Live Earth Stage Nearly Edible

The Live Earth Stages in the U.S., England and Japan had a common theme: stages built out of landfill material. But what happened to the material after the stages were dismantled?

The July 7th concert in Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., had a backdrop made out of old tires – with LED lights inside each one. London used the tops of oil drums and Japan used a similar theme.

"Live Earth had its own production team," concert spokesman John Rego told Pollstar. "It was designed by Nick Levitt and our global set designer was Ray Winkler. They tapped into the idea of reusing our waste in a creative way."

The tires are not going to a landfill but a recycling facility in New Jersey, Rego said. They were originally planned to have the tires ground into flakes and re-used in hose mangers. The oil drums in the U.K. were to be sent to a recycling facility and used for scrap.

"All of the energy-efficient LED lights are going to be reused. Most of the stage obviously will be reused and all of the plywood will be used at future events," Rego said. "We really focused on bringing the right material in that can be recycled or reused.