On October 4th MENV students Sara Starr, Lizzy Anast, and Matt Bone spent 14 hours sorting waste, encouraging sustainability, and supplying compostable and recyclable materials at the University of Colorado football game against the University of Arizona.
The October 4th game was CU’s official “PAC-12 Zero Waste Game". Every year each team in the PAC-12 conference picks one football and one basketball game as their “PAC-12 Zero Waste Game”. Each school competes against the other PAC-12 conference schools to achieve the highest diversion rate for each game. The school that has the highest diversion rate for their chosen game is recognized at the PAC-12 Sustainability Conference. Last year’s winner, with a 91.8% diversion rate for the football game, was CU! We are trying to keep the title to once again be recognized as the winner of the 2019-2020 PAC-12 Zero Waste Game champions.
You might be asking: "What is a diversion rate?" A diversion rate is the ratio, as a percent, of waste not going to the landfill (usually in the form of recyclables and compostables) to the total amount of waste by weight. An organization, or in this case event, is considered zero waste by attaining a diversion rate of 90%. In other words, a zero waste game is one that recycles or composts nine pounds of material for every one pound of waste that goes to the landfill. This is difficult for any venue to complete, but imagine trying to do this for a whole stadium of fans.
How do they do it? There are two main ways the MENV students helped to divert waste from the landfill during game day.
1. Overseeing the Zero Waste Tailgate area – The Franklin Field tailgate area is designated as a car free and zero waste area. This means all items used in that tailgate should be either compostable or recyclable. MENV student Lizzy Anast explains how the students help this process, “We have a tent in the middle to help hand out all the materials they need. We work with EcoProducts to provide tailgaters with plates, napkins, cups and it is all compostable.” In addition to providing compostable materials, the students provide tailgaters with sustainable tips, like how to best sort waste and how to bring these sustainability practices into their everyday life. At the end of the tailgate one group is awarded the Tailgater of the Game and receives a BBQ utensils and CU flag. Lizzy explains, “They love it! They get to stake the flag out in front of their tailgate, everyone is pretty happy.”
2. Sorting waste – After the game, MENV students pull up their sleeves and start to dig through trash. More specifically, they separate compostable and recyclable materials away from landfill waste. Lizzy mentioned this can be a messy but fun job: “There is a team that goes through every single bag at the end of every night, you rip all of the bags open and you take everything out. It is kind of nasty but it is fun. There’s music and dancing. We were at the game from 9:00am-11:00pm. But that is what it takes to be zero waste.”
This whole effort is in part catalyzed by the Green Sports Alliance and the PAC-12 Team Green initiative which uses the medium of sports to communicate 
sustainability. PAC-12 is the first collegiate conference to have all schools partner with the Green Sport Alliance, and was the first to create a sustainability branch of the partnership, which they call the PAC-12 Team Green. Other conferences, like the ACC and soon the Big 10, are embarking on similar efforts. MENV student Matt Bone explains, “PAC-12 Team Green is a platform to share best sustainability practices between the PAC-12 schools and is a blueprint being disseminated to other conferences.” Not only does the initiative help other schools engage in sustainability practices but it will hopefully effect the fans as well. “50,000 people at a stadium? That’s a really powerful place for you to send a message about the environment. Hopefully fans can bring some of these practices home.”
CU’s commitment to sustainability goes beyond just competing for the PAC-12 Team Green waste diversion award. The zero waste tailgating area and trash diversion separation happens at every CU home game. This is a way of life for us Buffs, and we hope fans can take some of these messages home to spread sustainability practices across the nation.