There are a few things you’ve come to expect at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

First, there’s the music and discovering new artists. Then there’s the heat, always the heat.

And for 16 out of the past 20 years the festival has been happening, people have also been learning about the environment — even if they didn’t know it — thanks to Global Inheritance.

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As Earth Day approaches, the nonprofit environmental awareness organization, which is responsible for bringing the now iconic and colorfully decorated recycling bins and the teeter-totter that uses kinetic energy to charge your phone, celebrates its sweet 16 at Coachella with a couple of new programs.

Nikolina Nolan draws a poster promoting less use of single use plastics inside the POSTed Studio booth at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Saturday, April 20, 2019. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

Emily George creates a poster promoting love inside the POSTed Studio booth at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Saturday, April 20, 2019. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

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Posters promoting earth-friendly practices on display inside the POSTed Studio booth at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Saturday, April 20, 2019. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

Attendees of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival enjoy riding seesaws at the Energy Factory booth on Saturday, April 20, 2019. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

A recycling bin designed by Art 1 features a drawing of Ariana Grande in a Starbucks logo and is shaped like a coffee cup. It is on display during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Saturday, April 20, 2019. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)



A recycling bin designed by artist b.yarza features a cat emerging from a box and is on display during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Saturday, April 20, 2019. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

A recycling bin designed by artist Jim Shook resembles a princess carriage and is on display during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Saturday, April 20, 2019. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

A recycling bin designed by the artist Melissa Flagg features a variety of rubber ducks and is on display during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Saturday, April 20, 2019. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

A recycling bin designed by the artist Dart features the Powerpuff Girls and is on display during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Saturday, April 20, 2019. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

A recycling bin designed by the artist Nicole Lipp features an artificial cat and is on display during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Saturday, April 20, 2019. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)



The Global Inheritance booth has many environmentally-minded projects during the festival One of them on display is the TRASHed Art of Recycling at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Saturday, April 20, 2019. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

“We design programming to get people that aren’t engaged in environmental and social issues. We’re sort of that first date for people to experience different things from energy to recycling and transportation,” said Eric Ritz, founder and executive director of Global Inheritance.

“It’s all the really obvious things we need to fix in the world and we present them in a way that is fun and interactive,” he added.

At Coachella that means the recycle bins that artists transform into colorful artwork, which this year will be donated to schools in Mexico. There’s also the teeter-totter plus a recycling store where you can exchange plastic bottles for Coachella merch and new water bottles and a studio where you can design your own environmental poster.

New this year is the Posted Studio speaker series, which has taken place in the campgrounds and included people like Coachella performers Jaden Smith and Blond:ish and Nic Adler, the festival’s culinary director, all talking about various environmental and sustainability issues.

Also new is BearTraxx, a DJ set that took place on Saturday afternoon during the first weekend in the Sahara Tent that included a surprise performance by DJ and environmentalist Sam Feldt with Global Inheritance’s polar bear mascots as nature footage played in the background.

Feldt also spoke at the new speaker series.

Next up for Global Inheritance is the Stagecoach Country Music Festival, which will include many of the programs the organization has at Coachella like the recycling store, the teeter-totter and recycling bins.

The organization has slowly won over the Stagecoach audience with its approach to helping the environment.

“The Stagecoach audience in the very early days wasn’t really that engaged with the environmental and sustainability programming and now they’re all about it,” Ritz said.