More than 500,000 pounds of waste was diverted from college football games last fall as part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2011 Game Day Challenge.
The EPA says that 78 higher-education institutions took part in the challenge. The schools designed a waste-reduction plan for one 2011 regular season home football game, measured their results and submitted them to the EPA. All told, 2.7 million fans took part in the effort.
The EPA estimates that the waste-reduction efforts prevented 810 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions—equivalent to the annual emissions from 159 cars.
“These schools and fans have taken the lead through the Game Day Challenge, and now they are ready and equipped with tools and resources to continue to reduce waste across all campus activities and beyond,” says Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response.
The winners of the 2011 Challenge:
- Waste Minimization Champion (least amount of waste generated per attendee): Central Connecticut State University, New Britain.
- Diversion Rate Champion (highest combined recycling and composting rate): University of California, Davis
- Greenhouse Gas Reduction Champion (greatest greenhouse gas reductions from diverting waste): University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
- Recycling Champion (highest recycling rate): University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
- Organics Reduction Champion (highest organics reduction rate): Marist College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
For more information on the results, click here. To see how the results were determined, click here.
For a list of the higher-education institutions that took part in the challenge, click here.
