The green grass of the Empire Polo Field rarely was hidden by discarded water bottles during this weekend's Coachella Music and Arts Festival, which attracted more than 180,000 people during the three-day event. Along with the music, art and merchandise, there was an effort to be environmentally aware.

For the first time, concert organizer Goldenvoice encouraged people to carpool by offering the chance to win lifetime tickets to future festivals, and gave them free water when they recycled their empty plastic bottles.

All weekend, Long Beach residents Wendy Uribe, 27, and Lydia Laza, 27, helmed one of two on-site recycling booths where concert-goers could drop off 10 empties to get one filled water bottle in return. Most at the festival embraced the new promotion in view of the layers of trash that had filled the Empire Polo Field in previous years.

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Ramon Mena Owens / The Press-Enterprise

Spectators seek shade under Sunflower Robots, an art installation including solar panels, during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Fields in Indio.

Uribe said about 200 bottles fit in each plastic bag and, by that measure, about 80,000 bottles had been turned in by Friday and 120,000 by Saturday, not including recycling done at the other booth.

Last year, "it was a sea of bottles. You couldn't step without crunching," Danielle Polk, 22, of Santa Clara, said after she and several friends dropped off a garbage bag filled with empty bottles in exchange for five filled with water.

"I have never seen the grounds so clean," said SuzAnn Branter, a frequent Coachella festival attendee who is with Los Angeles-based Global Inheritance. The group set up an interactive display dubbed the "Energy Factory" with stationary bikes that doubled as cell phone chargers and an explanation on how to make biodiesel.

"What we're doing is a start," she said. "People are more aware now. This field is a case in point."

Mercela Garces, 19, of Colombia, posed for a photo taken by friend Hernan Aracena, 21, of Venezuela, among a field of metal sunflowers with solar panels set up next to the "Energy Factory."

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"We've never seen anything like this," Garces said. "In the big concerts in Florida there's trash everywhere."

At least a few people pedaled the "Energy Factory" bikes to manually charge their cell phones rather than wait in a line outside the air-conditioned AT&T "Blue Room" tent, which had outlets and chargers for most phones. Some were pedaling more out of necessity or convenience than for the environment outright.

The Blue Room "doesn't let you charge LG phones," said Paul Landry, 23, a student from Vermont. Plus it was a good excuse to avoid sitting down, something he said he'd been doing all weekend.

Einar Birnir, 16, of Santa Barbara, said an emphasis on the environment is at Coachella's philosophical core. "It's the feeling of Coachella," he said. "Especially since they have to use so much energy," added his friend, Chris Moure, 16.

Joan Taylor, with the Coachella Valley's regional Sierra Club, doubted the efforts ultimately would offset the energy used or the effect lines of idling cars in the parking lot could have, but applauded the event for creating awareness.

"I think people are really concerned about global warming," she said by phone. "They want to do the right thing."

Reach Kimberly Pierceall at 760-837-4410 or kpierceall@PE.com