Lots of free stuff is available for people who help recycle water bottles. (Nikie Johnson/Staff photo)
Did you know you can get a free bottle of cold water if you bring 10 empty bottles to be recycled?
Did you know you could get a free VIP upgrade if you bring in 1,500 empty bottles?
The freebies are from the TRASHed Recycling Store, which is next to the Recyclosaurus Rex that I wrote about earlier today and located between the Do Lab and the Yuma Tent. It’s a project of a group called Global Inheritance that’s working with the Coachella organizers on recycling programs and a bunch of other cool stuff.
The 10-for-1 bottle exchange has become a staple of the festival by now. Great if you’re running low on cash, or just want to help keep the grounds cleaner. Bring 10 empty bottles to the TRASHed store and they give you a full, cold one.
Bring them 20 empties and you get an Oasis drink ticket, 50 for sunscreen, 75 for a Ferris wheel ticket, 100 for a poster, 125 for a food voucher or 400 for a T-Rex T-shirt. (All while supplies last. Oh, and you don’t have to bring the bottles all at once; they will give you a scorecard to keep track.)
If you can round up 500 bottles, you get a shirt and water bottle, and entered into a contest to win more goodies. Apparently the competition is pretty open so far.
And if you can manage to get 1,500 empty bottles, you can get a VIP upgrade! There were 10 available, five in camping and five in the main festival grounds. All the camping ones are gone — one guy apparently collected 6,000 bottles and got VIP passes for him and a friend. But the non-camping ones are still out there, according to the friendly recycle store staff I talked to.
Artists decorated recycling bins that are set up all over the festival grounds. (Nikie Johnson/Staff photo)
The same folks are running the water-tasting booth between the Gobi and Mojave tents that I’m hoping to hit up at some point.
And if you’ve been enjoying the recycling bins that look like little works of art, you can thank Global Inheritance, too. They worked with artists to create a bunch of them, set up all over the festival grounds. Tweet a pic of your favorite one with the #pecoachella hash tag. And let us know if you win anything cool by recycling!