesl out-door concertsthat have or:cun:eclin lccrcnt vcars.
After all the fans leave the site (ancl all thcil trash). Clean \,ibers go to n'ork and
don'l. stop until eyelvthing is pickcd up. \\,'hat separatesthern florn plain olcl
garbage collectols is 1.ha1.
Clean Vibes reclcle as rnuch :rs thol' f.iossiblycan,
decreasingthc arnount of n'aste that goesinto landfills ancl incineral.ors. Ther'
also promote recycling amongst the fans during the concert in hopes that after a
shorv is over, thev u.'ill contirrue to rcc\iclc.
,0,*rrour,7
Great Northeast Productions to do another
three dav Phish shou' and with l-Ieart in
charge of operations Clean Vibes began to
take a cohesiveform.
ClearrVibes was asked back the next vear by
Great Northeast Productions to do the waste
managemert for vet another Phish shou'-.The
I-emonn'heel,in 1998, was Phish's third big
out-door concert and was held at the same
location as The Great \[ent. At this show"
Heart says, Clean Vibes started to become ar
organized operation.
Six rrronths later. afier one other Phish show
in Oswego,N! Clean Vibes did their biggest
show yet. Phish's millennium New Year''sEve
concert in Big C,vpress,FL, had approximatelv 80,000 attending fans and a whole lot
more garlrage than Clean Vibes had ever seerbefore.
"At that point u'e had pretty much perfected
it," said Heart who stopped managing Clean
Vibes after that point.
Clean Vibes was first conceived right here at L,INH lvith a
fundraiser for the Cornmunity Environmental Outreach
Project or C.E.O.P.in 1995. That year C.E.O.P.put on a
multi-perfolnlance concert to raise moncv for studerrt projects in their organiztrtion and contracted Great Northeast
Productions to bring Phish, The Indigo Girls" and -Bltres
taveler to Ll.\H. C.E.O.P. not only had a successfulshow"
but also successfullycleaned up after it,
lccycling much of the w-asteand catching
the al1ention of Creat Northeast
Productions.
Brjan Heart, the fbunder of the Student
Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC),
was one of the students involved in the
clean up of that concert. He along u.ith
other students became the foundels of
Clean Vibes when thev were asked by
Great North East Productions to clean up
for Phish's three dav concert, The Great
Went in 1.997 at Loring Air Force base in
Lirnestone, Maine.
"Four of us from UNH were the ones
responsible for Thc Great Went. We
lealned at lot on how to do it at that
show, but it u,-asharrl," said lleart. After
this show they n'ere asked back again by
Anna Borofsky, the present co-o\rner of Clean
Vibes said that this show took twelve davs to
clean up with 20 to 60 people working at all
times.
"At Big Cvpressthere N'ereabout 100 tons of
recl'61i1* and 300 tons of trash," said
Borofsky n'ho after that yeal took over the management of
Clean Vibes along with friend and co-worker Evangelyn
Morse.
fip until this point, Clean Vibes had been under the budget
of Great North East Productions, but irr the year 2000, after
Phish's NYll concert. Clean Vibes broke off to become its
own companv. Now they contract with other production
companies to do rlanagement at rnulti-da1',multi-band festivals.
"We started as a 'deal with the mess' organization...
Evangelvn and I evolved it into something much more education based," said Bolofsk\'. "Our big thing is to not be the
trash companl', but to make people at shows aware of the
mess that they're capable of making."
Clean Vibes instills their less-messideology through several
different approaches to the fans. The--vtry to dissuade fans
from making a mess in the first place by greeting them as
they come into the concert and talking to them about rec1,cling. They make their presenceknor''n by handing out bags
for trash or recycling and having several recvcling stations
placed around the grounds. They try to coax them into recycling by offering free tickets to up-coming shows or merchandise to a fan s'ho brings back a lull bag of garbage or
recvclablesto a Clean Vibes station.
Still. despite all their efforts" and even the efforts
of man.v of the fans, there is always a mess to
clean up after the show.
Borofskv said that lrom 20 percent to
60 percent of all waste found is recvclable containels like cans and slass
or plastic bottles. They can usually
divert 40 percent of all the waste to
recycling the other 60 percent ends
up in landfills.
"It's disturbing when you seehorv'
much people leave behind, " said
Morse. "People leave evervthing: tents
and clothing, food. We trv our best to go
through and salvage everything we can. We
try to donate to Coodn'ill and find a good home
for u,-hateverfood is left from venders...."
The work is not eas\: Picking up garbage for tens of thousands of people js not necessarilvenjovable. But" as Nlandy
Balich, a no$,rpaid ernplo,vceof Clean \ribes, says, it can be a
good time
"It's fun...There are some really good benefits like vou get
into shows for free, you get fed, you get to meet bands sometimes, and if vou find stuff vou get to keep it," said Balich.
"It's a lot of physical work, but fClean Vibes] is so needed.
It's getting bigger and people are getting better about their
trash. "
Dave Pine, Balich's friend and co-worker at Clean Vibes,
feels that their servicescan also provide a chance for people
to understand garbage on a personal level.
"It's something that everyone should have to do in their life
so they can get an idea of just hou' much trash people pro-
duce ...Before I never really thought about where nty r''aste
went. An individual produces a lot of trash...," said Pine.
"It's all about awareness,"said Morse" echoing Pine's sentiment. "We want people to go home and reallv think about
where their trash goes.We want people to really think about
their trash becausepeople have no ideal "
With a grand total of 16 events as its own companv and 11
this past summer alone, Clean Vibes has begun to make an
impression on the concert world. Vith an1'rvherefrom three
to 10 full time employeesand 10 to 50 volunteers depending on the size of the show, there is more than enough
involvement to continue working the festival summer scene
and hopefullv expand to a full1, national, even global, level.
Both Morse and Bolofsky feel that there is a lot of room for
growth within Clean Vibes.
"I think it has the potential to be nation wide if not international. Right now there's nobody else doing this in
a cohesiveway," said Morse. "It has the
potential to go far. It's a really good thing,
iust on the environmental standpoint of
it. It's also good for the production
companies, it makes them look
good."
Borofsky feels that there is room for
expansion geographically as well as
musicallv" reaching beyond the jam
band sceneand into other realms of
music,
// "We've been pretty successfulat havpresencern
ing a presence
in tnat
that scene...lllt1
scene...but,we
we
v ng
definitelv want to srow to cover other markets," said Borofskv
With the motto "Keep the sceneclean", Clean Vibes has
managed to effectively bring the idea of recvcling s,-asteat
concerts into lealitt'.
"\I,'e drove it into everyone's head that not onl1, at festivals
should .voupick up after yourself and recycle, but in every
aspect of your life," said Pine.
In this sense,Clean Vibes hopes to send a messagethat
reacheswell beyond the concert gates and into the lives of
each of the fans.
Morse understands that people know about recvcling but
don't ah'ays do it because they think it's difficult or confusing. She hopes that Clean Vibes, in its own little way can
change that manner of thinking.
"One of our missions at Clean Vibes is to show people how
easy it is to do the right thing. Then they feel good about it,
and themselves."