User:NicoleBrooke1234/Game Day Recycling

Game Day Recycling is the idea that having large crowds of people in a small, concentrated space will generate great amounts of trash and products that need to be recycled. On college campuses with large stadiums, a home football game can attract up to about 110,000 people, like the University of Michigan’s stadium. . However, because colleges only play a limited number of games at home each season, the recycling programs specifically for game days are usually specialized and separate from the school’s regular recycling program.

The primary reason for implementing game day recycling programs is to become a more sustainable campus. Many college campuses implement game day recycling programs to deal with the large amount of trash and recycling generated by fans. Tailgaters bring copious amounts of food and refreshments, providing the greatest amount of waste during a gameday. Inside the stadium, programs, concessions, beverages and vending machine items also contribute to huge amounts of waste.

Definitions
Sustainable: of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged Clearstreams: a recycling bag system that facilitates sorting and clean-up

Harvard
History Harvard began its sustainability efforts when a panel of students and faculty began meeting in 1999 to discuss ways the campus could become more green. The Harvard Green Campus Initiative began in 2001, which led to a greater need for a more central office for the sustainability efforts. The Harvard Office for Sustainability was established in fall 2008 and now oversees the game day recycling program.

Program Harvard’s game day recycling program is supported by Harvard, the Office for Sustainability and the President’s office. . On game days, Harvard provides **clearstream bags, recycling bins, and safety vets, gloves and “tailgate bags” for volunteers.

The Office for Sustainability recruits employees who have environmental knowledge, produced a game day recycling video and recruits volunteers for game days and other stadium events. The President’s Office encourages all the departments to cut carbon and be green and the president attends all game days. Harvard participated in the EPA’s Game Day Challenge in its first two years, 2009 and 2010. (see below).

University of Colorado
History The University of Colorado established its recycling program in 1976. . The recycling center works with many departments and student groups to accomplish it’s mission. It operates as a partnership between facilities management (run by the administration) and the student union. Ralphie's Green Stampede was formed in 2008 to deal specifically with game day recycling. . It is a zero-waste and carbon-reduction program that begun at Folsom Field during football games and now has expanded to include the Coors Events Center and all of CU’s sporting events. Its goal is to reach zero-waste at the stadium. Folsom Field provides cups and food containers made from compostabe materials and has “zero-waste” stations throughout the stadium. It was the first major sports stadium in the nation to run a zero-waste process.

Program The CU game day recycling program’s accomplishments, which were outlined in its report to the EPA's GameDay Challenge includes having an 80-90 percent diversion, no public trashcans, about 25 attended zero-waste stations, more than 90 percent compostable or recyclable packaging and high and broad support. The program involves its vendors for large events, encouraging them to provide packaging made with eco-friendly materials, compost their food waste, use bulk condiment dispensers, instruct their employees in proper recycling practices and track and report their annual progress. Ralphie’s Green Stampede also provided equiptment, signage and posters to encourage and facilitate recycling.

University of Florida
The University of Florida TailGator Green Team was established in 2006 to manage waste at the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium during game days. It works to collect recyclable products generated by the masses of people surrounding the stadium while tailgating. The TailGator gameday recycling program relies on volunteers to operate. In its first year, it diverted over 26,500 pounds from the landfill. Since that first year, the Green Team has collected 62.34 tons of recycling, which greatly reduced the waste produced on gamedays.

EPA involvement
The EPA is a government agency whose purpose is to ensure the safety of humans and their environment. The EPA has implemented a Game Day Challenge in an effort to reduce the amount of waste accumulated during college football games. This Challenge is an initiative of the EPA’s WasteWise program. WasteWise is a free partnership program that assists its collaborators in meeting their specific goals to reduce and recycle industrial and municipal solid wastes. As part of the Game Day Challenge, colleges across the country compete to determine which university can reduce, reuse and recycle the most waste. Participating colleges and universities have the opportunity to design and implement a waste reduction program for one home football game during the month of October. The schools need to measure the results by tracking and recording data on the amount of waste generated at the football game, the number of recyclables collected and the total number of people in attendance at the game. Once numbers are reported by the schools, the EPA announces the results and winners during the month of November.

Goals
The overall purpose of the Game Day Challenge is to reduce the amount of waste produced at college football games. The program hopes to increase awareness and expand participation by students, faculty, and the entire school community in waste reduction programs in an effort to make college campuses more sustainable.

History
The Game Day Challenge began in 2009 and eight schools participated.

The eight schools that participated were: 1. Auburn University 2. Brigham Young University 3. Harvard University 4. North Carolina State University 5. Ohio University 6. University of Colorado 7. University of Michigan 8. West Virginia University

By the 2010 challenge, the number of participating schools greatly increased. The number rose from 8 to 88 universities competing in the Game Day Challenge.

The 2010 schools are: 1. Alcorn State University 2. Appalachian State University 3. Auburn University 4. Baylor University 5. Bowling Green State University 6. Brigham Young University 7. Bucknell University 8. California Polytechnic State University 9. Central Connecticut State University 10. Central Michigan University 11. Clemson University 12. Duke University 13. Eastern Michigan University 14. Eastern Washington University 15. Fairmont State University 16. Florida A & M University 17. Georgia Institute of Technology 18. Harding University 19. Harvard University 20. Illinois State University 21. Indiana University 22. Iowa State University 23. Ithaca College 24. Kansas State University 25. Lackawanna College 26. Loras College 27. Louisiana State University 28. Marietta College 29. Marist College 30. Mesa Community College 31. Middle Tennessee State University 32. Montana State University 33. North Carolina State University 34. Northwest Missouri State University 35. Northwestern University 36. Ohio University 37. Oregon State University 38. Princeton University 39. Purdue University - ICA 40. Rice University 41. Rutgers University 42. Southern Illinois University Carbondale 43. Southern Methodist University 44. Syracuse University 45. The Florida State University 46. The Ohio State University 47. The University of Alabama 48. The University of Arkansas -Fayetteville 49. The University of Central Oklahoma 50. The University of Rhode Island 51. The University of Tulsa 52. Union College 53. University at Buffalo 54. University of California, Berkeley 55. University of California, Davis 56. University of Central Florida 57. University of Florida 58. University of Georgia 59. University of Kentucky 60. University of Maine 61. University Of Maryland 62. University of Miami 63. University of Michigan 64. University of Minnesota 65. University of Mississippi 66. University of Missouri 67. University of Montana 68. University of Nebraska Lincoln 69. University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill 70. University of North Texas 71. University of Notre Dame 72. University of Oregon 73. University of Rochester 74. University of South Florida 75. University of Tennessee - Knoxville 76. University of Tennessee at Martin 77. University of Texas 78. University of Virginia 79. University of Washington 80. Vanderbilt University 81. Virginia State University 82. Virginia Tech 83. Washington State University 84. West Virginia University 85. West Virginia Wesleyan College 86. Western Kentucky University 87. Western New England College 88. Yale University

Categories:
The EPA divided the competition into five categories and awards are presented for each category.

1) Waste Generation The Waste Generation category determines the ranks of schools by their per capita weight of waste generated. This is calculated by measuring the total waste produced, which includes trash, recyclables and compostables and dividing it by the total attendance at the game. This figure is the amount of waste that is produced per person at the game. The University with the lowest per capita waste generation wins the waste generation category.

2) Diversion Rate The Diversion Rate category ranks schools based on their recycling rate, which is measured by comparing the amount of waste recycled to the total waste produced. The winner of this category is the school that has the largest recycling rate.

3) Greenhouse Gas Reduction This category ranks schools based on their reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. As waste sits in municipal landfills, greenhouse gases are emitted into the atmosphere. However, when waste is recycled, these greenhouse gas emissions are reduced. The total reductions in emissions that are identified with the schools waste reduction accomplishments are calculated using the EPA’s WARM factors that are programmed in the WasteWise Re-TRAC system. The greenhouse gas reductions are divided by the total game attendance, in order to get a number for the greenhouse gas emission reductions per person. The school with the highest greenhouse gas reduction rate wins.

4) Recycling The Recycling category ranks schools by the amount of material recycled per person. The weight of recycled material including paper, plastic, glass and cardboard will be totaled and divided by the number of people in attendance at the game. The winner of this category is the school that has the highest recycling rate.

5) Organics Reduction Organics Reduction category bases their ranking on the per capita weight of reduced organics. The overall weight of reduced organics, which incorporates compostable materials that are either donated, reused, or composted will be divided by the number of people attending the game. The winner of this category is the school with the highest organic reduction rate.

Results for the 2009 EPA GameDay Challenge
In 2009, more than 40,000 pounds of waste were reduced through the combined efforts of the eight schools. This is equal to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 105 metric tons. This number is comparable to the amount of greenhouse emissions that are produced annually from the consumption of about 12,000 gallons of gasoline or equal to the annual emissions generated from about 4,400 propane cylinders used to fuel gas grills.

The University of Colorado placed first in the categories of Diversion Rate, Gross Green House Gas Reductions through Waste Reduction and Per Capita Composting. Ohio University ranked first in Per Capita Waste Generation. Harvard University took the first place rank in Per Capita Recycling.

The results from the 2010 Game Day Challenge will be posted on the EPA website on November 30, 2010.