Congrats Giants, great game!

With the excitement of Super Bowl Sunday still on people’s minds as they gather around the water cooler to discuss the plays and highlights, we want to ask the question just where does all that trash go? Are stadiums doing anything to be environmentally responsible?

Sports stadiums across the U.S. are joining the movement to go green. At the college and professional levels, recycling initiatives and other methods to minimize waste are helping the environment and earning the programs nationwide recognition.The statistics are startling. In an average year, an estimated 65 million football fans generate 19,500 tons of trash. Cans, bottles and food containers pile up in trash receptacles from the parking lot to the stadium to the restrooms.College football stadiums, in particular, have made great strides in protecting the environment. One well-publicized example is participation in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Game Day Challenge for college sports stadiums.

In 2008, The New York Times featured the University of Colorado Buffaloes for introducing a composting and recycling initiative that eliminated 80 percent of their waste. They replaced Styrofoam containers with cardboard, and people looking for trashcans in the stadium found composting and recycling bins instead.

In 2010, the EPA presented UC Davis with an award for similar zero-waste efforts. After the games, students and volunteers often had to sort through the containers. Yet, in both cases, once people got over the learning curve of what needed to be recycled and composted, the process was easy. It was helpful to have both written information in the form of programs and billboards at the games, along with staff members instructing the fans.

The efforts are not limited to food containers. Prepared food at games is a huge source of waste that can be recycled, and much of it is now delivered to local shelters and soup kitchens.

Find places to recycle almost anything @ www.RecyclerFinder.com
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